by Emily McTavish
CBS Correspondent Sees Loss of Citizenry in Digital Age
Jan Crawford still considers herself a print reporter even though she’s been on television for more than 20 years. In the mornings, the CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent said she reads the print editions of the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post before checking other media outlets online.
Although she has a presence online, Crawford’s concerns for the future of journalism are the digital landscape and social media.
“I think [social media] corroded the level of discourse and made viewers and readers, as a result, more accustomed to getting sound bites, which I also think is dangerous,” Crawford said.
To Crawford, today’s issues with online platforms and aggregators mirror what happened when newspapers started putting content online. A level of news judgement by professionals is lost among the vast array of content and clickbait.
“Whether you’re reading the Chicago Tribune or you’re on Channel 7, you can click on whatever you want to click on,” Crawford said. “You’re not really as informed, I think, as people might have once been.”
She added she often wants to end a piece on the Supreme Court, her primary beat, by telling viewers to read more in a newspaper or find more information. By the nature of television, there is little time for Crawford to dive into the details.
However, social media does have a place in journalism, Crawford said, but a level of skepticism is necessary when following tweets or posts. Like any other reporting, she said, there needs to be verification before sharing information. Her advice would be to use Twitter as a guide to hear from people in real time at breaking news events.
In Washington D.C., where Crawford has lived for the past 25 years, there is a frenzy to track posts and a specific profile. She said the media hasfollowed and overplayed President Donald Trump’s tweets and sound bites–a pitfall Crawford hasn’t seen journalists address since the 2016 election. Reporting on the president, she said, has been “grossly deficient.”
“As reporters, we have an obligation to not allow how someone may be using the media to change what our essential mission is as reporters,” Crawford said.
That mission, according to Crawford, is to gather information and present it to the public in the most truthful way. Being disciplined and factual are key to accomplishing this, but it’s not just in political reporting but everywhere, she said.
Crawford started at the Chicago Tribune in 1987 covering legal affairs, and in 1993, she added to her legal expertise by graduating from the University of Chicago Law School. To this day, she is still a member of the New York Bar.
At the Tribune, Crawford gained the paper’s highest recognition for a 13-part series she reported from Alabama. She traveled across her home state examining what changed and what didn’t in the 30 years since the Civil Rights movement.
In a story filed from Greenberg, Alabama, Crawford found a rural African American community where three churches had been set ablaze. She wrote: “in the heart of this rural area, the pleasant facade of racial harmony abruptly gives way to fresh memories of charred timbers and acrid ruins.”
Crawford said she also believes in the journalistic tenet of fairness, like seeking out the many facets of Alabama’s racial divide.
Fairness to each political party is also what Crawford credits for her success in landing exclusive interviews–most recently with U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
During her career, Crawford has had exclusives with Chief Justice John Roberts, his first network television interview, and retired Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O’Connor. But, her interviews don’t stop in Washington.
“If only I covered the court for the network, it wouldn’t be a full-time job,” Crawford said. “…There’s nothing I like more than a story about somebody staying true to themselves and persevering. I love those types of stories.”
Crawford’s reporting is centered around people and issues. It doesn’t matter if the story is about Washington elites or more recently, about a 98-year-old World War II veteran on the anniversary of D-Day, she does not insert herself into the story. Advice she would give to new journalists and a reminder to those already in the business.
“I would encourage and beg any reporter that’s just starting out to not make the story about yourself,” Crawford said. “You just have to keep to what the facts are and be a reporter, be a journalist. It’s not about you.”
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