The entire situation is pretty tragic. And quite surprising. I thought a 5 second delay was the normal course of business when covering life events. In this instance there was quite a FOX NEWS FAIL.
Or was it success?
Think about it..
In covering live car chases on television, what is a network expecting will happen? What are executives behind the camera hoping for? They want excitement! Drama! They want cars to zoom through residential neighborhood, being chased by police! They want high speed chases on expressways! Anything that can get someone to focus for an extended period of time on these events.
The fact that these car chases are so often covered by FOX makes me wonder if this new event that happened will cause someone to pause. Maybe more thought will go into the notion of just picking up local affiliate feeds of high speed pursuits. Or perhaps they will just utilize the 5 to 10 second delay more often.
Many people are decrying the coverage of the chase and suicide this week. Lots are coming down on FOX for appealing to a frenzied mass of people by even covering them to begin with. But I say, for as tragic and horrific as the situation became, it was a perfect win win for FOX. Those unnamed executives got what they wanted: The ultimate ending. No follow up needed. Suicide on live TV.
Perhaps we are just becoming inhumane in our treatment of fellow humans. That or we just like a good chase. Regardless of how it ends.
Shep Smith: I feel for you. But next time you're told to go to a high speed car chase? Maybe you should just cut to the commercial early...