Crooksandliars has the video
Early this afternoon, Fox News prematurely pronounced the Pope dead. "At 1:23 p.m., Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith reported that the pope had died. At least initially, he did not cite sources," the AP reports.
FNC viewers could hear a producer yelling "the Pope is dead." (Side note: Who was the producer?? Shep then tossed to a correspondent in Rome, who said the reports were not confirmed ) An Fox News insider has outed the "Pope Dead" producer as Rachel McEntee. Her voice was heard on the translator's open mic in the audio booth this afternoon. McAntee is an "amateur who doesn't belong anywhere near this big of a story," the insider told TVNewser. The FNCer added that no one is holding Shep accountable for the mistake, because he handles breaking news constantly, and was put in an "extremely awkward position" after McEntee's frantic voice was heard on the air...
Media Bistro has more:
1:57PM -Apology
I want to take you back to what happened here a little while ago. As way of explanation, I am very sorry, which is all I can say except that we were listening to Italian television. Our larger corporation owns news services all over the country and all over the world. Among them is Sky Italia. Sky news, we have them in London and here we have Fox News. Over there w have Sky in Italy. And Sky Italy had a producer who was listening to words coming from the press office of the Vatican and you heard the word that was given. Well the word was inaccurate. And unfortunately the same word was transferred here. We now know that Vatican has denied the reports that John Paul II died. I can tell you that the Vatican has been preparing the faithful for his passing for at least 24 hours and certainly the end is near. There is no mistaking that.