And funny, we don't hear much about it. Imagine if CNN or any of the real networks had killed the Pope prematurely. There'd be hell to pay from the right-wing - about credibility, about spreading lies as journalism, we'd hear an earful about Dan Rather and we'd probably even hear some say that CNN actually wanted the Pope dead.
But FOX's Shep Smith, according to press reports and reporters I talked to who witnessed the on-the-air report, actually had the Pope pegged as dead hours before he actually died.
A reporter friend of mine says he "definitely" remembers FOX saying "Pope John Paul the Second has died." And a Houston Chronicle story confirms it, though the Chronicle says CNN announced the Pope's premature death too, an allegation my friend says is false: "CNN only alluded to 'conflicting media reports.' There were a few minutes there where CNN and MSNBC seemed as though they were being beaten to the punch. To their credit, though, they waited, presumably out of a belief that accuracy is more important than speed."
FOX, on the other hand, had John Paul II dead dead dead. As a Reverend said in the Chronicle story:
The Rev. Leon Strieder, assistant professor of liturgy and sacraments at the University of St. Thomas' school of theology, compared the confusion to sitting in a hospital waiting room and first being told a loved one had died and then being told it was just a mistake.Yeah. FOX News. Dignity. Accuracy. Uh huh.
"It is unconscionable," he said. "There has to be more dignity to all of this."
