Live video of man who set himself on fire outside court is a challenge for news organizations

NEW YORK — Video cameras positioned outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial captured the horrific scene Friday of a man setting himself on fire and the aftermath as authorities tried to rescue him.

CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC were on air with reporters talking about jury selection when the incident happened and other news outlets, including the Associated Press, were broadcasting live from outside the courtroom. The man, who handed out leaflets before dousing himself in accelerant and setting himself on fire, was in critical condition.

The incident tested how quickly networks could react and how they decided what was too disturbing for viewers to see.

With narration by Laura Coates, CNN had the broadest view of the scene. Coates, who at first incorrectly said it was a shooting situation, later narrated how the man was visible on the screen, engulfed in flames.

“You can smell burning flesh,” said Coates, CNN anchor and chief legal analyst, while at the scene with reporter Evan Perez.

The camera switched between Coates and what was happening in the park. Five minutes after the incident began, CNN posted the on-screen message “Warning: Graphic Content.”

Coates later said he could not “exaggerate the emotional response of seeing a human being engulfed in flames and seeing his body being placed on a stretcher.” She described it as an “exciting and incredibly disturbing moment here.”

Fox cameras captured the scene briefly as reporter Eric Shawn spoke, then the network switched to a sketch of Trump in court.

“We deeply apologize for what happened,” Shawn said.

On MSNBC, reporter Yasmin Vossoughian narrated the scene. The network showed smoke in the park, but no images where the body was visible.

“I could see the outline of his body inside the flames,” Vossoughian said, “which was so scary to see. When he fell to the ground, his knees touched the ground first.”

The AP had a camera with live, unnarrated footage positioned outside the courthouse, shown on YouTube and APNews.com. Cameras captured a wide view, with the man setting himself on fire and then writhing on the ground before a police officer tried to put out the flames with a jacket.

The AP later removed the live stream from its YouTube channel and replaced it with a new one due to the graphic nature of the content.

The news agency distributed carefully edited clips to its video clients — without showing the moment the man set himself on fire, for example, said executive producer Tom Williams.