I happened to be watching a re-run of the excellent Fox News Watch at approximately 2:43 AM Eastern time on Sunday, January 4th 2003 when the Fox News desk broke in live with the first incoming pictures received from the Mars rover that had just landed in the last couple of hours. They had Steven Matousek from NASA on the phone explaining the images.

Flipping around, none of the other networks were broadcasting live at that point. Fox was apparently the only television network on the story. Presumably the other networks will be getting around to some reporting on the story sometime.

Many people complain about the saturation news coverage given to yucky, sensationalistic stories of limited public value. I mostly resist the urge to join this chorus on the basis of honesty, in that I end up watching some of this stuff myself so therefore I can't be too upset with them for putting it on.

Still, I'd rather hear details and repitition throughout the land about the Mars rover, and all the specifics. We'd do better to be hearing again and again about distances and temperatures and landing speeds rather than another legal panel weighing a new detail from Laci Peterson's autopsy.

So, rather than the stick of criticism, I wish to offer this modest carrot of praise to Fox News for being on top of this important positive story.