Editor's note: Howard Kurtz is the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources."

(CNN) - The Cleveland kidnapping drama was unfolding on the airwaves, hour after hour, a riveting spectacle that was overshadowing every other conceivable story.

Nothing could possibly bump it from the nation's television screens - or so I thought.

When word came Wednesday afternoon that a verdict had been reached in the Jodi Arias murder trial, the focus of the cable news universe immediately shifted from Ohio to Arizona, where the defendant was convicted of first-degree murder.

It was a day of anguish and emotion - and a revealing Rorschach test of media values.

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