Fox News Airs Suicide Following Car Chase. Shep Smith: ‘We really messed up.. and I am sorry’

TV Newser ^ | Sept. 28, 2012 | Alex Weprin

[Free ThinkerNY]

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. You could hear Studio B crewmembers, 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.

Fox then went to a commercial break. Upon returning, Smith said, “Well I’ve got some explaining to do.”

Smith explained that after the suspect excited the car, the network went into a five second delay, but that they failed to cut away.

“We really messed up, and we are all really sorry. That didn’t belong on TV. I personally apologize to you that that happened,” Smith added “That will not happen again on my watch, and I am sorry.”

[Sarah Barracuda]

I saw a car chase this morning on my local news(Went from Ventura County to Hollywood) ended with both suspects kissing the freeway and getting arrested..I dont know why car chases have to be shown nationally, its a car chase, car chases happen all over the country every single day

[Political Junkie Too]

“That will not happen again on my watch...

What's "his watch?" Is he the director? The producer?

-PJ

[The KG9 Kid]

The NFL is pleased to note that after the last very bad week in NFL football, that really wasn’t legendary Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown in that video, thank heavens.

[dfwgator]

Fox knew what they were doing, they know why people watch car chases, and today they got their big payoff.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Today will help Shep’s ratings. He is only sorry because he is afraid of the blowback. What else did he really think might happen?

[af_vet_rr]

Shepard loves car chases ,he would rather watch a car chase than vote for Obama .

The media in general loves a good car chase. And Shep after they came back from commercial was just fake as hell...These news organizations do not cover car chases when there are more important things going on in the world because they hope that the person will pull over and get out and lay down on the ground.

[flaglady47]

The “ending” took me by surprise, because it happened so suddenly, but it was a long distance suicide so you really couldn’t see any blood or gore. I think the guy was on some sort of drugs, as he stumbled out of the car, ran down a little sloped path, stumbled again and fell, seemed disoriented, and turned suddenly, then blew his brains out. All you could see is him firing the gun (right side of head) and then crumple.

That’s when you hear Drama Queen (Shep) shrieking “cut away, cut away”, which they finally did. Then it went to Ads, and when the show came back on, Shep wouldn’t say anything more other than to watch his evening show for what happened to the guy. Nice lead in for his evening show, n’est pas? So tune in tonite at 7 eastern time on Fox for the end result, which those of us who were watching already know.

[albie]

“Get Off, Get Off, Get Off, Get Off”...sounds like Shep with his boyfriend.

[af_vet_rr]

I know supposedly Fox is supposed to be not quite as left as the other networks, but as far as a being a news organization, they are a complete joke.

Complete joke is a kind description.

They push far too much celebrity sleaze as "news", especially with the "Fox and Airheads" show in the morning. And they promote homosexuality to school children with their 'Glee' promos for the Fox broadcast network.

I will say that Fox and Friends are great actors though, they pretend to be horrified at something a celebrity did or some other trash, and then spend the next 5 minutes talking about how awful it is.

And judging by the YouTube videos of the car chase and the reaction, Captain Mascara outdid himself this afternoon.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Shep was not sorry when he raked George Bush over the coals during biblical calamity Hurricane Katrina. It was so unfair of Shep. Why shouldn’t we blame Shep for profiting from a live suicide?

Again, what did Shep think might be likely to happen?

[trebb]

Why is this a problem?

I would guess that they feel it a breach of the man's dignity (not that there's anything dignified about what occurred). Funny how they don't want to show the dead becoming dead, but have no compunction about harassing the next of kin after the fact...

[af_vet_rr]

It is up to the all-knowing media to determine what 'we the sheeple' will see and how we should see it (and what we should think about it) so our sensibilities are not offended.

Having spent a lot of time outside of the US over the years, Americans would be shocked at how sanitized and censored the news media is here. It's very weird to be in countries where the citizens ostensibly have less freedom, but there is less censorship of the media. When there is censorship, it's usually related to certain politicians.

[Old Sarge]

I’m starting to feel that the media is trying to numb us to violence. They’re going to numb us to the point that when government storm troopers are shown on TV killing innocent civilians, it’s not considering abnormal.

[Tublecane]

“Why is this a problem?”

Yeah, they let us see JFK’s melon explode all the time. I for one didn’t like them showing Qadaffi die on a loop for a week, but if they’re gonna do that why not this?

[Old Sarge]

“FoxNews shows human debris saving taxpayers several hundred thousand dollars in court and incarceration charges live on TV”

[dfwgator]

JFK and Qadaffi were a little more newsworthy than some spare criminal.

[kjam22]

Looked like there is one less of the 47 percent. I saw it live too....

[Tublecane]

Then the issue is newsworthiness, not gore. Shep should be ashamed of covering car chases, not letting us see a suicide.

[Bernard Marx]

That's the way liberals "debate:" they broaden the topic to change the subject. My comment was specifically about media coverage of car chases. And you *can* change the channel or turn the set off for those.

As for commentary and propaganda disguised as news, I hope you don't think you're the first to object to that. I've been fighting that battle for more than 30 years.

[trickyricky]

"A lot of people feel like doing the same thing after listening to Shepard Smith."

You will be hearing from the Gay Pride Society.