The escalating violence between the Israeli military and Hamas militants was the lead on “NBC Nightly News” and “ABC World News” tonight and has been in heavy rotation on the cable news channels today. Among those covering the story veteran NBC news correspondent Martin Fletcher, ABC’s Alex Marquardt and Fox News correspondent Leland Vittert. Earlier today I asked Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes about international news coverage and the importance of having reporters on the ground rather than just talking heads in the studio:

“Everybody in the whole goddamn world is a pundit,” Ailes said. “My doorman thinks he should be running the 101st Airborne Division. It’s good to get people from various Administrations who’ve had some experience. But sometimes you’ve just got to have a reporter out there.”

Ailes talked about watching Vittert’s reports last night (video here). “I’m watching and he’s saying, ‘We’re standing here and a bomb hit this building and we’re over here…’ and I’m thinking, “Oh Christ I’m going to get this kid killed.” And I was thinking should I call [Steve] Harrigan in Florida and put him in. Because he’s an old combat reporter. I’d been worrying about that kid all night.”

“You need analysis, you need all that stuff. One doesn’t necessarily replace the other. Journalism is journalism. Somebody’s got to see it and say it.”

New developments in Libya this morning, with the French military taking action, are keeping the U.S. cable news channels active.

Beginning at 11amET, CNN and CNNI began another simulcast of coverage with anchors T.J. Holmes of CNN and John Vause of CNNI covering the news. Correspondents Nic Robertson and Arwa Damon are in Libya, Ed Henry is in Brazil and Jim Bitterman and Jill Dougherty are in Paris.

Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto was already in for a live Saturday morning show on the economic recovery efforts following the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. He kept cameras trained on both Brasil — where President Obama was about to speak alongside Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and on Paris, where Secy. of State Hillary Clinton was preparing to speak after meetings on the NATO action in Libya. Rick Leventhal and Steve Harrigan are in Libya (spooked by anti-aircraft fire during one live report today. Video after the jump.)

MSNBC went into the NoonET hour with anchor Richard Lui, as Pres. Obama was appearing with Pres. Rousseff. Correspondent Mike Viquiera is in Paris, Chuck Todd is in Brazil and Jim Maceda is in Libya for NBC/MSNBC.

None of the networks had a Brazilian interpreter during Pres. Rousseff’s lengthy opening statement. And just as the president was about to speak, all three networks lost the signal from Brasilia. It returned after about 3 minutes.

Cavuto stayed live until 12:17pm telling the audience, “We just wanted to keep you abreast not only of developments in the political world but certainly in the business world. We hope we served bot those audiences today and we appreciate our normal ‘Cost of Freedom’ audience being patient as we attempted both.”

> Update, 12:26pm: Cable networks began carrying Secy. Clinton comments from Paris.

> Update, 2:18pm: ABC’s Diane Sawyer is coming in to anchor “World News.” Regular weekend anchor David Muir will report, as will Christiane Amanpour, Martha Raddatz, Jake Tapper, and Alex Marquardt, in Libya.

> Update, 3:39pm: Sawyer also anchored a special report (right) on the news of U.S. military involvement.

> More: CBS’s Russ Mitchell has anchored three special reports today at NoonET, 2:36pm, and 3:59pm during CBS coverage of the NCAA tournament.

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