The Catholic Church consecrates saints with less pomp and sentimentality than was lavished on former South African leader Nelson Mandela during the week-long media orgy that we have just been through. We haven't seen such a ridiculous spectacle since ... oh, since the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy three weeks ago. But at least the Kennedy orgy was over a lot faster — and nobody compared him to Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi or Jesus Christ.

Pity the poor journalists who had to grind out endless stories about what was hardly a news event at all — 95-year-old man dies after lengthy illness — and inevitably ended up sounding like sycophants and fools. True, the world needed (or at least wanted) a political icon of perfect virtue, but the beatification of Mandela took much too long.

The problem was that everybody in the media knew well in advance that Mandela was dying, and had time to invest millions in preparing to "cover" the event. Hotel rooms and telecom facilities were booked, crews and anchors were deployed, and the expense had to be justified by round-the-clock, wall-to-wall coverage of funeral orations, vox pop interviews and talking heads.