What Fox News and CBS now have in common

Not since Janet Jackson's nip-slip has there been a major network accidentally airing something explicit. While it's great that "truly live" is still around, that is not the case for Fox News and the Romero-Rodriguez family.

Reportedly, Fox News is being sued by JoDon Romero's family members after accidentally airing his suicide on live TV back in September. The network failed to delay the footage and therefore shows a man killing himself on TV. We often hear about murders in the news, but to see it? Devastating. It could have been avoided.

JoDon Romero and his last minutes.

What interests me, though, is why Fox News was following this story. With the recent uproar of taking another look at Patriot-Act "rights," you would think the network would have "better" things to do than focus on a police chase...after all, they are usually outspoken about everything the president does, hence making them the least reputable source for news, since news is supposed to be as neutral as possible (Disclaimer: I know that the gatekeeping task that is inherent in news media automatically exposes it to some bias whether or not this bias is apparent).

But I digress. With the general conservative view on immigration and minorities (the car chase was in Arizona, too), I am not surprised that Fox News was following this police chase. However, I am surprised at Fox's arrogance to think that their candidness would not lead to something terrible one day. If this was a white man, would they have followed this story over other national news? I think not.

I hope the family will be able to get over this grief. While there is the stereotype that some people may sue for attention and the money (you could argue in this case that there was a suspicious several month delay in the decision to sue), in this case, it is justified. The family did not have control over what the network was airing, and upon viewing it, whether on TV or YouTube, it would make anyone cringe.

May 2011 statistic. Reportedly, Fox's ratings are still declining.

Sure, the event happened last year, but the repercussions of seeing one's father committing suicide on the news will haunt the family forever and the news now is that they are suing the network. I'm not surprised that is happened to Fox News, not only for my hatred for the network, but also because their leanings and framing were bound to get them in trouble at some point. Again, if this were a white man in a 1 hour police chase, would they have covered it over more Obama-bashing? Probably not...but after all, they must perpetuate the stereotype of minorities as criminals or else their fan demographic would get bored and drive away advertising.

I'm not denying that Romero was violent, since he reportedly had a violent record, but I am sure there are other violent offenders in this world who are white and not being displayed as vividly as on Fox News.

It's just a case of censorship debates and conservatism mixed with Mean World Syndrome. And of all things involved in this scandal, I don't hear any opposition to gun ownership. It's a shame.