A band of rogue police officers in Rio, acting in a bizarre protest of a corruption probe, recently offed about 30 people in random shootings in the city's slums. The violence was ridiculously over-the-top, even for Brazil. However, media coverage in Brazil of the cop massacre has been scant. The reason: 24/7 pope coverage.
The following quote ran in the AP:
"Without a doubt, the news of the death of the pope took on such vast proportions that this horrible fact was somewhat forgotten," said Rev. Luciano Bergamin, bishop of Nova Iguacu. "We have to forget the death of the pope a little and make sure these facts don't repeat themselves."
That's right, the news event of an 84-year-old guy's funeral is more important than news of the random slaughter of 30 people.
Amazingly, some bloggers in this country have complained about the media's coverage of the pope's deathwatch/expiration/funeral, calling it insufficient or not properly fawning and respectful. Maybe TKID4 is out of touch, but I've seen more pope news than I can handle. Besides, I don't get why a funeral for anyone, even the top dawg of the Catholic church is worthy of live coverage at all hours. He's dead. That's that.
