Tis the season to needle FNC. But first get the facts straight.

When the cable news channels got word of a bomb attack in Mosul, TVNewser loved CNN, not so much Fox. His article is called "A Tale of Two Channels". (I thought there were three cable news channels.) Be that as it may, TVN writes:

During the 9am hour, CNN went wall-to-wall with coverage of the Mosul attacks, while FNC and MSNBC seemed to ignore it.... Fox mentioned the attack, then reported on a study about shopping mall parking.

Let's go to the tivo:

9:00 am: Live Fox News Alert from Bret Baier about the attack.
9:02 am: Shopping mall parking report? No, David Piper's live report from Iraq on Blair's visit.
9:03 am: Report on attacks on oil pipeline and Iraqi scientist.
9:04 am: Now the shopping mall report? No, this time it's a live report from Kelly Wright about the Rumsfeld controversy.
9:06 am: Reports on Presidential visit to hospitals, drug warnings, and several crime items.
9:09 am: Reports on several extreme weather incidents and a weather update; commercial break.
9:13 am: Top stories recapped.
9:14 am: Shopping mall parking? Um, no. A discussion on the Iraq developments with J.D. Hayworth and Bill Pascrell; commercial break.
9:22 am: AP's top 10 stories of the year.
9:23 am: Discussion on Iraq and politics with Fred Barnes (I'm really getting worried about that parking story); commercial break.
9:30 am: Business news update.
9:32 am: Fox News Alert: live report on the Mosul attack from Bret Baier.
9:34 am: Fair and Balanced live report from Rick Leventhal on using school kids for political protests.
9:36 am: Live report from Eric Shawn on Kofi Annan press conference and Oil-for-Food scandal; items on Mideast conflict and the Taj Mahal tilting; commercial break.
9:42 am: Fox News Alert: update on the Mosul attack.
9:43 am: Finally! Insurance study finds least aggressive drivers get the best parking spots (total time: 30 seconds).
9:43 am: Discussion with Bob Lichter and Larry Noble on the "Buy Blue" initiative; commercial break.
9:52 am: Fox News Alert: another live report from Bret Baier on the Mosul attack; commercial break at 9:57.
9:59 am: Fox News Alert: more live reports on the Mosul attack.

Does TVN's claim that FNC "ignored" the attack in the 9:00 am hour square with the facts? You decide, but bear in mind that TVN made a similar complaint back in August, and that proved to have been not only inaccurate but also based on an unreliable source.

The irrepressible Wonkette also couldn't resist a jab at Fox (but not MSNBC):

Rather than go wall-to-wall, as CNN has done, they're delivering the real hard news: "Shopping and politics may have more in common than you think." Which is true, especially if your family's buying you body armor of [sic] Christmas.

She then has "Henry the intern" do a rundown of "how Fox reports" in the 10:00 am hour, and the subject matter jumps from Iraq to Rumsfeld to weather to court cases and more, all in the span of about ten minutes. But then it stops. What is left unsaid is that the first block on Fox News Live hits the high points of stories making news; the following two blocks are more in depth, with interviews, analysis, etc. Perhaps this is why Wonkette's Henry stopped where he did, otherwise he would have to mention the four follow-up reports on the Mosul attack in the minutes he didn't cover.

TVN asks a legitimate question: Did FNC and MSNBC underreact, or did CNN overreact? But a sentient discussion of the issue cannot be based on incomplete data or misinformation.