A Message to Central Oregon from KTVZ News Director Gregory Deffenbaugh
Central Oregon is grieving the heartbreaking loss of innocent lives at Silver Rail Elementary School. We know many in our community are struggling to process this tragedy. Our thoughts are with the students, families, school staff and everyone affected.
As we cover this painful and developing story, I want to address concerns that have been brought to station management.
On Thursday, the extraordinary volume of traffic to KTVZ’s website and streaming service contributed to technical problems that made our digital platforms unavailable. This happened at a particularly difficult time, when people were turning to us for information. We’re sorry we weren’t accessible when you needed us.
The traffic surge was driven in part by national networks - including CNN, FOX and NBC - sharing KTVZ’s reporting with their audiences. Links to our coverage were also widely shared on social media. There was no malicious action or intent to limit access; sometimes technology fails under heavy demand. It is deeply unfortunate that it happened when it did.
At the same time, we were also alerted commercials were playing and repeating on our streaming platforms, and we immediately notified our vendor. We did not intend for commercials to air during our coverage. Our intention was to bring you live coverage of a developing story in our community, and the commercials appeared amid the technical issues affecting our streaming service. This is not an excuse; it is important to be transparent about what we knew and when we knew it.
As soon as I learned of both incidents, I alerted our corporate leadership and directed our team to share stories through Facebook while we worked to restore our website and stream. I also contacted the news director at KGW in Portland, explained the issue and said that if it persisted, we would direct people to KGW’s website for information. He offered his support. We received strong assistance in getting KTVZ’s digital platforms back online.
We’ve also heard questions about why some information reported by other local, national and international outlets has not appeared in our coverage. We value our network partnerships, but we make our own editorial decisions. For example, today - information shared with our station was described as vetted, but KTVZ learned through our sources, the information was wrong. Therefore, we chose not to publish it. In a case this serious, we believe it is essential to verify information with our local agencies and community partners before reporting it.
Accuracy matters more than speed. Our commitment to being “First. Local. Live.” is a commitment to serving this community - not to beating other media outlets.
Thank you for your patience and for holding us accountable. My team and I value the trust you place in us. We will continue working to provide Central Oregon with timely, accurate information and to report with care for everyone affected.
Gregory Deffenbaugh
News Director, KTVZ-TV
