(Credit: KCBS video still)
Los Angeles CBS-affiliate KCBS showed a live graphic video of police and a kidnapping suspect exchanging gunshots, Mediaite reported.
KCBS had been broadcasting the police’s high-speed chase of the suspect March 13 when the suspect got out of his car, “fired at police and they shot back, hitting him at least once in the torso,” according to Mediaite.
“He’s got a gun…this could end kind of badly,” WCBS said.
After the network broadcast the gunfire, its anchor Pat Harvey apologized to viewers for the footage. The station cut away from the live coverage for a moment and then went back to broadcasting live,, showing the suspect, with a gunshot wound, sitting and then lying on the ground holding a gun with several police nearby. Video below.
In 2012, Fox News apologized after showing a live car chase that ended in the suspect shooting himself and dying by suicide, as iMediaEthics reported.
“We 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 apologize to you that that happened” Fox News’ Shep Smith said. The next year, the children of the man who died sued Fox News for emotional distress after seeing the Fox News video of their father’s death online. “We 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 apologize to you that that happened.
