When CNN was new they decided to cover a Midnight Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. What I remember was how the anchors chose to talk over everything, so you felt their ego trips rather than the ceremony.

I got the same feeling, in triplicate, watching coverage of Pope John Paul II's death today. Grief is shared through human interaction, but all we got on TV today was a simulation.

Catholicism is the most ritualistic of America's major religions, but viewers saw little of the power in this ritual. Instead we listened to talking heads on all channels, complete with anchors' ego trips, experts speculating, and cameras thrust in peoples' faces when they had nothing to say.

If you looked at major media Web sites you got more of the same. It was about them, not about him, and certainly not about us.

What about the blogosphere?

Well, it started with a lot of glop about Fox (and others) exaggerating his death before it happened. (Ha, ha.)

But then it got much better.

Nick Queen found the actual process the Church goes through when a Pope dies, not the speculation offered by American networks.

Richard Lorenc offered a kind and heartfelt obituary. Okie on the Lam offered both grief and appropriate exhaustion. And Temple Stark offered a defense of the man while disagreeing with his politics, noting how he died with dignity.

These are just the first few hours after this news event, but I am convinced that as time passes the distance between the Internet and broadcast coverage will become ever clearer.

The Internet is personal, it is heartfelt, it is sometimes profane, it is diverse and (most important) it is interactive. What you have to say is as important as what anyone else has to say.

Broadcasters claim to be sharing an experience, but what they should do instead is show it. Their role in leading the congregation has been replaced, and the sooner someone in that business realizes it the faster the lot of them will shut up, so we can get on with the serious business of grieving for the most important Pope of our lifetime.