I watched Fox cover the Iran war. It was straighter than I had expected — but woefully incomplete.

With Donald Trump plunging us into a new war in the Middle East, I was curious about how it was being covered on MAGA-TV, also known as Fox News. I decided to watch the 8 p.m. hour on Sunday.

Overall, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The real problems weren’t what was said so much as what wasn’t. But since I spent the weekend keeping up on developments primarily with The New York Times, I’m not sure whether other television news outlets were doing a better job.

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If I’d tuned in Fox at 8 p.m. on a weekday, I’d have encountered the loathsome Jesse Watters, a racist misogynist who once “joked” about killing Dr. Anthony Fauci. Instead, the hour was hosted by Dallas-based Will Caine, about whom I know nothing, but who came across as a fairly conventional anchor. Apparently that was a last-minute switch; the hour is normally given over to “Life, Liberty & Levin,” helmed by right-wing zealot Mark Levin.

No discouraging words were heard during Caine’s hour, which was more of a newscast than a typical Fox talk show. “Around the world cheers erupted,” Caine said at the top of the hour, which was a true though incomplete picture of reaction to the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

That led to a clip of Trump’s recorded statement from earlier in the day, when he said — among other things — that more American troops were likely to die in addition to the three who were killed in Sunday. Trump’s “that’s the way it is” remark was played several times during the hour, but without comment, even though it was widely criticized elsewhere.

Caine’s first guest was retired Gen. David Petreaus, who talked about the “real concern” that Iran retains the capacity to attack U.S. bases and allies. He warned that Trump’s expressed hope that an uprising will bring down the regime faced considerable obstacles. Calling Iran’s security forces “absolutely barbaric,” Petreaus said, “The challenge of regime change, though, without boots on the ground is substantial.”

Fox News reporter Nate Coy provided a news update from Cyprus. Caine then offered a brief, incomplete history lesson. “The critics are already lining up,” he said, which was probably his most partisan utterance of the hour. “This didn’t start yesterday,” he added, tracing U.S. tensions with Iran back to the 1979 revolution and the taking of American hostages.

Later on in the broadcast, he built on that sentiment, informing his viewers, “Iran wasn’t always like this. Before the 1979 revolution Iran was a thriving nation with a pro-Western government.” The U.S. enjoyed good relations with the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, he added. What Caine failed to mention was that the CIA overthrew Iran’s democratically elected secular government in 1953 and replaced it with the dictatorial shah. Ancient history? I don’t think so. Only 26 years passed between 1953 and 1979; by contrast, it’s been 47 years since the 1979 revolution. And now the shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, is hoping to make a comeback.

As is standard for such broadcasts, Caine spent some time with maps of the region, accompanied by retired Lt. Col. Allen West, a former Republican congressman who once called Democrats “communists” and who supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. West was on his best behavior, though, pretty much restricting his comments to military analysis.

West did warn that Iranian-allied “sleeper cells” might be in the U.S. because of the “open borders” that prevailed before Trump returned to the White House. But given that the suspect in a mass shooting outside an Austin bar Sunday that claimed two lives and wounded 14 was a legal Senegalese immigrant who was wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with “Property of Allah” and a T-shirt depiciting the Iranian flag, well, who knows?

Probably Caine’s most interesting guest was an Iranian exile and former political prisoner, Homeira Hesami, who said she’d been in touch with her family in Iran and believes an armed uprising against the regime is a likely outcome. “Will the Iranian people seize the moment?,” Caine asked her. Her response: “Of course we will.” The resistance, she said, was spread out across the country, and “they have the capability to overthrow the regime.”

Responded Caine: “The question is what acts of bravery will be required on the ground to cut the head off the snake to see a true regime change and see a true pivot in Iran to the form of government I think you and President Trump and much of the west would like to see in Iran.” A bit florid, but not especially over the top given the truly terrible nature of Khamenei’s dictatorship, which may have killed more than 30,000 opponents in suppressing recent protests.

Caine was followed by former Republican congressman Trey Gowdy, in case you were wondering whatever happened to him, and at that point I turned off the TV.

Did Caine host a straight newscast? Yes, more or less. Did he take into account everything his viewers needed to know? Not by a longshot. We heard nothing about the patently illegal and unconstitutional nature of Trump’s action, which he took without the congressional authorization that is required except in the case of an emergency — which this clearly wasn’t. We heard nothing about Trump’s violation of international law. We heard no criticism of Trump for failing to make a case to the public before launching the attack. With the sole exception of Gen. Petreaus’ brief remarks, we did not hear anything about the strong possibility that the U.S. could get bogged down in a quagmire. This isn’t Venezuela.

Still, I thought it was pretty standard fare for what my late friend Danny Schechter used to call “militainment.” It could have been better. But it also could have been worse — as it most assuredly will be when the likes of Watters, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Greg Guttfeld take over tonight.