Pray for the media to be disappointed

[DemBones DemBones]

and have to keep guessing for years to come! If, of course, that's God's will.



Pope's Ailments Keep TV Networks Guessing


Sun Mar 13,10:06 PM ET

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - With Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II's health declining, CBS News executive Marcy McGinnis traveled to Rome to negotiate a 10-year lease for the rights to broadcast from the roof of a hotel overlooking St. Peter's Square when the pope dies.

That was nine years ago.

"I thought I was very smart making a 10-year deal," she said. "It should have been 15."

Or more, judging by the 84-year-old pope's tenacity. A papal succession is one of those big stories that television networks can assiduously prepare for, and they have. They just don't know when those plans will be needed at a moment's notice, and must make sure they're not outdated when it happens.

The pope's death will be a major story across the world that will fill many hours of airtime, and will be the first such succession in the era of 24-hour news.

"John Paul II in some remarkable way embodies the human experience in our time in a way that perhaps no other figure has since Churchill," said George Weigel, one of the pope's biographers. "When a gigantic figure like this leaves the stage of history, that is an opportunity to reflect upon that history and what it meant."

more. . .

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050314/ap_on_en_tv/tv_pope_preparations

Good long article analyzing how the media paln to cover what will be a huge news story, the first papal death since 24 hour television news coverage began.