SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Fox News Carries Live Video of Suicide
Sep 29, 2012
On Friday afternoon, after following a car chase outside of Phoenix, Arizona for several hours, Fox news mistakenly allowed their video stream to show the man who was being chased by police stop his car, get out, and then commit suicide with a handgun.
As is usual in such circumstances, the Fox video feed had a five-second delay, but the footage of the man's final moments were shown anyway.
Fox's Shepherd Smith, the anchor who was overseeing the coverage at the time, issued a subsequent apology for the incident, saying, "We really messed up, and we're all very sorry. That didn't belong on television. We took every precaution ... I personally apologize to you that that happened."
"It's not time appropriate, it's not sensitive: it's just wrong," he continued. "That won't happen again on my watch, and I'm terribly sorry."
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt adds:
The incident raised questions about the fascination of US news networks with car chases, as well as the lengths to which popular websites will go to attract an audience.
For much of Friday afternoon, Fox News had been streaming helicopter footage, with a voiceover commentary from host Shepard Smith, of a car chase near Phoenix, Arizona. For part of the time, police were pursuing the Dodge through the state. By mid-afternoon, police had stopped following the car, but it continued to be tracked by media helicopters.
Just before 3.30pm the vehicle had slowed to a crawl; the driver turned off the road and onto a dirt track. The driver's door was slightly ajar as the car advanced through the field, before coming to a halt after around 15 seconds. A man wearing a dark sports shirt stepped out of the car, and appeared to reach back inside before walking away.
The man looked around him before stumbling down the dirt track and then into long grass. He stopped, raised what appeared to be a gun to his head, and fell to the ground.
Fox News went back to the studio, where Smith was seen looking off camera and shouting: "Get off it, get off it." The network swiftly cut to a commercial break.
Despite the obvious shock of the incident and subsequent outrage and apologies, Ellen Gray, the television critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, said the real question should be this: "What's the most-watched cable news operation doing running high-speed chases with no apparent national implications, anyway?"
# # #
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
On Friday afternoon, after following a car chase outside of Phoenix, Arizona for several hours, Fox news mistakenly allowed their video stream to show the man who was being chased by police stop his car, get out, and then commit suicide with a handgun.
As is usual in such circumstances, the Fox video feed had a five-second delay, but the footage of the man's final moments were shown anyway.
Fox's Shepherd Smith, the anchor who was overseeing the coverage at the time, issued a subsequent apology for the incident, saying, "We really messed up, and we're all very sorry. That didn't belong on television. We took every precaution ... I personally apologize to you that that happened."
"It's not time appropriate, it's not sensitive: it's just wrong," he continued. "That won't happen again on my watch, and I'm terribly sorry."
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt adds:
The incident raised questions about the fascination of US news networks with car chases, as well as the lengths to which popular websites will go to attract an audience.
For much of Friday afternoon, Fox News had been streaming helicopter footage, with a voiceover commentary from host Shepard Smith, of a car chase near Phoenix, Arizona. For part of the time, police were pursuing the Dodge through the state. By mid-afternoon, police had stopped following the car, but it continued to be tracked by media helicopters.
Just before 3.30pm the vehicle had slowed to a crawl; the driver turned off the road and onto a dirt track. The driver's door was slightly ajar as the car advanced through the field, before coming to a halt after around 15 seconds. A man wearing a dark sports shirt stepped out of the car, and appeared to reach back inside before walking away.
The man looked around him before stumbling down the dirt track and then into long grass. He stopped, raised what appeared to be a gun to his head, and fell to the ground.
Fox News went back to the studio, where Smith was seen looking off camera and shouting: "Get off it, get off it." The network swiftly cut to a commercial break.
Despite the obvious shock of the incident and subsequent outrage and apologies, Ellen Gray, the television critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, said the real question should be this: "What's the most-watched cable news operation doing running high-speed chases with no apparent national implications, anyway?"
# # #
On Friday afternoon, after following a car chase outside of Phoenix, Arizona for several hours, Fox news mistakenly allowed their video stream to show the man who was being chased by police stop his car, get out, and then commit suicide with a handgun.
As is usual in such circumstances, the Fox video feed had a five-second delay, but the footage of the man's final moments were shown anyway.
Fox's Shepherd Smith, the anchor who was overseeing the coverage at the time, issued a subsequent apology for the incident, saying, "We really messed up, and we're all very sorry. That didn't belong on television. We took every precaution ... I personally apologize to you that that happened."
"It's not time appropriate, it's not sensitive: it's just wrong," he continued. "That won't happen again on my watch, and I'm terribly sorry."
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt adds:
The incident raised questions about the fascination of US news networks with car chases, as well as the lengths to which popular websites will go to attract an audience.
For much of Friday afternoon, Fox News had been streaming helicopter footage, with a voiceover commentary from host Shepard Smith, of a car chase near Phoenix, Arizona. For part of the time, police were pursuing the Dodge through the state. By mid-afternoon, police had stopped following the car, but it continued to be tracked by media helicopters.
Just before 3.30pm the vehicle had slowed to a crawl; the driver turned off the road and onto a dirt track. The driver's door was slightly ajar as the car advanced through the field, before coming to a halt after around 15 seconds. A man wearing a dark sports shirt stepped out of the car, and appeared to reach back inside before walking away.
The man looked around him before stumbling down the dirt track and then into long grass. He stopped, raised what appeared to be a gun to his head, and fell to the ground.
Fox News went back to the studio, where Smith was seen looking off camera and shouting: "Get off it, get off it." The network swiftly cut to a commercial break.
Despite the obvious shock of the incident and subsequent outrage and apologies, Ellen Gray, the television critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, said the real question should be this: "What's the most-watched cable news operation doing running high-speed chases with no apparent national implications, anyway?"
# # #
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.