UPDATE: As of March 22, after finding a replacement closed captioning provider, KVUE has severed ties with closed captioning provider VITAC due to the terrible mistake in our breaking news coverage Tuesday evening. Many of our viewers have asked why this wasn’t an immediate decision, and we want you to know that we’ve been working as fast as possible to secure a replacement to this service while adhering to FCC guidelines. We’d like to thank our viewers for sharing feedback on how important this decision is to our community.
AUSTIN -- During our breaking news coverage of the Austin bombings, the closed captioning text included a typographical error in which the words “this monkey” appeared in a sentence about 17-year-old bombing victim Draylen Mason.
We want to be clear that this typographical error was NOT made by any employee of KVUE. We contract with VITAC -- an outside company -- to live caption our newscasts. We are taking this mistake very seriously and we are heartsick about this terrible error.
We apologize to Draylen’s family and to our community.
We have demanded an explanation and an apology to Draylen’s family, and VITAC is complying.
See VITAC's written response here:
Vitac Response by kvuenews on Scribd
If you’d like to express your opinion directly to VITAC, the number is 800-775-7838 or you can email concerns@vitac.com.
