As It Followed a Car Chase, Fox News Showed a Suicide

The Fox News Channel, in the course of following a car chase live in Arizona, on Friday broadcast the suicide of the man who was being pursued by the authorities. The network anchor at the time, Shepard Smith, apologized to viewers after returning from a sudden commercial break. “That won’t happen again on my watch, and I’m sorry,” Mr. Smith said, clearly shaken by the circumstances. The broadcast immediately spurred scrutiny about the network’s tendency to take car chases live during its daytime newscasts. Mr. Smith, in particular, has developed a reputation for his colorful play-by-play coverage of such scenes.“You know, you wait for the end of these things, and then you worry about how they may end,” Shepard Smith told viewers today while showing live coverage of an Arizona car chase in which a carjacker was trying to outrun the authorities. Unfortunately, Mr. Smith didn’t know how right he was about to be.Fox News and its viewers got a lesson in the perils of live television Friday afternoon when a driver chased by police emerged from a car and fatally shot himself in the head. The episode was the rare instance in which a TV newscast showed an act of violence live. Most stations use delays of live broadcasts to avoid showing scenes that might be upsetting to their viewers.