Mediaite questions both the decision to air the shooting spree at a Florida school board meeting and its reporting of the incident, but haven’t we passed the point of taste several years ago? It’s been at least that long since cable news networks started breathlessly covering high-speed police chases that have no relation to national news; locally, LA stations carried an infamous bank takeover live while police officers got shot more than a decade ago.

As it turns out, while CNN warns of “graphic images,” the only actual gunshot wound occurs off screen, as the gunman missed hitting anyone but got killed by a security guard — which did occur on camera. Glenn Davis says that the “graphic images” warning was more about “gluing eyeballs,” but considering the fact that the clip shows a man getting shot, it seems like a reasonable and fair warning to give, even if it’s not particularly gory. So consider yourself warned as well:

The shooter, Clay Duke, was angry over his wife losing her job in the school district, for which he apparently wanted to die. He ended up mumbling about taxes and spray-painted a V in a circle, a reference to the film V for Vendetta, but the motivation was personal as well as deranged. How long will it take before this gets painted as the result of the Tea Party movement? Gawker’s look at his valedictory Facebook message and other entries on the page will pretty much preclude that meme from gaining steam, I’d guess.

Update: Clay Duke killed himself after being wounded by the guard; the gunshot from the guard wounded him. Thanks to Aaron Worthing for the correction, and he has more thoughts at Patterico’s joint.