The Pope

While the U.S. networks have big plans for next Friday’s royal wedding (or hadn’t you heard), a mere 48 hours and 1,100 miles away in Vatican City another big event will unfold: the beatification of Pope John Paul II. Beatification is the first step to Sainthood.

• FNC will carry the Beatification Mass beginning at 4amET Sunday, May 1. Jamie Colby and Eric Shawn will anchor the Mass from New York while religion correspondent Lauren Green will report from Vatican City. Rome-based correspondent Greg Burke will report and FNC analyst Father Jonathan Morris makes a return to Rome to contribute.

• MSNBC’s Chris Jansing who will be covering the royal wedding, travels from London to Rome Saturday morning and will begin appearing on MSNBC Saturday. Jansing will anchor live coverage of the Beatification Mass beginning at 4amET. She’ll be joined NBC’s Vatican analyst and author George Weigel and Vatican Art Historian Liz Lev. Jansing covered the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI in 2005.

• CNN/U.S. and CNNI will broadcast the Mass Sunday with Jon Mann anchoring. Jim Bitterman will be the correspondent at the Vatican and author John Allen will provide analysis. CNN en Espanol will cover with Jose Levy.

• ABC’s David Wright is the correspondent for TV and other platforms. ABCNews.com will live stream the Mass with ABC News San Francisco-based producer Ariane Nalty reporting. (Interesting note: Nalty’s brother is Monsignor Christopher Nalty who worked at the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy. Ariane’s father-in-law is Charles Zewe a former correspondent for CNN).

• NBC’s Anne Thompson and CBS’s Allen Pizzey will report for their networks.

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NBC’s Chris Jansing is back at MSNBC headquarters anchoring coverage of the Papal visit of Benedict XVI. Jansing began anchoring at 1pmET today, leading up to the mass at Yankee Stadium. Jansing covered the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI three years ago this week. (full disclosure: I was with Jansing for five weeks in Rome, when we both worked for MSNBC).

Earlier this year, Jansing moved west to report for NBC News based out of the Los Angeles bureau.

For a while around noon, no one knew if the smoke was black or white. An e-mailer said CNN had an especially difficult time: “CNN repeatedly reported that the smoke from the chimney was black and there was no new Pope. While everyone seemed unclear on the color, because it was confusing, CNN seemed determined that it was not going to change color…I know it was a confusing time, but don’t you think they’d handle it better?” Also:

> What’s Happening At CNN: “A CNN source describes the naming of the new Pope as ‘mass confusion’ as it was apparent news organizations were having difficulty determining what color the smoke was.”

> B&C: “Fox, which called the Pope’s death prematurely, waited until the confirming bell began to ring before posting the ‘We have a Pope!’ graphic.”

> The visuals from St. Peter’s Square are outstanding. Who cares if it’s a free commercial for the Catholic church?

> FNC has cut the crawl and changed its chyron title to “Habemus Papam!”

> On NBC, Brian Williams acknowledged several times that he was anchoring the special report from makeshift studios in Oklahoma City — the NBC affiliate KFOR — while covering the 10th anniversary of the bombing.

> NBC was the first network to return to local programming, at 1:06pm. ABC signed off at 1:13pm. “For Peter Jennings and all of us at ABC News, I’m Charlie Gibson. Good day.” CBS “network coverage will end at 1:28:51pmET,” Newspath says.

> FNC’s Chris Wallace in Rome: “I have shivers up my spine.” The chyron blares: “We Have A Pope!”

> On NBC, Brian Williams admitted he was “delving into the realm of speculation.” Every other anchor did the same thing…

> White smoke was seen at 11:49am, and the bells tolled at 12:04pm, according to NBC’s lower-third.

> On CBS, John Roberts anchored from a balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square, while Bob Schieffer anchored from NY.

> ABC’s coverage, “The New Pope,” was anchored by Charlie Gibson in New York.

> “There is a new leader of the 1.1 billion member Catholic church. A new pope has been elected,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer trumpeted.

> Gawker: “Fox News calls it black! Italian media says white! ABC says white! Someone will change their mind! ABC is now uncertain!”

MSNBC’s David Shuster is blogging from Rome. Here’s an excerpt from his Monday post: “The smoke started to get darker… and within minutes, the Vatican confirmed that the cardinals ended the day the way nearly everybody had expected, with a first ballot that produced no pope. For a few minutes though, it was an amazing scene as broadcasters and journalists of every stripe wondered what exactly was happening…”

None of the evening news anchors are on hand for the start of the Papal conclave, the AP’s David Bauder notes. While Brian Williams is in Oklahoma City, Lester Holt is leading the coverage from Vatican City. On ABC, Charlie Gibson is staying in NYC, with Bob Woodruff reporting from Rome. Bob Schieffer is also anchoring from NY, while John Roberts leads the coverage from Rome. Chris Jansing is on site for MSNBC, and Chris Wallace is anchoring on FNC.

The Chimney Cam premiered on all three cable news channels earlier today, as a box in the corner of the screen offered a live shot of the Papal Chimney at the Vatican. On CNN, anchor Kyra Phillips and analyst Delia Gallagher laughed as they struggled to identify the color of the smoke. “I can see this popping up on all the late night shows,” Kyra said. “What color is the smoke?!” FNC plastered a “No Decision” graphic on the bottom of the screen. E-mailer comments:

> “When the first smoke came out, you reeeeally couldn’t tell whether it was black or white,” FNC’s Greg Palkot said.

> CNN’s banner is “New Pope: The World Waits.” “How many of the only 1/5 of the world who are Catholic are waiting and how many are going about their daily lives?,” an e-mailer asks…

> MSNBC.com is offering a free “Smoke Cam” live shot.

> “Fox News has the worst setup for the Vatican Pipe cam as they are shrinking their regular video screen,” an e-mailer critiqued. I disagree: I think the split screen looked great.

> Some of the broadcast TV types are laughing at the continuous “Chimney Watch…”

> “This is the first time in the history of Earth that the crazy conclave chimney signals can be witnessed live on the Internet,” Sploid says.

FNC, CNN and MSNBC will go live to Rome at 4 a.m. as the Papal Conclave commences. On Fox, Chris Wallace will anchor live from Rome, along with correspondents Rick Leventhal, Greg Palkot and Greg Burke. CNN/U.S. will simulcast CNN International’s broadcast. Submit early morning coverage notes via the tip box…

> Plus: Pope John Paul II was “newsy,” NBC’s Stephen Weeke recalls

> Update: Inside Cable News liveblogged a bit of the coverage. “Fox is calling it ‘The Papal Conclave;’ CNN dubs it ‘The Next Pope;’ MSNBC goes with ‘Mass for the Papal Election.’”

The Media Research Center offers its interpretation of how the media covered the life and death of Pope John Paul II. The positive coverage of his passing “did not match the usual pattern of papal coverage over the decades of his pontificate,” they write, and list many examples.

The report also says that, over the years, “reporters often chose sides in what one called the battle between ‘tolerance and absolutism.’ In their passion for that fight, ‘tolerance’ gained the majority of the time, and ‘absolutism’ received the majority of the grief.” More…