(TND) — In the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, one expert said the media has an "incredibly important role to play in toning down the violent political rhetoric."

Political leaders on both sides of the aisle quickly responded Saturday after the shooting at Trump’s rally with prayers and condemnation of political violence.

So, how did the media do in its coverage?

“Mixed,” said Peter Loge, the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. “I am glad that the media is focusing on Democrats and Republicans clearly saying that political violence is unacceptable. I'm disappointed that the coverage has almost immediately shifted to the electoral impact and to the details of the event itself.”

Loge, who has nearly 30 years of experience in politics and communications, said he prefers the coverage to focus on the increasing numbers of threats and attacks on elected officials, campaign workers and civil servants.

This was certainly not the first case of political violence in recent years.

Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot in 2011 while meeting in a parking lot with constituents in her home state of Arizona.

About six years later, Republican Rep. Steve Scalise was shot and wounded while practicing for the annual congressional baseball game.

“I had a conversation with the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at GW earlier this year, we had a big public event. And he casually mentioned that death threats are part of the day-to-day of the job, the way one casually mentions that traffic is horrible during rush hour,” Loge said. “We need to, I think, the press should do a better job at focusing on that and on holding people accountable who engage in over-the-top violent rhetoric.”

The initial coverage of Trump’s rally shooting reflected the outrage “we all felt, and which I'm really glad everybody expressed,” Loge said.

We’ve since learned more about the other victims, including Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief who reportedly died while trying to protect his family.

Loge said his heart goes out to the victims.

And we’ve learned more about the shooter, although his motive is still unclear.

“My real interest, however, is in how the press, pundits and politicians could behave better and not make violence a normal part of American politics,” Loge said.

Shifting focus to the electoral impact of the shooting turns it into “horse race coverage,” he said.

“This isn't strategic. This is not normal. This should not be part of the normal discourse of politics,” he said.

International media coverage has been mostly on par with domestic coverage, Loge said.

“As you might imagine, a lot of the European media are once again shocked that the 20-year-olds (in America) have access to military hardware,” he said. “But it's again, episodic, it's not thematic from what I've seen of a brief look at the headlines of papers in Spain and the U.K., which are the languages I speak.”

There are lessons for our media from this dark episode in American politics, he said.

The media should watch its own rhetoric and think about the impact of its coverage decisions, while holding candidates and elected officials accountable for what they say.

Partisan media is fine, and it's always been with us, Loge said.

But partisan media can exist while calling out candidates and elected officials who dehumanize political opponents.

Loge, who said he’s a big soccer fan, compared the game he loves to politics.

“It's fierce and it's bumping and it's grinding and it can be vicious. But the game itself is more important than one player, one outcome,” he said. “What media can do is remind us that the media, citizens, pundits, professors are all part of this remarkable democratic experiment that only continues if the conversation about that democratic experiment continues. And the calls for violence, by definition, end that experiment.”

If the media conveys the message that politics is only a “viper pit,” then the public will either disengage or they’ll “put on spiked gloves” to participate.

“Let's be better about it,” he said. “And one of the ways that happens is by the press saying politics should be fierce and partisan but fair and promote democratic norms.”