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 The Fox News Channel, in the course of following a car chase live in Arizona, on Friday broadcast the suicide of the man who was being pursued by the authorities. 
  
 The network anchor at the time, Shepard Smith, apologized to viewers after returning from a sudden commercial break. “That won’t happen again on my watch, and I’m sorry,” Mr. Smith said, clearly shaken by the circumstances. 
  
 The broadcast immediately spurred scrutiny about the network’s tendency to take car chases live during its daytime newscasts. Mr. Smith, in particular, has developed a reputation for his colorful play-by-play coverage of such scenes. 
  
 Mr. Smith had been following the chase, then switched to other news, including the violence in Syria, before returning to Arizona as the man being pursued pulled his car over. “Looks like he’s a little disoriented or something,” Mr. Smith said as the man ran down a path. 
  
 The Associated Press reported that the chase may have been provoked by a carjacking, adding that the police said the man was found dead at the scene. 
  
 The man left the car, then stepped a few feet off the path into a grassy area and pulled a gun out of his right pocket. He pulled the trigger and fell face-first to the ground before Fox cut to Mr. Smith, who was leaning forward and saying to his producers, “Get off, get off, get off, get off it.” He raised his voice and said again: “Get off it. Get off it.” 
  
 A Fox spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the network would continue to show such chases. 
  
 Car chases, captured by local news helicopters in some major cities, are frequently shown on a 5- to 10-second delay because of the possibility of violence. Fox and, to a lesser extent, several other national cable news networks, like HLN and MSNBC, sometimes pick up the local feeds, especially on relatively slow news days. 
  
 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.” 
  
 The case called to mind a televised suicide in Los Angeles in 1998, when a man unfurled a banner that read “HMO’s are in it for the money. Live free, love safe or die,” then set his truck on fire and shot himself with a shotgun. The scene was broadcast live by several Los Angeles television stations, including two that had been running children’s programming beforehand. One of the stations’ feeds was repeated by the cable news channel MSNBC. 
  
 After that incident, some local stations apologized, put time delays on future live coverage and instructed aerial cameramen during to send back wide shots rather than close-ups during chases. ||||| A man fatally shot himself in the head Friday on live U.S. national television at the end of a high-speed carjacking chase that began in Phoenix and ended about 90 minutes later within 80 miles (130 kilometers) of the California border. 
  
 Fox News was covering the chase that began about midday using a live helicopter shot from Phoenix affiliate KSAZ-TV. The man driving a copper-colored four-door sedan stopped, ran into the desert and placed a handgun to his head and fired. 
  
 The man was declared dead at the scene and hasn't yet been identified, according to Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a Phoenix police spokesman. 
  
 Fox News anchor Shepard Smith told viewers that the video was supposed to be on a 10-second delay so it could be cut off from airing if something went awry. 
  
 "We really messed up, and we're all very sorry," Smith said. 
  
 Fox apologized for showing the violence on air. 
  
 "We took every precaution to avoid any such live incident by putting the helicopter pictures on a five second delay," said Michael Clemente, executive vice president of news editorial. "Unfortunately, this mistake was the result of a severe human error and we apologize for what viewers ultimately saw on the screen." 
  
 More frequently than its rivals, Fox News Channel picks up car chases from its local affiliates and airs them live. It's gripping television, a live mystery with no clear resolution, and often provides a short-term ratings boost as viewers tune in to see how it ends. Critics say the chases themselves rarely rise to the level of national news. The Phoenix station was not airing the chase live when it ended. 
  
 Thompson said the man allegedly stole a car from a couple at gunpoint outside a Phoenix restaurant just before 11 a.m. 
  
 Police officers located the vehicle and began a pursuit and the man fired several shots, Thompson said. He said the shots hit the police vehicle and the officers escaped injury. 
  
 "He got out of the car and shot himself," Thompson said. "Efforts to revive him were not successful and he was dead at the scene. We don't have an ID yet." 
  
 Fox returned repeatedly to shots showing the car passing big-rig trucks that typically travel at about 70 mph (112 kph) as if they were standing still. 
  
 Police cars did not appear to be immediately behind the car during most of the chase. 
  
 Shepard Smith was narrating the video and clearly had his doubts about what was being shown from the moment the man stopped the car. "This scares me," he said. 
  
 "You wait for the end of these things and you worry about how they may end up," he said. "This makes me a little nervous, I got to tell you. A little nervous." 
  
 The video showed the man running erratically in a field before putting the gun to his head and firing. He fell to the ground. 
  
 Fox's picture quickly cut to Smith, who was shouting "get off, get off, get off, get off." 
  
 After the commercial break, Smith apologized repeatedly. 
  
 "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 apologize to you that that happened," he said. 
  
 ___ 
  
 AP television writer David Bauder reported from New York. Associated Press Writer Walter Berry in Phoenix also contributed to this report. |||||
What is a summary?
– Fox News aired a live car chase in Phoenix today that ended with a man fatally shooting himself before the network could cut off its feed, the New York Times' Media Decoder blog reports. Anchor Shepard Smith gave moment-by-moment commentary as the carjacking suspect eluded police, jumped from his car, and ran erratically through a field. "Looks like he’s a little disoriented or something," Smith said before the man pulled out a gun. When the man pulled the trigger, Smith told his off-screen producers, "Get off, get off, get off, get off it"—but the footage had already aired. After commercial, Smith apologized to viewers and said his crew failed to cut away despite having a five-second delay for that very purpose. "We really messed up," he said. "And we're all very sorry. That didn't belong on TV." Police said the man was declared dead at the scene, reports AP. Mediaite has the video here, but be warned, it's graphic.