Pope-a-palooza

Getting a little lighter in gravity around here. Has anyone noticed the extreme Pope-death-watch news coverage lately?

I remember soon after the election, the press was baffled at how it missed the moral values coverage, and it was asking itself how it could do a better job at covering religion.

This I thought was dangerous to our secular society, it didn't really worry me because the press is so damned lazy.

However, it seems they think that covering religion means camping out by the thousands in front of any place someone is holding a crucifix (read: Terri Schiavo case).

However, this pope stuff is getting out of hand. We all know the Pope is sick. He has been on his last legs for years, yet somehow he is now getting real wall to wall coverage. While St.Peter's basilica hasn't yet become the media circus fairgrounds that the Penella County hospice has become, the AP seems to have hourly updates on the Pope.

I am sure the media is salivating to be the first to break the story about the Pope dying. But having updates on the pope's condition every five minutes will inevitably lead to leads like: "BREAKING NEWS: Pope deffacates resulting in light brown, semi-soft fecal matter. Reports from inside the vatican say feces containted corn, partially digested rice, and more painfully for the Pope, jalepeno peper seeds. The ailing hemmeroidic Pope is said to be recovering with generous applications of witch hazel and preperation H pads. No word yet on wether or not urine accomanied the bowel movement. Developing..."

It is like if the Pope doesn't come to check the weather at his window, the media go to their vatican bureau chiefs and coorespondents and start speculating about his health or lack thereof.

If only the media would have paid this much attention to say, weapons inspectors before the Iraq war.