I didn’t want to write on this… But I think it’s something we need to talk about.
Earlier today, Fox News covered the live event of a man involved in a high-speed car chase in Phoenix. Anchor Shepard Smith was giving moment-by-moment commentary on the chase, as apparently he does somewhat often. In a heartbreaking moment, the driver jumps out of his car, weaves through a field, looks around, then raises a gun to his head and pulls the trigger.
And Fox News aired it.
Now, I think I should make clear that while I’m not a fan of Fox News’ politics all the time, I don’t hate on them for sport. They’ve done some good reporting and offer some very good coverage. But this… This is atrocious. I’m horrified.
The moment the gun went to the man’s head, Shepard Smith starts insisting, “get off, get off, get off it! Get off it!” at which point ANY director or producer working in that control room could’ve switched cameras to Smith.
But they didn’t.
The Media Decoder at The New York Times explains:
Mr. Smith said on the air afterward: “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.”
But the Fox control room did not cut away in time. Then, Mr. Smith realized, it was too late.
He leaned back in his chair, disgusted, and the network cut to a commercial break.
After the break, Mr. Smith apologized at length. “We really messed up,” he said. “And we’re all very sorry. That didn’t belong on TV.”
No, it did not belong on TV. So how did it get on the air with a 5 second delay?
Here’s how live news works:
There are a producer (or multiple producers) and a director in charge of what you see on television at any given moment. They say to the controllers, “Go to Studio” or “Go to helicopter” or “Go to commercial” or whatever terminology they’re using depending upon what they’re shooting. If for some reason in an emergency they don’t want to go back to the studio full-screen shot, they can go to black or to a commercial.
With a five second delay, just as Smith says, you have 5 seconds to cut away—to black, to commercial, to wherever. Count it out right now: one-thousand, two-thousand, three-thousand, four-thousand, five-thousand… It’s a long time. In that the time it took me to count it out, I picked up my phone, entered the password and was even able to hit a name in my Favorites and begin a call. Someone could have switched off the helicopter feed in time to prevent what may very well be this man’s death from airing on national television.
Upon seeing this horrifying footage, I got on the phone with a friend who has been producing live television for years. He explained, “Sure, there’s the off chance that both the director and producer were asleep at that moment. No matter what Shepard Smith says, the guys in the control room won’t cut away without word from a producer or director, even if the anchor is telling them to. But the truth is, what bleeds leads. I don’t know it for sure, but it seems like someone wanted that to air.”
My hunch is that they did do it on purpose. I know that’s a huge accusation to make. It certainly wasn’t a thought-out decision on the part of the director and/or producer in charge, it obviously happened in less than 5 seconds, but in knowing how control rooms work and how easily they can navigate from one feed to another, I think this has to have been intentional. Most likely, someone in charge hesitated in that moment, thinking “What should I do?” and instead of choosing to protect this man, his family, and the public, he or she let it run.
After all, what bleeds leads.
Editor’s note: the video embedded above is of Smith’s apology, not of the alleged perpetrator in the car chase.
About Joanna Schroeder
I’m a little surprised they aired it, because airing it seems a little contrary to a pro-gun bias that I always assumed Fox News has. I would think they would be less likely to cover a story where someone commits suicide with a gun, and much more likely to cover a story where someone shoots a robber with a gun.
This coverage could make gun ownership/possession look bad. Gun conservatives prefer to talk about how guns are great for protection, and try to keep discussion away from self-inflicted gunshots. I can imagine someone at the NRA now accusing Fox News of having a “liberal bias” – damn liberals and their anti-gun propaganda!
What a load of rubbish. To say they did this on purpose is irresponsible.
If you are going to say that this was on purpose, then EVERY slip up that has been on TV has been on purpose. Including the swearing on award shows, the Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction”, etc. Stop your biased view towards Fox because I am sure that if this was another network, you would probably be making excuses for it.
BTW, I am not a big fan of Fox nor any other network news. I think they all have their biases one way or another. In my opinion TV news is a complete waste of time and there is no such thing as independent news sources anymore. No one reports the news by commenting on the facts anymore. It is all opinion and reported from a slant in one way or another.
I disagree, David. I do not think that suggesting that this particular scene was aired on purpose DOES NOT also suggest that any other slip-ups were, in fact, on purpose.
The truth is that we won’t know and will make up our minds for ourselves about what we think happened in the control room or whatever. I, personally, suspect it was on purpose but not a well-thought-out decision, because sex and violence sell news. Not because of what I feel about Fox or their politics.
With all due respect, the premise made here is since it was on delay and on live TV, this was on purpose. Going on that theory, ALL live events that are on delay (and due to Federal regulations all live events must have a delay) that have slip ups must be on purpose. To say otherwise is being intellectually dishonest.
If you watched the video, the camera is pulled right off the scene when the anchor is saying “get it off, get it off…” Unfortunately the person pulled the gun out and pulled the trigger in one swift movement. Hard to react so quickly – no matter what the news room.
Not being an apologist for FOX. They shouldn’t have been showing the Police chase to begin with. All networks show these stupid Police chases and like sheep, people watch it. Proves my point that all Network news shows are not worth the time to watch.
David, if there was time for Smith to repeat several times to cut it, there was time for either the producer or director to cut away. If one person doesn’t pull the trigger, it could be a freeze. If two people do it, I doubt it is. And a 5-second delay is *laughable* in this situation. They put Howard Stern and other shock jocks on a 10-second delay just for the occasional swear word. 5 seconds guarantees something like this happening.
Did you see the original video? The camera had already changed over to Smith saying “get it off, get it off”.
5 second delay is the industry standard on TV – ALL Live TV shows. What I am saying is that this is not just a FOX issue.
I just watched it, it was about 1 second from when he started raising his arm to the shot to the cutting of camera then he was saying get off it. Someone was slow on the changeover, they missed it by 1 second.
Listen, I would say the same thing if it were CNN. I don’t give a shit who it is.
Count to 5, like I say in the article. It’s a LONG time and they cut to cameras SO FAST on live TV, the know how to do it.
He pulled the gun out fast and shot fast, yeah. But they had one-thousand, two-thousand, three-thousand, four-thousand, five-thousand to say “On Shep!” or “To Black!” or ANYTHING. If the producer didn’t say it, the director could have (were both there). It’s not like they had to catch it when the gun came out.
Swears slip through because there are so many of them and the nip slip during halftime is an easier mistake to understand. First there are a TON of cameras on those shows, much more to manage, and the nip probably only really showed up on one, so it’s easy to think that the producer and/or director had an eye on another feed, getting ready to switch it or something. Also, they didn’t anticipate NEEDING a delay at that show. In this case, there are well-documented cases of horrible things happening on live TV news, especially car chases. In 1998 a man created a high-speed chase to protest HMOs (the story is in the NYT link I provided) and then shot himself on camera. Since then, people are geared for that.
Plus, they KNEW they were in a risky situation. Shep’s quote explains that they had JUSt went on the delay. Trust me, their eyes were on that screen. They were ready.
And of course I’m not saying the DID do it on purpose, I’m saying it sure seems to ME they did it on purpose. I fully admit that it could’ve been a mistake, but in this case, with the fact that they had JUST put it on delay, and the fact that there were probably only 2 feeds coming in, the likelihood of it being an accident seems pretty slim.
Beyond that, in anything I personally have seen, Shepard Smith does not say, “the control room meant to cut away and didn’t.” He just says that it shouldn’t have been on TV.
Anybody who has ever worked for a living knows that in a high stress, high pressure environment mistakes are made regularly. Five seconds is not a long time, especially if you are paying attention to two or three things at once which presumably a director/producer would have to do. You have to make sure people are prepared for the next segment and you have to know what you are going to cut to next.
If what your saying is true than I would expect a pattern of this at Fox…not one isolated incident. The probability of this being an accident maybe low but given a long enough time low probability events do happen.
I dislike Fox News so much I’ve removed it from my channel lineup so I can’t even accidentally land on it, but I find it quite plausible that the suicide could have made it to air by mistake. I’m not going to watch the video myself because I don’t want to see a guy shoot himself in the head, but from other comments, it doesn’t sound like that part was on air for very long before it cut away, so I’m inclined to agree with assman that 5 seconds isn’t a terribly long time for a busy control room to react, decide, give a direction, and have the direction followed.
I also can’t fault Fox much for accidentally airing a death at the end of a car chase. People don’t watch car chases because they feel assured it will end in a peaceful arrest. They watch because it’s life and death and not knowing if it will end in a “boring” arrest or a crash or a foot pursuit or a gun to the head is what makes it dramatic. I’m not saying that’s healthy, but seriously, a chase with no danger wouldn’t get watched, so in essence people are watching a possible lead-up to one or more fatalities every time they watch something like that live. I’d be fine with an end to live-televised car chases, but as long as people are glued to them, I think it’s sort of hypocritical to watch one for the thrill of it, but end up wagging a finger at the broadcaster if it ends in injury or death that made it to air.
“If it bleeds it leads” isn’t just a Fox thing, and if audiences tuned away from that kind of coverage, it would stop. I don’t anticipate that happening.
I have no indignation, shock or concern about showing people actually dying on TV.
It is what happens as a consequence of drugs, alcohol & other idiocy.
A guy puts a gun in his mouth, pulls the trigger and real damage is done…
Why not show it?
What I’d the down side?
Suicide creates copycat suicides apparently, hence why it’s rarely ever mentioned.
I’m a huge Fox fan. Derision for Fox comes with the territory, so that’s nothing new. Before Fox only mainstream media-approved conservatives ever got on network air. Fox programming filled a right-leaning void in the marketplace, as characterized by Charles Krauthammer as , “about half of the population.
That said, know that Smith is not one of their conservative opinionators. They don’t need this kind of press, and I fully buy the explanation and accept the apology.
On the issue of televising car chases at all: they are so Hollywood, and we watch for the inherent drama. With real-life car chases however, what Freud called the Death Instinct (as opposed to the life-affirming Sex Instinct) is titillated. The darker side of the Id becomes engaged in a possible life or death outcome for prurient reasons. And I’m guilty. I could not tear my eyes away from the OJ chase, and like most people, if a chase is particularly wild and woolly, its hard for me not to watch.
The evolved thing would be to channel Freud’s Sex Instinct, feel bad that any person had gotten themselves into such a situation, turn away, and turn it off. But we’re fascinated with mortality; witness the reverse “don’t look” dynamic in car accidents.
(Freud’s Sex/Death paradigm has been largely deconstructed by modern psychiatry, but still serves as an interesting if arcane dichotomy.)
Post hoc ergo propter hoc?
I get it that some have issues with certain news channels and see anything they do as unequivocal evidence that Satan is real, at work and inhabiting every anchor person and producers in the industry – but when I first saw the footage it was hard to tell right off that the guy had just shot himself in the head. I had to do a rewind to get it clear. The camera angles are deceptive – the lighting is flat due to the position of the sun – it’s even hard to recognise him falling forward due to the camera angles. Just a few observations about perception and biology – the mental aspects come later.
Well some will believe that it was broadcast of purpose – but having looked at the footage – the studio reaction and even listened carefully to the sound of reaction in the studio – my take is that it was a cock up!
What I do wonder at, is why there is a preoccupation with live car chases in American Broadcast News – I fact Live news in general? Given that peeps don’t know the outcome, I do have to wonder if they aint being broadcast in the hope of tragedy – blood – guts and gore?
And don’t forget that this is not the First Live Suicide on Network News – Daniel Victor Jones – April 30, 1998 … and that one got broad cast over kids cartoons after school – they even interrupted the Kids shows to broadcast events – guy on freeway – sets car and self on fire – cremates pet dog – then shoots self ….. and the cameras just kept rolling……
I would not be totally shocked if they aired it on purpose, but I do think the greater possibility was that it was an accident. Someone screwed up or dropped the ball or just had a brain fart for a moment. I can imagine someone just staring at the unfolding events and losing the presence of mind to cut away from it. Even if Fox News were a bunch of evil geniuses, even evil geniuses make mistakes.
My general rule with conspiracy theories is “never subscribe to conspiracy when incompetence will suffice.”
What would be more suspicious is if Fox News kept airing it over and over again with the excuse that it was talking about its own mistake. “See, here is where he shoots himself. We really should not have let that on the air, and we apologize.” And then turn to a guest commentator and show it again and again and ask the commentator what he thinks. “Should we have cut away at THIS point [pauses the clip] or do you think it would have been okay to run it a second longer at THIS point [pauses again].”
It would be more suspicious if they were milking their miscue for more attention.
I’m not a fan of Fox myself, and even though they admitted to a severe human error after watching the video it seemed like a technical difficulty. My first thought was as suggested above, the switcher said “OMG!” When they saw it and just froze at the sight. And then someone else reached over to switch.
The video itself is 5 seconds ahead of the actions in the studio. Even Shephard had 3 seconds after the fact before starting his “get it off” which is what leads me to believe there was a studio/broadcast monitor switch up somewhere. It would still be a human error as most technical difficulties are. I don’t think it was on purpose at all. It would very easily take over 5 seconds to realize there’s something bad going on. Realize the person responsible for switching has a moment of shock. And then move and reach over that person to correct the situation.
David,
First of all, Joanna DID NOT SAY IT WAS A FACT that they aired this event on purpose. She said she had a “hunch” that it was on purpose. She was stating her opinion of what she thought was going on.
Second, to let people know what her OPINION is would not be irresponsible. Presenting so-called “facts” without proof is irresponsible. Very much like your statement: “No one reports the news by commenting on the facts anymore”. That statement is absurd, irresponsible and intellectually dishonest. Besides, news isn’t for “commenting on the facts”, it’s for PRESENTING the facts to the American people.
Third, she DID NOT SAY that every “slip-up” on TV has been on purpose. YOU said that. For you to put words in her mouth like that was irresponsible and intellectually dishonest. Saying that, by the way is just ridiculous. It COULD have been done on purpose by Fox. Let’s say for the sake of argument that it was actually shown on purpose. Then are you to suggest that because Joanna pointed it out, that she ACTUALLY thinks that every slip up that has ever occurred on TV was on purpose? REALLY?!?!
Fourth, she does not have to “stop” doing anything. She can express her opinion any way she wants because this is a free country. How it is that you are so sure she is biased towards Fox is strange, unless you know this woman personally and know for a fact that she is. How you are so sure that if this was another network that she would be making excuses for it, I will never know.
Fifth, for you to say, “no one reports the news by commenting on the facts anymore” is irresponsible and intellectually dishonest. There are independent reporters out there who put themselves in danger to report the truth. There are reporters who report the news, even if it’s contrary to their point of view or political affiliation.
Sixth, TV news is NOT a complete waste of time, and there ARE such things as independent news sources. STOP YOUR BIASED VIEW TOWARDS TV NEWS BECAUSE I’M SURE IF THIS WAS RADIO YOU WOULD BE MAKING EXCUSES FOR IT.
I just think everyone has their own opinion, David. Even you have your views about what you think about TV news. But for you to put words in people’s mouths and tell them to stop saying one thing or another is totally absurd and out of line. Regardless of this story, this post, these comments….there are FACTS out there about what happened in the control room that day, and NONE of us have the answer. But don’t belittle someone or bully them with terms like “irresponsible” and “intellectually dishonest” because you find yourself in the unique position of thinking you’re right.