EssEff

*tears hair out*

The pope is riding in his pope-mobile, with worldwide coverage. It's just a fricking car ride. Do we need to pre-empt all the Sunday pundit shows for this? Not that the pundits ever say anything of interest, but still... if I were religious I'd be at a fricking church on Sunday morning not watching pundit shows so who is their real audience anyway?

Wolf Blizter: "I think I speak for all our viewers around the world when I say we pray for a quick recovery."

No, Wolf, not all. I wish he would just die already. Cold but true.

** edited to add: I sent an e-mail. It probably won't have any effect but I'm tired of being part of a silent minority.

luvluv

I also would like to not hear any news about any influential, newsworthy figure who I personally dislike.

If everyone signs up for this plan, and if we pool together to come up with a list of everybody we all dislike, I think we can just get rid of newsreports on people altogether.

Who's with me?

EssEff

If we're going to watch the pope riding a half mile in a convoy, we ought to watch every other influential person's car ride. I mean, sure it's newsworthy that he's getting out of the hospital, but should the whole world stop and gawk at the popemobile driving down the street? It's just a fricking car ride. I wouldn't want to watch any inifluential figure taking a car ride. sheesh what has "news" come to?

Ben Willott

Welcome to non-news. Other stunning examples available in your local tabloids:

Couple To Marry
Woman Having Baby
Couple Has Split Up
Family Sighted on Holiday
Person Sighted Shopping

etc etc ad nauseam

As far as the pope is concerned, I can't understand why he doesn't call it a day. Mind you, we're talking about someone who genuinely believes he has a hotline to a god, so I'm not too hopeful about my chances of sussing him out.

EssEff

The only other figures who rate this kind of coverage have been O.J. and M.J. hmmmmmm A wife-beating murderer and a child-molester and the pope. Is there a pattern here?

luvluv

This wasn't just any convoy, this was the Pope's convoy, an event that regularly brings out tens of thousands of people, and it's a convoy everyone thought he was too sick to make.

If any figure of that prominence was seemingly on their deathbed, and then was suddenly engaging in an event of that size, it would be news.

The naming of the new Pope will be a major, major political and news event that will have global implications. As such, the Pope's health status is always news.

On the plus side, God in His infinite mercy has granted us remote controls and multiple news stations.

ekl

I think that a quick mention of the Pope's health/lack thereof on the news is valid, since he is a major religious and political figure. What annoys me is that I try to avoid the most sensationalist media and watch the (arguably) most unbiased, unethnocentric news that free-to-air has in Oz, and I still have to see several minutes of Pope-shit on the evening news, when we almost never hear about the Dali Lama or other major religious leaders, unless they're of the homicidal brand.

parkdalian

While I wish the old boy well, the catholic leadership seems to treat him as a sort of living religious relic the way they cart him around in that mobile display case. I think it's a shame the media plays along with it.

EssEff

Too true. Or if they're sleeping with prepubescent boys.

openeyes

Hmmm, I think all these topics have been covered in The Onion.

Regarding the pope: I, too, fail to see why his every move is newsworthy. I suppose there are people who care, but I certainly don't. (Little leftover Catholic guilt--I feel just a little bad for saying that.)