The Respectful Eyes of America

Throughout the coverage, anchors and reporters marveled at the poise and stamina of Betty Ford, the president's widow, who had been through hours and hours of memorial activities even before the trip from the Capitol to the cathedral began. She entered the cathedral on the arm of President Bush and then sat among, and seemed supported by, her children -- son Steven on one side and daughter Susan on the other. It was a moving portrait of family solidarity.

One realized what a tremendous impression the Fords had made on the country in spite of the fact that Ford was in office a relatively short time after Nixon's resignation.

Television was a presence at the event in more ways than one. Former president George H.W. Bush brought up the '70s lampooning of Ford on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," with Chevy Chase portraying him as physically bumbling even though Ford was, many commentators said, the most athletic president of his century.

Bush also did an impression of Dana Carvey doing an impression of him ("Not gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent"), a reminder of how influential "Saturday Night Live" has been in American pop culture. In the interest of propriety, though, it might have been better if the elder Bush had stuck to the topic of Ford and not mentioned his own experience with the show. He might also have mentioned that Ford took the ribbing so good-naturedly that he taped a "live from New York" opening in the Oval Office for use on the program.

The current president praised Ford for making an unpopular decision -- the pardon of Nixon -- and sticking to it. That was also a theme of Bush's most recent radio address. Some reporters saw it as Bush's thinly veiled attempt to compare his own unpopular pursuit of the Iraq war with Ford's action -- and a way of saying both men were courageously standing on principle.

The eulogy by former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw was not memorable. Brokaw said Ford asked him last year to be part of such a ceremony whenever it was held, although Brokaw said modestly that Ford made the request because "I think he wanted to be sure the White House press corps was represented" -- not because he thought Brokaw was a brilliant orator. Brokaw, who seemed to smirk throughout his remarks, ended with a banal "Farewell, Mr. President. Thank you, Citizen Ford."

Cameras kept panning the faces in the cathedral -- an auspicious assemblage that included former presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Bush and their first ladies. CBS relied too much on what might be called Coffin-Cam, long and steady shots of the flag-draped casket, which, after all, didn't do anything but sit there, as was to be expected. Viewers would rather have seen the faces of the famous and celebrated.

CBS coverage overall was disappointing, and ABC's was probably the best of the major networks.

On CNN, meanwhile, Wolf Blitzer took the strange step of interrupting the coverage to apologize for a goof made the previous day on his "Situation Room" show. According to a media-watchdog Web site, Blitzer said he "just wanted to make a correction" and continued: "We had a bad graphic. We were doing a piece on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in this new year, 2007. Unfortunately, instead of saying, 'Where is Osama?' it said, 'Where is Obama?' I'm going to be calling Sen. Barack Obama to make a personal apology."

Yes, you do that, Wolf.

If not all the speeches praising Ford were unusually eloquent, the music in the cathedral was. During the singing of "O God Our Help in Ages Past," a camera caught Betty Ford mouthing the word "beautiful" to her daughter. After the services, Matthews raved about Denyce Graves's singing of the Lord's Prayer. It was a breathtaking performance.

Chimes rang outside the cathedral, and Olbermann, Matthews's on-air partner, said gratuitously, "Ask not for whom the bell tolls." Matthews pronounced the ceremony "sublime" and said he thought President Bush's eulogy was better than his father's, an opinion not likely to be widely shared.

As Ford's body was taken to Andrews Air Force Base, the major broadcast networks signed off and rushed back to the cacophony of regularly scheduled commercial programming. Cable news networks stayed with the story.

It was a memorable morning, a national gathering by television, and a reminder that for all the talk about blogs and YouTube and MySpace, there are still moments and events that only the networks can adequately convey.

This, obviously, was one of them.