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US police cars - Source: Photos.com
Fox News has apologised after showing a man apparently shoot himself in the head on live television following a high-speed police chase in the United States.
Fox News was covering the chase in Arizona using a live helicopter shot from its Phoenix affiliate yesterday when the car-jacking suspect stopped the vehicle, stumbled into the desert and appeared to place a handgun to his head and fire before falling to the ground, the Associated Press reported.
Phoenix police confirmed that the suspect died at the scene, AP reported.
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith told viewers minutes later that the video was supposed to be on a delay, and that Fox had "really messed up, and we're all very sorry".
"That didn't belong on TV we took every precaution we knew how to take to keep that from being on TV and I personally apologise to you for that happening to you.
"We see a lot of things that we don't let get to you because
it's not time appropriate, it's insensitive, or it's just wrong,
and that was wrong and that won't happen again on my watch, and I'm
sorry."
Fox's executive vice president of news editorial, Michael Clemente,
issued a statement, reiterating that "every precaution" had been
taken "to avoid any such live incident by putting the helicopter
pictures on a five second delay".
"Unfortunately, this mistake was the result of a severe human error
and we apologise for what viewers ultimately saw on the
screen."