Swedish TV blunder: 'Pope John Paul has died'

[emad]

March 04 2005 at 01:19PM

Stockholm - Swedish public television mistakenly published an obituary for Pope John Paul II on its website, where it remained for more than five hours before it was taken down, the broadcasting company said on Friday.

"This was a very unfortunate mistake," Swedish public television, SVT, spokesperson Johanna Niemi said.

An SVT employee had been working on the pope's obituary in advance when they mistakenly hit a button that posted the text on the website, Niemi said.

Under a picture of the ailing pontiff in an audience with the Swedish king and queen, the website stated: "Pope John Paul has died".

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1109932740331S353

SPOOKY?............

[LiberalVoice]

1. "employee had been working on the pope's obituary in advance"

I wish I had a nickel for everytime I posted the pope's obit on the internet by mistake...I'd have enough for a soda...and boy am I thirsty!

[CanuckAmok]

6. That's a pretty common...

Most broadcasters keep obit features on elderly promenant public figures, and update them every so often. It's so they have something ready to go when the person dies.

I think I remember one being run on the Queen Mother prematurely...and also one on a US politician who's name escapes me. Was it maybe Rumsfeld? Thurmond? I can't remember.

[BurtWorm]

2. Crazy Lutherans!

:crazy:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. NO! That's

"Damn euro-trash anti-American God-hating effeminate socialist one-world government promiscuous abortionist queer Swedish!"

[all.of.me]

4. i have a questionn

how can they name a pope John if there is no 'J' in the italian alphabet?!

my italian friend does not write, "Jesus!"

he writes, "Gesus!"

[jmowreader]

5. There's no K, W, X or Y either

The Italian alphabet has 21 "native" letters--the 26 in English minus j, k, w, x and y--and five "foreign" letters--the ones I listed.

Italian words are formed out of the 21 native letters. Foreign words can use the five foreign letters.

As for Jesus...the people in the Bible have different names in different languages. Jesus' mother is named Maria in Germany and probably the Mediterranean, for instance.

But they had to name the pope John because...well, can you imagine the reaction of the world if they named him Giovanni Paul? Besides, this pope was born Karol.