Today during the broadcast of Shepard Smith’s Studio B, Fox News cut to a live police car chase in Arizona. This is typical fare for Fox News who frequently break into programming for this sort of crime drama. Never mind that there is nothing particularly newsworthy about it. Ordinarily it involves some low-level violation that would only be of interest to the residents of the locality where it occurred.

However, today the situation had much more tragic consequences. The suspect drove into field, abandoned the car, and ran down a dirt road to a clearing where he pulled out a gun shot himself in the head. Fox News aired the entire tragedy live.

After the shooting, Shepard Smith was heard ordering his crew to cut away, but it was too late. He seemed to be genuinely disturbed, and his subsequent apology was no doubt sincere. The network also issued an official apology.

However, there is a bigger issue here that Fox isn’t addressing. Why do they cover these car chases at all? There is no news value, particularly to a national audience, for a local crime. Suspects in these affairs are often seen exploiting their new-found celebrity. And the interest to the viewer is confined to its morbid nature.

What does Fox News expect to happen when they broadcast these chases? They know that the conclusions can be dramatic and disturbing. They follow fleeing suspects as they run through busy intersections and narrowly miss pedestrians. They interrupt more important news coverage as they devote hours to watching a car snake through the city.

Let’s face it, the only reason these chases are covered is for ratings. And the more dramatic the chase, the higher the ratings. Anyone who doesn’t believe that Fox harbors some desire that the car smash into a truck or a crowded bus stop, or flies off a bridge, is simply naive. Their resources are expensive. Helicopters, cameras, studios, producers, anchors, and crews, as well as the airtime and pre-empted commercials, are not given lightly to stories without some justification. They don’t spend hours tracking a vehicle from the air with the hope that the driver just decides to pull over and lay down on the ground. A shootout with police makes much better television.

So despite Smith’s regrets, it is hard to forgive Fox for subjecting their viewers to this. It was the inevitable outcome of their sensationalistic editorial philosophy. They simply cannot absolve themselves of any responsibility and then go back to broadcasting the next police pursuit as if nothing happened.