I'm a Fox News watcher for a few basic reasons.  They don't normally use subliminal words or images to slant stories.  Most FOX reporters appear to try to do the "fair and balanced" thing.  Guest commentators usually provide counter-views.   Fox reporting is not usually presented as "absolutes" or couched in hyperbole -- editorialized.  And they don't blame Bush for everything. 

Know what I mean?  (If you don't, you're probably not reading this blog anyway.)

My patience sometimes wears thin, however.  Like .... I'm becoming a bit skeptical of Fox's main-man Shep's stress level again. 

Oh, he's bright and attractive and articulate.  But remember the Fox Katrina coverage?  Fair and balanced aside -- even Shep and Geraldo bought into (lock, stock and barrel) the hype that was heavy-handedly promoted by the "other" mainstream media: CNN, MSNBC, etc. 

Shep's doing it now from the Lebanon-Israeli border. 

Battle fatigue?  Could be. 

His eyes are starting to bulge (feigning focus to avoid darting?) and his speech is becoming hurried -- as if he has soooo much to report and even more to  journalize ...  He appears on the brink of hyperventilation, at times digressing into a verbal barrage of sketchy innuendo, interspersed with replays of videos shot earlier .... a funeral ... two choppers crashing ... families in transition .... trailing the undisclosed movement of mobile fire teams ... and how it is all inter-related.  Which it is.  But he is trying so hard to pull it together for us.

Know what I mean?

How many times must he remind viewers that he can't tell all he knows (well, duhh), that Israeli security is controlling his coverage because the Hezzies will be listening ... that there is this hill behind him ... that Israelis are shooting across this hill and the Hezzies are behind it shooting back.  Even though he's not crouching or wearing a flak jacket and helmet like field reporters on other networks do ....

And he tells us that a ground war is ultimately probable.  Maybe.  Most likely.  Behind that hill.  And the Israelis will have to fight in unknown territory.  And how dangerous it will be and how high casualties will likely be.  On both sides. 

Then the generals sitting in the studio remind Shep that the Israelis have drones and eyes-in-the-sky to see what's on the other side of the hill.  And they probably know exactly what they are shooting at.  And Ole Shep, as if not to be out-reported or out-journaled, says (as if realizing this for the first time), "Well, yeah... but ...."

And on he rambles .... 

And Condi is on the way and if she doesn't come up with some kind of resolution while she's there, it will be bad ju-ju for the US and it's proxy state ....

Meanwhile -- over at CNN, reporters bearing long titles (Deputy Intern Assistant to the Senior Field Correspondent for CNN's International and Middle-Eastern Affairs and On-Site Reporting Chief) who are embedded (well, if not embedded, let's say "closely aligned") with the Hezbollah, acknowledge that the Hezzies hide among Lebanese civilians because that's the safest place to hide!  

It's presented as a "given."  (Which it is.)  As if unrelated to a subsequent inference that Israelis are killing citizens.  (Which it isn't.  Which they are.)

CNN also announces that several thousand Israelis are strongly rumored to have already crossed the border and are engaging the Hezzies hand-to-hand and hill-to-hill .... (Wonder if Ole Shep knows this.  Probably not.  Or he'd be wearing a flak jacket and helmet and crouching down.)

While on the political front -- Olmert has drawn a line in the proverbial sand, listing the Israeli conditions for a cease fire:

1. Release the kidnapped Israeli soldiers;

2. Cease all rocket attacks;

3. Disarm southern Lebanon according to UN Resolution 1559.

And the leader of Hezbollah counters with his own line in the just-as-proverbial sand, offering a response that is sure to -- war-mongering notwithstanding -- raise network ratings: 

"We will never leave, even if Lebanon is reduced to scorched earth."

Shep stares like a delinquent puppy into the camera, shakes his battle-fatigued head and ponders for us the fate of civilians and combatants on both sides of the border and the unknown calamities that lie ahead ....

And if you're fast enough with the remote and click back to CNN -- you'll know that those calamities are already underway.

-- And you become aware of the role of reporters vs. journalists who file their impassioned stories -- not only from different "sides" of the border, but with different objectives and perspectives -- nonetheless newsworthy ....