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WASHINGTON: A high-speed chase turned ugly for Fox News on Friday when it televised - live - a fleeing carjacking suspect shooting himself in the head in the Arizona desert.
Twitter exploded in reaction to the real-time broadcasting flub, while video of the incident briefly found its way onto YouTube, as a badly shaken senior Fox News anchorman apologized profusely. "We really messed up and we're all very sorry," said Shepard Smith, who told viewers that a five-second delay in the live feed ought to have enabled the graphic scene to be stopped before going on air.
"That didn't belong on TV," Smith said. "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... That won't happen again on my watch."
Fox News online later cited police confirming that the man had died.
But even before that, Twitter users proclaimed that Fox News, part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, had telecast a 'suicide' as it happened.
The Fox affiliate in Phoenix said police had pursued the carjacking suspect at speeds of up to 175 kilometres per hour for over an hour, mostly on Interstate 10.
The driver was then seen abandoning the car and fleeing on foot, with no police officers visible in the tightly framed aerial shot. Turning into some bushes, the suspect then pulled out a handgun, put it to his right temple and collapsed. On air, Smith shouted "get off it! get off it!" in a plea to his studio colleagues to halt the live feed.
YouTube scrambled to delete the video almost as quickly as its users were posting it, saying it violated its terms of service.
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