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TV networks to cover Pope's funeral live
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-07 09:18
Several TV networks will provide live coverage of Pope John Paul II's funeral
Friday — for Americans who want to get up early or stay up late.
In this photo made
available by the Vatican
newspaper Osservatore Romano, from left, wife of US President
George W. Bush Laura, President W. Bush, his father former
President George H.W. Bush, former President Bill
Clinton and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, pay their respects to late Pope
John Paul II as he lies in state inside St. Peter's Baslica, at
the Vatican, Wednesday, April 6, 2005. They knelt just a few feet (meters)
from the pope's remains, dressed in a crimson robe with a white bishop's
miter and will attend his funeral on Friday.
[AP] |
The funeral is scheduled to begin at 4
a.m. EDT on the East Coast, and will be carried on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News
Channel and MSNBC.
Most of the traditional network anchors will be accompanied by experts who
will not only help translate the language of the Mass, which will be said in
Italian, but explain to viewers what is going on.
For example, CBS anchors Harry Smith and John Roberts will be joined by the
Rev. Paul Robichaud, pastor of the American Catholic Community in Rome.
Many viewers at that hour are going to want to focus on the Mass, Smith said
in a telephone interview from Rome.
"I want to be able to stay out of it enough for those Catholics to be able to
participate in the Mass," said Smith, host of "The Early Show."
It's a new anchor team at CBS, now that Dan Rather has gone back to
reporting. ABC's coverage will be led by Charles Gibson, with Peter Jennings
unable to attend because of lung cancer. Brian Williams and Katie Couric will
co-anchor NBC's coverage from Rome.
Joining Gibson on ABC will be Vatican correspondent Bill Blakemore, who
covered the since the day he was elected, and the Rev. Keith Pecklers, professor
of theology at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
NBC News will have two experts on hand: the Rev. Thomas D. Williams, theology
dean at Regina Apostolorum University in Rome, and George Weigel, a senior
fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington and a biographer of
the pope.
At that hour, it's difficult for the networks to get a sense of how many
people will be watching. But judging by the crowds Smith said he's seen in Rome,
it would be wise not to underestimate the interest.
"I don't think anyone here expected the throngs of people that are streaming
through the streets to the basilica," he said. "I have a sense that this is a
profound moment in the life of this church and in the lives of the faithful."
Except for CBS, most of the networks will be on the air anywhere from an hour
to 10 minutes before the Mass is scheduled to begin. MSNBC is pulling an
all-nighter.
NBC's affiliated cable news network said it will telecast live all night
leading up the funeral (much late-night programming on cable news networks is
taped). New MSNBC host Tucker Carlson will be on from midnight to 2 a.m. EDT,
Bill Fitzgerald and Natalie Allen will be on from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., and Mass
coverage will be anchored by Chris Matthews and Chris Jansing from Rome.
Fox News Channel's coverage will begin at 3 a.m., anchored by Shepard Smith
in Rome and Martha MacCallum in New York.
CNN's set overlooking St. Peter's Square will be staffed by Anderson Cooper,
Christiane Amanpour and Bill Hemmer, with Soledad O'Brien in New
York.
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