{"id":401255,"date":"2026-01-11T15:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/401255\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T15:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:21:07","slug":"letter-from-the-editor-breaking-news-doesnt-respect-deadlines-but-local-journalism-still-delivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/401255\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from the Editor: Breaking news doesn\u2019t respect deadlines, but local journalism still delivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

When our journalists first heard a federal officer may have shot<\/a> someone in Southeast Portland last Thursday, they jumped into action.<\/p>\n

One reporter began scouring police scanners while two other reporters and two photographers headed to the scene<\/a>. Social media journalists began scanning for mentions of the incident online as other journalists checked in with law enforcement, city and state officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was wild,\u201d said reporter Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, who was covering the Portland City Council\u2019s contentious election<\/a> of its next president Thursday afternoon when councilors abruptly paused the meeting and left the chamber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne minute later,\u201d he said, \u201ca source called me and said everyone had left the room because a federal agent had just shot some people in east Portland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal officials later confirmed a Border Patrol agent had shot and injured a man and a woman during a traffic stop near Southeast Portland\u2019s Adventist Health hospital at 2:19 p.m. <\/p>\n

After working diligently to confirm facts, which can be hard during breaking news, our journalists published their initial report at 3:39 p.m.<\/a><\/p>\n

By 4:16 p.m., more than 30 of our journalists were actively working the story and by the end of the night, we\u2019d published 11 stories on OregonLive.com with extensive photo galleries and videos from the scene, a late afternoon press conference and evening vigils and protests. Our social media team added to and amplified that work with more than a dozen posts on numerous platforms.<\/p>\n

Around 6 p.m., we started nearing the deadline for Friday morning\u2019s print newspaper. We now have slightly earlier deadlines since partnering this year with The (Vancouver) Columbian to print The Oregonian. So, with some details still murky, our newsroom and design teams worked fast to be sure we had a solid front-page story on the shooting for our print readers.<\/p>\n

Other stories came in too late for the Friday print edition, but online newspaper<\/a> readers found Yesenia Amaro\u2019s 7:30 p.m. report on Attorney General Dan Rayfield\u2019s investigation<\/a> into the shooting, along with other developments in the Extra section (page 34 in the online newspaper).<\/p>\n

We always aim to get the most up-to-date information in print, but deadlines are no joke and breaking news rarely sticks to a schedule.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why print subscribers should take advantage of the online newspaper \u2013 which delivers articles in a familiar newspaper layout but is accessed through theoregonian.com website. Because we can easily update the page, the online newspaper provides us more opportunity to serve you. News and sports coverage from later events will typically be found in the Extra section, along with national and entertainment news.<\/p>\n

Readers can always find our most up-to-date reports at the online newspaper\u2019s \u201cBreaking News\u201d tab or at OregonLive.com<\/a>. By noon Friday, for instance, readers found another half dozen<\/a> stories<\/a> on the shooting and an editorial<\/a> there.<\/p>\n

Oregonians are on edge after months of wondering whether National Guard troops<\/a> would be deployed in Portland. Thursday\u2019s shooting added to people\u2019s fears, especially as it came the day after a federal officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

The story here is complicated by the fact news organizations aren\u2019t receiving updates from federal law enforcement as regularly as we might from local agencies. So, each story we produce is important to keep our community informed.<\/p>\n

We know that\u2019s why you\u2019ll want to share them with friends and family.<\/p>\n

Subscribers can share OregonLive.com stories by clicking the image of a little gift box<\/a> located between a story\u2019s photos and the journalist\u2019s byline. Based on their subscription, readers can share between 10 and 20 articles a month. Readers can share with anyone \u2013 <\/a>subscribers or not \u2013 and they\u2019ll have free access to the story for seven days.<\/p>\n

Another option is to take advantage of The Oregonian\/OregonLive\u2019s Family Share program, which allows you to share your subscription with up to four people.<\/p>\n

Print subscribers with access to the online newspaper should go to myaccount.oregonlive.com<\/a> and sign out. Click \u201cactivate,\u201d which will take you to a \u201cCreate Account\u201d page. Plug in the email of the person you\u2019d like to share with, create a password and click \u201ccreate account.\u201d That takes you to a section to input your information to link your subscription to your friend or family member\u2019s email. You should receive a message that your account has been successfully linked.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a handy tutorial here<\/a>. Have a problem? Call The Oregonian\/OregonLive subscriber help line at 503-221-8240 or hdelivery@oregonian.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a digital-only subscriber, you can invite a friend or family member<\/a> to share your subscription. Go to the account menu at the top right of OregonLive.com and choose \u201cmanage payments.\u201d Click the three dots to the right of your subscription and choose \u201cmanage shared accounts.\u201d For each invite, enter their email, first name, and last name and tap the gray check mark to confirm. Click \u201csave\u201d and you should see a success message at the top of the screen and an invitation will be sent to the people you have selected.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve written before, the power of local reporting is more important than ever. We\u2019ve been doing that for 175 years, and you can help us continue that mission by sharing our stories and encouraging friends and family to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When our journalists first heard a federal officer may have shot someone in Southeast Portland last Thursday, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-401255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}