WE HAVE A POPE!

Don't quote me on that: "We Have A Pope!" is what Fox News plastered on the bottom of the screen (media types call it a "chyron") for the first half-hour after the bells finally rang. It's the kind of enthusiasm you usually only hear from expectant fathers: "It's a boy!"

Of course, all the news cablers have kept their cameras fixed on the Vatican 'round-the-clock since the papal conclave began early Monday morning EDT, and the broadcast nets have broken in every time the smoke of frankly indeterminate color poured out of the chapel's chimney.

But not those anti-Papists at C-SPAN — all morning they devoted their so-called "coverage" to the "Future of the U.S. Space Program."

UPDATE — We have a Joseph Ratzinger! That is to say, we have a Benedict XVI! I'd sure think the folks over at the Ratzinger Fan Club have got to be pretty stoked right now ... except that their site has crashed under the traffic of billions of online Ratzinger-curious Catholics and papal gawkers (like me) trying to get onto the site right now. Billions of people will do that.

I should add: When the announcement was read, Fox started running "Habemus Papam!" on the chyron, as if we're supposed to know that means "We Have A Pope!" or something.

And I don't know that much about this new Pope, but I like him already. After all, his name is (or was) Joseph Ratzinger.

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posted by WWB at 12:25 PM |