Well done, both of you

It's 1:25 a.m., and I'm home from work watching television. Usually, I don't bother at this hour, especially late on a Sunday night, but there's something of interest on for a chance.

The Mars rover "Curiosity" is landing as I write. It soon will send a message back to Earth, hopefully, that essentially says, "I'm O.K." Then, according to the plan, there's three weeks of kicking the tires, and two years of scientific research into another world.

Let's look around the dial.

Fox News has "Geraldo at Large." He is interviewing Mike Huckabee about Chick-fil-a. Yawn. I'm not exactly a fan of Geraldo Rivera under any circumstances, but I don't want to see him on tape now.

MSNBC is showing a very special edition of "Lock Up." But aren't they all very special? No? Yup, they have turned out the lights and gone home.

Meanwhile, CNN has been doing a live broadcast about the Mars landing for the past 30 minutes or so. They have animation of the landing and what the rover will do what it lands.

In other words, CNN is presenting the news. Isn't that what it is supposed to do?

Fox and MSNBC get most of the buzz because they take a point of view. But at times like this, it's nice to have a good, factural accounting, in real time no less, about what's going on. CNN may be a little gray at times, but there's something to be send for dependable.

Shouldn't that be the mission of any "all-news" television outlet?

Nice work, guys. And nice work by NASA as well. The scientists have heard from Curiosity, and data is coming in. It's a great success story for the scientists, and I'm glad I got to see it.

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