Newspapers: Submerging the Story

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For four long days -from the moment the Vatican Press Office an nounced that " Papa e grave"- hundreds of reporters were staked out in offices, shops and rented rooms around Vatican Square. Their opportunities for bungling during the long death watch were many. The surprise is that so few did. In Paris, the principal radio station bulletined news of the Pope's death 67 hours before it happened, then made it self look more foolish the following day with the breathless announcement, "He's still alive!"The German-Swiss tabloid Blick -which, appropriately, is printed on pale yellow paper -passed the word two days early and was promptly at tacked in 12,000 copies of a handbill drawn up by citizens of Lucerne.

Revolting Fusillade. In the cascade of words both preceding and following the death, most of the world's newspapers somehow managed to submerge what really mattered -a succinct chronicle of the Pope's astonishing accomplishments. To their credit, though, most kept their coverage within the bounds of good taste.

Most -but not all. In Singapore, the Straits Times, equatorial equivalent of London's flamboyant Daily Express, bannered, POPE'S HANDS TURN BLUE, and printed both headline and body type in a sickening shade of blue. In France, the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchame issued a stinging, and dead-serious, rebuke to television. "Commentators spoke in low, vibrato tones to announce the least temperature rise . . . the most insipid details," said the magazine. "All was 'lachryma Christi' of the worst vin tage." In the U.S., on the other hand, New York Journal-American TV Critic Jack O'Brian found coverage "reverent, respectful, thorough and amazingly informative," but he added that it "seemed sacrilegious" when ABC followed a documentary on Pope John with "a fairly revolting fusillade of violently noisy shots at the start of The Rifleman."

Associated Press and United Press International kept direct lines to the Vatican Press Office open for days; they wore out several batteries listening to Vatican Radio, which unnerved everybody by broadcasting occasional bulletins in Swahili. Just 60 seconds after the Pope's death, U.P.I, carried a flash to all its U.S. clients: POPE DEAD. A.P., whose man on the phone tipped over backward in his swivel chair when he heard the words "E morte!" from the Vatican pressroom, still managed to fire off a bulletin two minutes later.

Tops in Trivia. Though most U.S. afternoon papers were right on deadline, the morning papers really poured it on, all but burying their readers in the process. The New York Times ran an eye-straining 36 columns-roughly 23,000 words-and even the Daily News taxed its straphangers with 13 pages. Two-thirds of the space in Spain's papers were devoted to the story.