Networks Struggled To Bring Nun’s Funeral To Americans

It was the second straight week TV networks carried the funeral of a prominent woman at hours when most Americans slept. The parallels ended there.

Audio and video problems and the inherent difficulties in portraying a multilingual ceremony made Mother Teresa’s funeral Saturday a challenging experience for television.

The solemn event undoubtedly captured just a fraction of the audience that tuned in to Princess Diana’s funeral in England a week ago. It was certainly a unique moment for American TV: the three top anchormen presenting post-midnight coverage of a three-hour Catholic Mass to honor a humanitarian nun in her hometown of Calcutta, India.

“It was a day that will be burned in memory for so many of us here,” CBS’s Dan Rather said.

Mother Teresa, considered by many of the poor to be an angel, died Sept. 5 at age 87. Her body, in an open casket that showed her clutching rosary beads in her folded hands, was laid before an altar with a banner reading, “Works of love are works of peace.”

Networks were left largely to rely on video and audio feeds from Indian television, and that caused difficulties. Microphones could barely pick up the words of the funeral’s first speaker, prompting apologies from Rather, NBC’s Tom Brokaw and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. A buzzing sound seeped into the audio throughout.

There was interference with Indian TV’s pictures 80 minutes into the funeral and, in general, the camera work wasn’t up to standards most American viewers are used to.

ABC had an advantage in sight and sound. Its audio quality was superior to its rivals and it had access to better pictures. Several times, ABC cameras caught the speaker while other networks showed a faraway shot from directly above the body.

Much of the ceremony was in English, but it also included Latin and two Indian languages. CBS occasionally tried a translator, while other networks cut to interviews or religious experts who could explain the funeral to non-Catholics.

“This is a service that mixed much of India in it,” ABC’s Peter Jennings said.