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There are many people who absolutely love Fox News and others who consider it to be pure entertainment, Faux News if you will. Opinion on the network seems to vary based on political allegiance.

I generally try to avoid all of the major television news networks because their spin drives me batty, but today I was lured into watching Fox News to keep abreast of the Pope's condition. I did not have any complaints until...

Shepard Smith announced that they were going to join Fox's sister station, Sky Italia. Just as they were joining the broadcast, you could hear this woman (a reporter) yell, "I am screaming here, what do you mean nobody can hear me?" It seemed like she was screaming for a lengthly period of time and it was very obvious that she was ticked off with someone. Then the "someone" (later identified to be a producer) broke in angrily screaming, "HELLO, the Pope is dead. HELLO, the Pope is dead". This was all over top of the Sky Italia report of a conference that we were supposed to be hearing, and over images of the masses that are being held in Rome. How appropriate.

Fox then went back to Smith who apologized for bringing the news to us that way and said "well the facts are the facts" and then proceeded to go on about how the Pope has passed away, confirming what we had heard. He actually handled the situation very professionally and looked just as shocked at what had occurred as I felt.

I was stunned to hear that the Pope had passed away, even if we are expecting it, but to hear it like that is just horrible. Plus, none of the other news agencies are reporting that he has passed on yet. There has been no word from the Vatican. Fox was just trying to scoop the story. "The facts are the facts" said Shepard Smith. Really? Smith is now reporting that the Pope is alive and is recanting the original report.

Granted, that this one circumstance was more of an unfortunate incident than anything else and it must be difficult to cover an event as it occurs, but geez.