I think you guys totally missed the point. Or maybe you just didn't read the actual story....
This was not entertainment, or anything like Death Race. It was a genuine error, and someone is probably looking for a new job because of it....
Setting aside Fox's "I'm sorry" explanation, the point of the story was to highlight the growing trend of "news" organizations choosing to give preferential coverage to sensationalism rather than to events of greater importance.
From the article,
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.
There is no way anyone could reasonably rationalize that on a national news broadcast, some crackhead stealing a car is of greater cultural or journalist importance than the mess in Syria that they cut away from.
They weren't covering the car chase because it was journalistically relevant. And they didn't cut away from their coverage of events in the Middle East because the car chase was more important. They showed the car chase because they wanted to keep their viewers around after the next commercial.
That's entertainment, not news.
Unfortunately, in their bid to spice up the show, they got a little more than they expected.
