Last weekend, Saturday afternoon around 3:30 PM, I got a notification online that the front page of The Sunday Oregonian was up for a quick review.

Normally our Sunday front page features our best local business journalism, not live events beyond a short sports article. The design work is usually done in the afternoon, leaving only the late scores as a final addition later in the evening.

When I logged on to my computer, I saw a tweet from NBC News saying that former President Donald Trump had been removed from the stage after loud noises were made at a campaign rally.

I turned on CNN and saw the now famous video for the first time. “You see what’s going on with Trump?” I asked the front page editors.

Like everyone else enthralled by the video replays, I tried to piece together what exactly had happened. The first time I watched it, I didn’t hear the “loud noises” that turned out to be the shooter and the Secret Service response, but I could hear what people were saying as they prepared to remove Trump from the stage.

You may have heard that “journalism is the first draft of history,” but with the speed at which news travels via social media and online, no journalist wants to rush reporting, especially in times of chaos. It’s better to err on the side of caution than to have disinformation spread around the world in seconds.

That’s why early headlines simply said that Trump was “rushed off the stage” after “loud noises.” Clearly, something out of the ordinary had happened, but that was all the reporters on the scene and watching live could verify with their own eyes at the time.

CNN anchors were generally very cautious, in my opinion. For example, no one knew what caused the injury. Anchors initially said they didn’t know if the blood was from Secret Service agents filling him up or something else.

Compounding the challenge, sources with direct knowledge of what had happened were busy transporting the former president to a medical facility, securing the crime scene and, as it turned out, rescuing other victims.

But it soon became clear that we would have to tear up the plans for the front page.

“It really is a very, very scary moment in American history,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said.

The initial Associated Press story posted on OregonLive, reporting him being removed from the stage, was quickly updated when his campaign announced the news that Trump was “fine” and “safe.”

At 4:20 p.m., we ran a separate article in which the former president released a more extensive statement thanking law enforcement.

Six minutes later, we ran a short story with the headline “Trump rallygoer says it looked like someone in crowd was shot.” ​​I hesitated before hitting the publish button. Authorities had not yet confirmed that Trump or anyone else had been shot, but the source was named, credible, and able to see what had happened.

It turned out, unfortunately, that one man in the crowd died while trying to shield his family from the gunfire. Two others were wounded.

For reporters on the scene, one of the challenges is not only finding witnesses willing to tell what they saw, but also trying to determine how reliable they are before they go on the radio to announce the information.

The Associated Press and Getty Images, our two primary photo agencies, were quick to provide dramatic photos that made front pages around the world. We created a separate story on OregonLive to highlight them.

At 4:47 p.m., The Associated Press first characterized the attack as an attempted murder, citing confidential sources: “Law enforcement officials say the shooting at Trump’s rally is being investigated as an attempted assassination of the ex-president.”

Editors updated the main story about the shooting on OregonLive with that information, and at 4:52 p.m. we posted a detailed account of the events on stage.

At 5:04 p.m., we published President Joe Biden’s response to the shooting, later updated with his televised address.

Forty-five minutes later, we published an AP account of how the Secret Service counterassault team killed the shooter. Then, at 6:14 p.m., we published the text of Trump’s statement on the Truth Social platform, in which he described how the bullet tore through the tip of his ear.

Online journalism makes these instant updates possible. For print, editors must choose one version of the main story for A1, which was accompanied by the now-classic photo of Trump raising his fist on stage.

Some critics complained that the media in early online posts referred to the assassination attempt as an “incident” or an “apparent” assassination attempt. The Washington Post later said that the “criticism reflects a clash between the lasting impact of the cursory, first-draft reporting and the impatience of some readers, who assumed that journalists had missed or deliberately misreported a story that had developed since it was published.”

To me, taking such care prevents misinformation, hoaxes or conspiracy theories from spreading before the facts are verified. As more is known, more information is shared.

As The Associated Press said: “What unfolded was a textbook example of the ultimate test for journalists as a major story unfolds: trying to get reliable information as quickly as possible while being careful not to speculate, get overheated or spread unfounded rumors.”