Pope: Overnight Cable

“MSNBC is killing CNN and FOX right now at 1 am. Both networks are running re-runs of Paula Zahn and Bill O’Reilly while Dan Abrams is live interviewing Rome bureau chief Steven Weeke about the latest news that the Pope suffered a cardio vascular collapes and is in “very serious” condition,” an e-mailer said. At 2am, when Abrams signed off, CNN/U.S. took the CNN International feed, while FNC was in tape.

Between 3:20 and 3:35am, MSNBC, CNN and FNC broke into programming to report that the Pope was in a coma. They returned to tape a few minutes later. “A deputy to the Vatican spokesman denied media reports that the pope had fallen into a possible coma,” CNN.com says this morning. “The report first came from an Italian news agency and was mentioned in an announcement on Vatican radio.”