Maybe the media is testing how far its influences can persuade the public? We should take a close investigation of the dominant stock-holders and board members of corporations in the media domain.

I suspect that the pope really did die on Friday afternoon, and that all the machinations that followed were a stall to allow the vatican to carry out its rituals.

remember the saying for the ages "the pope is never sick"-he's alive, or he's dead. in the information age, they had to adapt. even the official announcement came out via an email.

Subjective reality is always fun to think about.

The media does not have a rational approach to reporting events. 13 months of solid Clinton and Monica proved that to me. We have a 24/7 news cycle and not enough real news to fill it because real news is expensive to get. It's a lot cheaper to show a 24/7 satellite image provided by Italian news. Then the mindless media whores can drone on and on about the meaning of the Pope as if there were no tommorrow and the sun won't rise. They neo-cons will spin his death so it has meaning for the fascist cause. But in the final analysis it has no meaning.

Patagonia looks really nice compared to this nonsense.

It's really been disgusting to see all the reportrs in Vatican City waiting for the pope's death like a bunch of vultures

Like the vultures waiting for Terri to die.

Damn, I'm missing all the drama on the Michael Jackson trial. Wonder what GW is doing while our attention is diverted.

I suppose you're right about this and thus the frightening aspect that the myth that has been created and especially is being created in these few days will be more important that who the man really was and what he actually said and did.

By the way, do you really think there is anything trivial about an organization that "only" claims 17% of the world's population?

Well, they did it with Reagan. The myth of Regan created just days after he died, is nothing like the truth of Reagan.

I am sure the right-wing, Reaganites loved the FOX news reporter's comment from Rome, that one of the greatest accomplishments of Pope John Paul II's papacy was the defeat of communism in Eastern Europe.

I guess it wasn't Reagan single-handedly after all.