Why oh why can't we have a better press corps? (AP South Sudan War Reporting Edition)

Update: My friend just told me off. A lot of these reporters are up around the border right now and have seen some horrific shit. I have mad respect for anyone who is going to the border to report right now. You are far braver than me. There's just not a lot I can do apart from watch this stuff unfold, and get angry when I see what comes across as biased reporting. So without taking back any of the substance of what is below, none of this is personal, and I hugely respect anyone who is risking going to the border.

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Ahem. So to borrow a meme from Brad Delong, why oh why can't we have a better press corps?

The president of newly independent South Sudan has told China's president that attacks by rival Sudan amount to a declaration of war on his country. 

There has yet to be a formal declaration of war by either of the Sudans, and Salva Kiir's remark, made in Beijing during talks with Hu Jintaoon Tuesday, signals a ratcheting up of rhetoric  between the rival nations, which have been teetering on the brink of war. [my italics]

This is after Omar al-Bashir has called Salva Kiir an insect, vowed to overthrow his democratically elected government, push him out of Juba, and instructed his army that Southerners only understand the language of the gun.

Could someone please explain to AP what "ratcheting up" and "rhetoric" mean?