Fox News accidently broadcast a live suicide on its network today as they were filming a high-speed chase in Phoenix, Arizona which ended up in the motorist getting out of his vehicle and shooting himself in the head. (Video below, warning graphic content)
Fox News was covering the chase that began at midday Friday using a live helicopter shot from its Phoenix affiliate. The driver of a stolen SUV pulled into a remote road around 3:31 p.m., abandoned the car and began running away into the desert and placed a handgun to his head before firing it.
Fox anchor Shepard Smith was providing a play-by-play narration as the man stumbled in the desert, got up, and then reached down to grab his weapon. As he aimed the gun at his head, gasps were audible in the newsroom.
Smith then began repeating to the helicopter-based camera crew to "Get off, get off, get off, get off, get off ... "
Just seconds after the suicidal man fell face first to the ground, Fox cut away to a commercial. Smith issued a heartfelt apology as soon as the program returned from commercial break, which has an audience of about 1.9 million viewers.
Watch the video below, warning there is graphic content:
"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. That's why I didn't talk for about 10 seconds," Shepard said into the camera.
"We created a five-second delay as if you were to bleep back your DVR five seconds, that was what we did with the picture we were showing you so that we could 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. Sometimes we see a lot of things that we don't let get to you because it's not time-appropriate. It's insensitive. It's just wrong. And that was wrong. And that won't happen again on my watch. And I'm sorry," he concluded.
In addition to Smith's apology, Fox News executive VP Michael Clemente issued his own statement:
"We took every precaution to avoid any such live incident by putting the helicopter pictures on a five second delay," Clemente said. "Unfortunately, this mistake was the result of a severe human error and we apologize for what viewers ultimately saw on the screen."
Watch a video of Smith's apology below:
