Fair & Accurate

[Scott Fybush]

At 12:10 AM 4/3/2005, A. Joseph Ross wrote:
>On 2 Apr 2005 at 9:06, tony schinella wrote:
>
> > It is clear that MSNBC is giving FoxNews a tweak
> > for their 'The Pope is Dead ...' gaffe yesterday.
> > Their new motto? We're Fair & Accurate
>
>Good for them.  But I thought it was CNN that made that gaffe.

BillO reports having heard such a report on CNN Radio. I was flipping back 
and forth among CNNMSNBCFNC Friday afternoon and heard the Fox News report, 
in which an overeager, overly aggressive young producer (the kind of 
"newsperson" who drove me, screaming, out of the TV news business) was 
heard off-camera misunderstanding the translation of an Italian news 
conference and shouting, "Pope is dead! Hellooo...Pope is dead!," which led 
Shepard Smith to launch into a full-fledged obituary for the 
not-quite-dead-yet Pontiff. It took about half an hour for the 
misunderstanding to be cleared up and for Smith to apologize. (Which is, 
I'd note, more than he's ever done to the freelance reporter who was 
working for my station during the 2000 recount in Florida when he ran her 
over while trying to grab a parking space in which she was standing, but I 
digress.)

You can see (or rather, hear) it here -

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/the_pope/pope_on_fnc_shep_smith_declares_pope_dead_then_retracts_it_20057.asp

CNN's banner at one point went so far as to say that "Italian news 
agencies" were reporting that the Pope had died, but at least on the TV 
network, that was never treated as confirmed fact yesterday.

s