Fox News Screws Up and Shows Suicide Live on the Air

By: Jason EasleySep. 28th, 2012more from Jason Easley

While covering a car chase in Phoenix, Fox News had the chase on a 5 second tape delay, but still showed a man committing suicide live on the air.

Here is how TVNewser described the events,

A man committed suicide live on Fox News a few minutes ago. FNC had been carrying a car chase in the Phoenix area and when the suspect pulled over, he ran down a dirt road, then stopped, put a gun to his head, and fell to the ground. No other national networks were carrying the chase.

When the man first exited the car, anchor Shepard Smith said presciently “You wait for the end of these things and you worry how they may end.” Viewers could hear Studio B crew members, who were watching a live feed of what was happening, gasp and Smith say, “Get off, get off, get off,” asking the control room to cut away. But they didn’t in time.

Here is video of Shep Smith yelling at his crew to cut away from the suicide and his subsequent apology, (You can find the video of the suicide on YouTube. It will not be published here.)

Smith personally apologized to the audience, “Well, I’ve got some some explaining to do. While we were taking that car chase and showing it to you live, when the guy pulled over and got out of the vehicle, we went on delay. So that’s why I didn’t talk for about 10 seconds. We created a five-second delay, as if you were to bleep back your DVR five seconds, that’s what we did with the picture we were showing you, so we would see in the studio what was happening five seconds before you did, so that if anything went horribly wrong, we’d be able to cut away from it without subjecting you to it. And we really messed up. And we’re all very sorry. That didn’t belong on TV. We took every precaution we knew how to take to keep that from being on TV. And I personally apologize to you that that happened.”

Fox News screws up a lot, but this one was inexcusable. They already had the feed on a delay. They should have cut it off, but it seems like somebody wasn’t paying attention and let it run for too long. Poor Shep Smith did everything he could to get them to cut away, but in the era of literally car chase cable news, it was only a matter of time before this happened.

Why was Fox News covering a car chase in Phoenix? Were they hoping for something bad to happen? Were they looking for some good television? Let’s face it, ever since OJ’s White Bronco some segments of cable news have been flat out infatuated with car chases.

This was an irresponsible screw up from an industry that has become so obsessed with speed over facts and judgment that cable news often looks more like reality television.

It is time for cable news to stop entertaining and start informing.

Fox News Screws Up and Shows Suicide Live on the Air was written by Jason Easley for PoliticusUSA.

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14 Responses to Fox News Screws Up and Shows Suicide Live on the Air

Kevin Shinn

Sep. 28th, 2012 at 5:16 pm

That’s FixNews for ya: So Broke They Can’t Pay Attention
What do you think? 0 0
Anon

Sep. 28th, 2012 at 5:44 pm

I disagree, this kind of thing should be on TV more often, it gives people a taste of reality.
What do you think? 0 0
- Jo Hargis
  
  Sep. 28th, 2012 at 6:12 pm
  
  “I disagree, this kind of thing should be on TV more often, it gives people a taste of reality.”
  
  Clearly spoken by a mouth-breathing conservative. Nuff said.
  What do you think? 0 0
  - Ignia
    
    Sep. 28th, 2012 at 6:54 pm
    
    I dunno. While I don’t agree with Anon, and I refuse to watch the video myself, that does not mean he doesn’t have a point. And this viewpoint does not mean that he’s a “mouth breathing conservative.”
    
    Having a different viewpoint on something than what you, yourself, hold does not make them either a “mouth breather” nor necessarily a “conservative.” It makes them an individual.
    
    I’ve enjoyed Politicus in the past because of the commenters- Lack of name calling for disparate views, snarky, amusing, and accepting all at the same time.
    
    I’m sorry to say recently it hasn’t lived up to my expectations.
    
    Yes, Fox News messed up big time on this one. But, it was an accident (obviously), and while I agree they probably shouldn’t have been covering the story this closely to begin with, they did, it happened… and they took responsibility and apologized for it.
    
    The people at Fox are human, too. They fuck up, they make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are horrible. But so do doctors. So do teachers. So does anyone who drives in this country. It’s human nature- and Kudos to the anchor for taking responsibility for his humanism.
    What do you think? 0 0
  - Anon
    
    Sep. 28th, 2012 at 10:16 pm
    
    Nope, not a conservative, but nice try. I just think it is important to see real life events and the ramifications and consequences of peoples actions. He killed himself, so what, it happens thousands of times a day. This one instance happened to be caught on live TV. This is real life, deal with it. I don’t think it is the media’s responsibility to “protect” us from stupid shit like this, it wasn’t even very graphic.
    What do you think? 0 0
Jo Hargis

Sep. 28th, 2012 at 6:10 pm

Absolute bullshit, pardon my French. In their zeal to get a good story, they didn’t act responsibly. In a situation with a HUGE potential to end exactly this way, they didn’t wait a few minutes to air this footage, out of caution. And yes, why are they covering a Phoenix local story? Really, why? I mean, I could understand if they had a live story running that was fairly innocuous and boom, something happened like this and they were caught off guard. But these types of situations end up exactly like this half the time, so it’s not like they didn’t know the potential.

So. Somewhere, this man’s mother….? sister? children? brother? maybe some grandparents? get to see this live on TV. As someone with experience with suicide in my immediate family, I can’t even describe what they’ve just done to the family, when suicide is already an extremely difficult thing for those left behind. Wow. Just atrocious.

I’ll say this much. Shep tried, but he’s not without responsibility here also. Whoever was back there picking their nose and not paying attention should no longer be employed.
What do you think? 0 0
j cat

Sep. 28th, 2012 at 6:42 pm

I saw this live today. It was shocking to see.

This is I know bad to say but, one less jerk out there scaring the hell, and endangering the poeple.

Fox did mess up big on showing this.
What do you think? 0 0
JM

Sep. 28th, 2012 at 6:53 pm

“…if it bleeds, it leads…”
the axiom of so-called news.

personally i don’t want to watch anything alive become dead on tv, the internet, or any media.
What do you think? 0 0
D. Lowrey

Sep. 28th, 2012 at 7:04 pm

@ Ignia – An honest mistake is something totally different. I used to do live broadcasts for a radio station and had a seven second live delay. If I needed to…I could have set it longer. What this was is some producer watching the feed and thinking about ratings. If he/she was really that concerned about this live feed…they could have increased the delay…but chose to do nothing till it was too late. For that matter…they could have had the host cover however long they needed. That’s what he’s paid to do.
What do you think? 0 0
Nic

Sep. 28th, 2012 at 9:56 pm

This is EXACTLY what they want when they cover car chases. Why would a national TV station even cover a random car chase that doesn’t affect people nationally to begin with? If it bleeds, it leads and there’s no such thing as “bad press”.
What do you think? 0 0
- Iowaman
  
  Sep. 28th, 2012 at 11:16 pm
  
  As to Fox’s apology – in a word: Bullsh!t.
  Nic’s got it right. They just live for this kind of thing. And the ‘apology’ just gets them that much free publicity.
  What do you think? 0 0
mjh

Sep. 29th, 2012 at 1:44 pm

Considering Fox News has been showing the slow death of the Republican Party for some time now, it stands to reason that they’d show a suicide . . .

.
What do you think? 0 0
Louise Breeding

Sep. 29th, 2012 at 11:02 pm

I was watching Shep’s show when this happened and what I saw was a person who had just put hundreds of people in danger getting out and raising his arm. No blood, no falling to the ground. I wish people would show this outrage over our flag being burned and Americans being killed not by their choice.
What do you think? 0 0
- Shiva (Moderator)
  
  Sep. 29th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
  
  You just cant wait till we are at war again can you
  What do you think? 0 0