Big day at Fox Business Network

It’s getting competitive between CNBC and Fox Business Network.

With the stock market diving Tuesday, Dagen McDowell of Fox BusinessÂ was first to report the breaking news that Fed Chief Ben Bernanke would testify to a Senate panel next Thursday, ahead of his scheduled semi-annual testimony on Feb. 27 and 28.Â

McDowell broke the newsÂ three minutes ahead of CNBC’s Sue Herrera, after a morning in which CNBC devoted extensive coverage to the New York Giants ticker tape parade even as markets tumbled and the Dow and S&P were on pace for the worst quarterly drop sinceÂ the third quarter ofÂ 2002.

Fox BusinessÂ anchor Liz Claman secured another market-moving exclusive with Warren Buffett at 2:22 p.m. ET with Buffett speaking on the phone to Claman about rumors swirling that he would do a deal with bond insurers.

Stock prices for MBIA and AMBAC moved off their highs after the Fox BusinessÂ exclusive, in which Buffett said, “We could have some kind of insurance transaction with them but we will not be investing in them or any other bond insurer. We’ve got our ‘own’ bond insurerâ€¦Berkshire Hathaway Assurance is already up and running in New York state and has already done a couple of deals.”

Here’s the Fox Business story about the Buffett interview.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.