Fox News anchor Shepard Smith issued an on-air apology Friday
after the network, which had been following a car chase in Arizona, saw that
chase end in the driver shooting himself on live television.
"We really messed up and we're all very sorry," Smith said.
"That didn't belong on TV. We took every precaution we knew how to take to keep
that from being on TV and I personalize apologize to you that that happened."
Smith said Fox News went to a five-second delay once the
carjacker pulled off the road, but that producers weren't able to cut away to
commercial quickly enough to prevent the shooting from airing live.
In the clip, which
is available on Mediaite, Smith can been seen yelling, "Get off it! Get off
it!" as the man put a gun to his head.
"It's just wrong and that was wrong and that won't happen
again on my watch and I'm sorry," Smith continued in his apology. "We'll update
you on what happened with that guy and how that went down tonight on TheFox
Report."
Fox News has issued a formal statement on the incident saying that televising the shooting was the result of "severe human error."
View Smith's on-air apology below:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvfjXu1DDqA[/embed]
