So the Fox News Channel runs an ad in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post  “in which Fox accused its competitors of missing the story of the so-called antitax protests in Washington last Saturday,” as the New York Times reported this Saturday.

CNN and ABC responded in high dudgeon, which was entirely predictable, but this paragraph in the Times report seemed business-as-unusual:

One of Fox’s main prime-time commentators, Glenn Beck, had been vocal in supporting the event and had a two-hour special on the air Saturday during the event. But Fox News executives generally argue that Mr. Beck is what they label “programming” and not news, because his show is an opinion program.

What exactly does “programming” mean in that context? It it “reality-based” (a term of dismissal during Bush the Lesser’s reign)? Or is it exempt-from-reality, the way reality TV shows are?

C’mon, Fox News.

You report. We decide.