Rioting, looting and arson in Cincinnati moved higher into the national consciousness Thursday.

        TV network evening news led with the story or played it prominently.

        The Wall Street Journal carried a brief story on Page1.

        After initially relying on the Associated Press, The New York Times sent a reporter to Cincinnati and put his story at the top of the national news page.

        CNN devoted its afternoon talk show, Talk Back Live, to the shooting death of Timothy Thomas. Cincinnati's problems also were the focus of ABC's Nightline.

        But for China's freeing of the Navy spy plane crew, Cincinnati might have led the national news.

        On CNN, Police Chief Tom Streicher told viewers that the violence reflects larger interracial problems that aren't limited to Cincinnati or law enforcement.

        Councilwoman Alicia Reece said the rioting largely reflects the “festering” conflict between black men and police and such underlying problems as shortages of jobs and affordable housing.

        E-mail, audience comments and telephoned remarks to CNN included a caller from Arizona who said she was a sister-in-law of Officer Steven Roach, the officer who shot Mr. Thomas early Saturday in Over-the-Rhine. She called Officer Roach “honorable” and urged support for police.

        Another caller said her son was killed by Chicago police after he was pulled over on his way home from class at Northwestern University in a car with tinted windows.

        Kenneth Meeks, author of Driving While Black, responded that black men who are pulled over must “be aware of our behavior. It's the difference between life and death.”

        White men can unbuckle their seat belts to reach for their licenses, he said, but black men might be killed if police interpret that same motion as reaching for a pistol.

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