This morning’s email brought a handful of messages from viewers who found it troubling that we would choose to show the footage from the dashboard camera inside a Milford PD cruiser, which documented the horrible crash from this past June that claimed two teenager’s lives.

“What were you thinking???”, one viewer demanded to know.

Still image from police dashboard camera video prior to fatal crash in Orange.

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Kristen Cusato will be returning to the News Channel 8 airwaves this weekend, at least on a fill-in basis.

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Working in an era of news where print text no longer cuts it and people can't make an appointment to always watch the broadcast at a certain time of day, we as journalists depend heavily on new "breaking news" alerts sent through venues such as Facebook and Twitter.

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In the days that followed the first report on the disappearance of Yale graduate student Annie Le, there was no end of speculation, innuendo and pure rumors about what had happened to her, from the tabloid "runaway bride" to the horrific crime of murder.

We've asked many questions of the many people surrounding this case, and heard many of the 'facts' and 'this-person-did-it' whispers from all kinds of 'sources' on the street. By Tuesday afternoon the name of one person was beginning to be mentioned more than any other.

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On this Friday night, the news is that Walter Cronkite has passed away at age 92.

There will be countless tributes in the hours and days to come, both to the man and his remarkable career as the anchorman of "The CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981. Charles Gibson, the current anchor of ABC's "World News" on our station, may have said it best tonight with these words to The New York Times: "He, as much as anyone, is responsible for developing network television news."

Gibson, along with Katie Couric who now anchors CBS's "Evening News" and Brian Williams who anchors NBC's "Nightly News", all owe something to the man who was once billed as "the most trusted man in America." Williams may have spoken for an entire generation of broadcast journalists, when he said, "Walter Cronkite was the man I grew up wanting to be."

Anyone working in television news, at least those of us of a certain age who grew up in the 60's and 70's, were likely inspired to join the profession in no small part, by watching Walter Cronkite's nightly national newscast. In many households, everything came to a halt each night, as soon as he said "Good Evening." He was the voice who informed the nation in both the best and the worst of times.

Charles Gibson also said that Walter Cronkite would always be "the gold standard." There simply can be no argument on that point.

On a personal note, I was working in the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, on the evening of Walter Cronkite's last night as anchorman of the CBS Evening News. I was watching a television monitor in offices in the same building, but at the same time nowhere near the studio where Cronkite sat and faced the cameras, saying for the final time, "and that's the way it is."

A colleague turned to me and said "and that's the end of an era."

It was true that March night in 1981, and it is again on this evening in July, 2009.

As in most businesses, over time the people you work with change. The television news business is the same, though at News Channel 8 we're pretty fortunate in that many of the people who work here, tend to be with us for some time.

But "life happens" as the saying goes, and opportunities arrive sometimes when you least expect them. That is the case for Team 8 Investigator Alan Cohn, who is leaving our newsroom today to continue his award-winning career as an investigative journalist for the ABC affiliate in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida.

In the eight years Alan has been with News Channel 8, he has broken a countless number of truly significant stories, including a series of reports into quality control questions at Sikorsky Aircraft in their production of the military's Black Hawk helicopters. Those reports earned Alan and our newsroom a 2007 George F. Peabody Award, recognized as one of the highest honors in television.

I speak on behalf of all Alan's colleagues here, when I say that we have the proverbial mixed emotions for him. On the one hand we are sorry to lose his abilities and contributions to our newscasts, and on the other we are happy for him to have a chance to move closer to parts of his family and to continue reporting the kind of stories that might not otherwise see the light of day.

Aside from being an excellent journalist, Alan is also a great colleague and friend, and we will miss his presence in our newsroom. We hope you'll join us in wishing Alan, his wife and children the very best as they start a new chapter in their lives.

Tuesday’s kidnapping and hostage standoff in South Windsor, led to an ethical dilemma inside our newsroom through the afternoon. How do we handle covering a story--where the police have specifically asked us not to broadcast the same story?

News Channel 8 reporter Bob Wilson interviews South Windsor police officer during hostage standoff, July 7, 2009.

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As my colleague Jeff Bailey noted in an earlier post here, we were expecting some people to exercise their constitutional rights tonight and protest airing of the ABC News special "Prescription for America" that was broadcast from 10 to 11pm (and continued on a special edition of Nightline at 11:35pm) on News Channel 8. (We were expecting them because they emailed us to announce their event.)

In fact, about two dozen people did show up outside our Elm street studios in New Haven tonight holding signs, chanting slogans and being cheered on by the occasional honking of passing cars.

I went out and spoke to the people gathered at about 9pm, first to tell them that we would be shooting some video of them exercising their free speech for our late newscast and then to ask why they were protesting a program that hadn't been broadcast yet?

Their answers were similar in tone, a few people quoted the "talking point" that they had read or heard that there wouldn't be anyone in the ABC audience that wasn't hand picked by ABC, and there would be no opposition voices to President Obama. There were others who told me that they just oppose any kind of government run health care plan--even though they admit there hasn't been a plan actually drafted yet, so far there are just conversations about what each side thinks should or should not be in a final plan. A couple of people expressed their opinions about the legitimacy of Mr. Obama being the President, reciting the theories held by some that he hasn't been "proven" to be a US Citizen.

Let me say that every opinion didn't appear to be shared by everyone present, and even though I asked some sincere questions about what these people saw as media bias that they hadn't even really seen yet, the conversation was lively--but never degraded to the kind of name calling and insulting of obviously sincerely held opinions-- that so often seems to be the mainstay of talk radio programs these days.

I asked everyone to try to take the time to actually watch the ABC News special and decide after doing so, whether or not their expectations had been realized.

Though I suspect many will see my take as somehow "towing the company line", I watched a good portion of the broadcast tonight, and I was struck by how much ABC anchors Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer worked at bringing up the objections and concerns about the President's ideas on how best to tackle the issue of providing health care for all Americans. Certainly not every question was answered, or every concern resolved, but I would say that I was satisfied by how ABC worked to present a balanced program, that was by no means a one sided "infomercial" only supporting the President's agenda. At least in my opinion.

So did you watch? What was your take? Whether or not you agree with the President or his opponents on the issue--did ABC News present a balanced program about an issue that impacts every one of us? We'd like to hear your opinions.