A police chase in Arizona ended with a suicide attempt today and Fox News broadcast the incident, including the moment when the man put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Shepard Smith has since issued an apology for showing the violent incident, admitting that they "really messed up" and they're very sorry.
Fox News was covering the Arizona police chase today, and during Shepard Smith's show, the man being pursued got out of the car and began running, then stopped and put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. At that point, Smith ordered them to "Get off it," as he watched the footage from his desk, but it was too late and the incident was broadcast. A disturbing scene, to be sure and not one we'd expect to see on the news.
From what Smith said in his apology, there was a delay which should have prevented the suicide attempt from being broadcast, but clearly something went wrong. He didn't say what, though I'm guessing it could have been as simple as the wrong feed being broadcast and obviously seriously bad timing.
Here's the video of Smith's apology (via EW).
"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."
Assuming this was an accident, it's hard to imagine how they could prevent something like this other than not broadcasting car chases.
