Someone at Fox News may have been fired due to failed tape delay in live suicide

Oct. 1, 2012 9:03am Eddie Scarry

The live tragedy that took place on Fox News last week may have ended in the firing of a news producer.

David Shuster, former MSNBC anchor who now works on Current TV, writes over at Huffingon Post:

I’ve anchored my share of live coverage over the years, including car chases. At MSNBC, I often prayed the “delay switch” would actually work as promised. And, I frequently wondered what I would do or say if a violent and graphic incident accidentally aired on my broadcast.

Shepherd Smith handled his show’s mistake as well as any broadcaster could. He underscored, dramatically, that airing the suicide was inadvertent and unintentional. Furthermore, colleagues at Fox News tell me a producer at the channel is out of a job for failing to prevent the indecent video from leaving the control room.

If you missed it, on Friday a high-speed chase covered live on Fox News ended with the suspect shooting himself in the head. Fox mistakenly showed the entire incident before abruptly cutting to commercial. Shepard Smith, who was anchoring at the time, apologized for the network and said it was the result of a tape-delay issue.

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Comments (6)

noslave
Posted on October 1, 2012 at 8:44pm
remember the california bank robbery shoot-out??on regular/lamestream media??cops were out gunned broke into gun shop to get better armament??showed both robbers being shot dead??no one got fired and that was deliberate sensational coverage for their network??the fox coverage had no expectation of the ending,it was an time delay error??how is the fox coverage worse than lamestream media coverage of robbers being shot down by cops??

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larmijo
Posted on October 1, 2012 at 12:34pm
While car chases are not my thing, as they are not really news, I don’t think anyone needed to be fired over a technical mistake. I’m actually surprised this doesn’t happen more often. Fox is over-reacting to (probably) public pressure from the left who would hate Fox no matter what. Give the producer back his job!

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Dismayed Veteran
Posted on October 1, 2012 at 9:58am
No need to fire someone over this minor mistake.

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RhonLips
Posted on October 1, 2012 at 9:48am
Ditto Wat, and there was nothing to apologize for! Reality TV anyone?

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watashbuddyfriend
Posted on October 1, 2012 at 9:24am
Why? Tell, and show it like it is! Of course, I missed it, because FoxNews has lost most of my attention. If it were not for FoxBusiness, History Channel, and a few good westerns, I would not need TV!

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- AnAmericanToo
  Posted on October 1, 2012 at 11:02am
  FOXNEWS decided it was ‘newsworthy’ to track and air live a car chase. Now, how really important was it to be carried live? PERHAPS the FoxNews folks should have an all hands meeting and look at what they consider ‘news’ vs. ‘drama for numbers’.
  
  The fact is that the man killed himself after the chase. That is the REAL world. They were covering the real world minute by minute but when the outcome was not pleasant it upset the money makers. The chase could have ended with a deadly crash or a roll over — presenting it live is an assumed risk of the station.
  
  I just don’t see the newsworthiness of live filming (delayed but considered live?) of a car chase. I would like to know what is taking place in South America — earth quakes, political unrest, how will Ecuador which uses US currency be dealing with US money printing, riots in Greece, France, Spain.
  
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