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Newtown, A Reporter Looks Back

My instincts had failed me.

That happens.  It's why we have newsrooms and colleagues and editors and bosses.

But on Dec. 14, when we first heard the reports of a school shooting in Newtown, my first response wasn't to get in my car and go.  

Dankosky looked at me like I was a fool (I can be) and I left.  Nearly an hour later, I stashed my car in a church parking lot.  It quickly became clear that nothing about Newtown that day was normal.  

Eventually, all reporters we were stashed to the side of a public park where we waited, en masse, for press briefings.  We couldn't report as lone operators like we normally would. But the details took forever.  And I spent most of the day on the radio telling people that I didn't know anything.

By the time the night was over, I, like everyone else, knew far more than I wanted to.  And I'll long remember these two minutes of radio when I closed out the night -- again, on the phone with Dankosky.

2013_06_14_File_JC_130614_Newtownweb2.wav_.mp3
Talking again with Dankosky.

As I think back on it, we know a lot more now about Dec. 14.  I'm not sure we understand anymore.  Not sure we ever will. 

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