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Fox News Channel today was showing live coverage of an Arizona police chase that ended when the suspect fled the scene, pulled out a handgun and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head — before Fox News could stop the helicopter footage from hitting the air. Fox News cut away from the local station feed immediately after, showing anchor Shepard Smith telling the control booth to “get off, get off, get off”, and went to commercial break. When it returned, Smith apologized on-air (see the video below), saying the feed was on a delay but the network failed in cutting it off in time. It’s clear from Smith’s white-faced explanation that the cable news channel has a protocol for such instances, but this time it didn’t work as intended. (UPDATE: Fox News’ EVP of News Editorial later said in a statement: “We took every precaution to avoid any such live incident by putting the helicopter pictures on a five second delay. Unfortunately, this mistake was the result of a severe human error and we apologize for what viewers ultimately saw on the screen.”)
Veterans of local Los Angeles news already know the risks of media outlets following car chases too closely, and some TV stations here have guidelines for pulling camera shots away after a chase comes to an end just in case something goes wrong. Others don’t air the chases at all. Here’s Smith’s apology:
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But Fox got the ratings, and even more press like this, right? So that’s all that matters to Fox.
“So that’s all that matters to Fox.” – that’s it in a nutshell. They can apologize after the fact but they were flirting with this. And I don’t think they care.
SO, what other news would you censor?
This was a live news event and this was the tragic end to the story of a carjacker who ended the highspeed chase with a suicide. BUT, don’t show the end of the story— THE NEWS.
What else would you and sniveling Smith censor from us feeble people:
The Zapruder Film— surely we weaklings should be spared the view of JFK’s head being torn apart? Certainly the live on TV murder of Oswald! “GET OF, GET OFF, GET OFF!”, because we citizens should be shielded from the NEWS— as you and Shep hold yourselves above the rest of us and seek to determine just what NEWS we see or hear.
Clearly, you and sister Smith would have withheld footage of the beatings, the police dog attacks upon black folks marching for freedom and civil rights in the late 1950′s and early ’60′s. After all, fire hoses turned on people is ugly so “GET OFF. GET OFF…”.
And we sure as Hell should have turned the cameras off when the Space Shuttle exploded— and especially “GET OFF…” as the first of the airliners where flown in to the World Trade Towers!
Smith and FOX or CNN or ABC or your local O & O have ONE job— report the NEWS, the good or the bad. It is not for Smith et al to determine WHAT part of the news we see and hear.
What’s the problem? Looks like Fox has the scoop on this one!!
Absurd levels of hypocrisy/paradox. We want our guns but we don’t want to see the everyday effects. Rather insane if you think about it. And with Shep’s need for clean endings, the network airs it anyway. The cake and eat it thing is the worst mask to put over this farce.
That really is a shame. I accept their apology.
Now, when will they apology for tragically airing fake news?
You’re watching MSNBC and CNN. Silly
yes, as we all know foxnews is the paragon of objectivity and reasonableness.
Remind me, what network had to retract, apologize and terminate employees for intentionally editing misleading audio clips re the Trayvon Martin shooting? Oh yes… not Fox.
Misleading information all just merges together on Fox, because that’s basically all they air, so no one would have noticed misleading Trayvon Martin clips.
Fair and Balanced! Ahahahahahahaha…
Come on… we knew FOX NEWS was going to show a public execution someday…
When it’s self-inflicted, it’s a suicide, not an execution.
Even their apologies suck!
Whiteface apology? Hard to see through that Univision tan.
Boycott the sponsors.
If everyone in that control room hasn’t been fired by tomorrow morning, I’ll be very much surprised. Anytime you switch to a taped delay, your finger should be literally hovering over that cutoff button.
It almost seems like things were reversed. If you watch it (and obviously viewer discretion is advised), we can hear someone reacting to the shot live, and then there is the cut to Smith getting more and more urgent “Get off it, Get off it, GET OFF IT!”, and then he seems to react to the shot. In other words, the anchor saw the delayed feed, and the audience saw the live footage, instead of the other way around.
If it wasn’t Fox, no one would say a word in protest. The chase ended how the 95 million people who watched O.J. thought (and I am sure many millions hoped) it would end. Besides, if CNN had had aired it, there would be no one outside of an airport to apologize to.
This story must be linked from MSNBC and Huffpo. Lots of kids in their mommy’s basement commenting.
Why was Fox News, a national news organization, covering a high speed chase in Arizona? Was there an Obama press conference that they refused to cover?
Let’s be real here. We all know that Fox or any news operation wouldn’t want to show a live suicide on TV. What happen here (if on a 5 second delay as stated), the person watching the live feed wasn’t able to communicate to the producer and director fast enough for the control room team to react. The 5-second “bleep” for language is different, because the person can do on their own without having to tell anybody. The video continues to play. 5 second is fast. To solve this problem (yes, I know many people are saying not showing this at all), maybe the delay should be much longer.
If there were a 5-second delay for the live CNN (and ABC, CBS, and NBC on the West Coast) 1986 Challenger launch that ended with the explosion that destroyed the space shuttle and killed it’s crew, would the networks have cut off the picture just before viewers saw the explosion??
It is difficult to cut something like this in a breaking news situation.
However, Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith must be congratulated for apologizing on-air for this.
In the old days, Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley or Howard K. Smith would have apologized to viewers if their respective networks had ended up inadvertently broadacsting the suicide.
But not every anchor today would do so.
FoxNews ought to apologize for their whole stinking network!
Are you kidding, I’ve heard and seen worse on T V blood language sex you name it,, and so do all our children and no one apologizes. The media seems to be famous for not telling the TRUTH. Fox news seems to be the most honest to its viewers. I am truly sorry for the families and will pray for them.