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.
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 exited 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.”
Smith’s full comments on what happened, along with video:
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.
Sometimes we see a lot of things that we don’t let get to you – because it’s not time appropriate, it’s insensitive, and it’s just wrong. And that was wrong. And that won’t happen again on my watch and I’m sorry. We’ll update you with what happened with that guy and how that went down tonight on the Fox Report. I’m sorry.