Jan Crawford

Jan Crawford, formerly known as Jan Crawford Greenburg, is a television journalist, author, and lawyer. She currently serves as both the political correspondent and chief legal correspondent for CBS News and appears regularly on the CBS Evening News, Face the Nation, CBS This Morning, and CBS News Sunday Morning. She will lead CBS News's coverage of the 2012 Presidential Elections. She is a New York Times bestselling author of Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court and also a member of the New York Bar.

Crawford grew up on a farm in rural Alabama, graduating from Brewer High School, then graduated from the University of Alabama in 1987 and from the University of Chicago Law School in 1993. She was married to Douglas N. Greenburg, a partner at Latham & Watkins, with whom she has four children (Carolyn, Louisa, Jack and Page), and lives in Washington D.C. According to Crawford, the two separated in 2009.

She joined the Chicago Tribune as a reporter in 1987. After graduating from law school, she began covering legal affairs for the Tribune, which put her on the Supreme Court beat in 1994. In 1996, she won the Tribune's top reporting award for her work in a 13-part series on the South a generation after the civil rights movement. In 2001, her work was honored with the Tribune's top reporting award. In his first television interview, Chief Justice Roberts talked to Crawford about the court, his views on the law, and his life since taking office. Justice John Paul Stevens also chose Crawford for his first network television interview, reflecting on his memories of the man who appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1975, former President Gerald R. Ford, on the occasion of Ford's funeral.

From 1998 until 2007, Crawford provided legal analysis on the Supreme Court for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She helped to provide live, gavel-to-gavel coverage on PBS of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito., and served as the Supreme Court analyst for Face the Nation on CBS. From 2007 to 2009, she had been senior legal correspondent for ABC and wrote a blog entitled "Legalities." In 2010, she began work for CBS, with a blog called "Crossroads."

Crawford has taught journalism at American University and frequently speaks about the court to universities, law schools, legal organizations and civic groups across the country.

Supreme Conflict

Her book on the modern Supreme Court and its justices, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court, was published in 2007. It became a New York Times bestseller. The Wall Street Journal called the book a "tour de force" and "by far the most fair-minded portrait of the Supreme Court in a long time."^{[citation needed]} The Los Angeles Times said it was the "richest and most impressive journalistic look at the (Court) since Woodward co-wrote The Brethren in 1979."^{[citation needed]} The New York Times called it "fascinating,"^{[citation needed]} and the New Republic said it was a "genuinely spectacular feat of reporting."^{[citation needed]}

Controversies

Crawford failed to accurately report a Suffolk University Poll in which Congressman Ron Paul received 17% of the votes for the New Hampshire Presidential Primary (placing him in second place) during a 'CBS News' episode that aired on January 5, 2012. She instead omitted Paul from the poll results, which prompted allegations of bias and misrepresentation. CBS and Crawford gave no response.

External links

• NewsHour transcript: Greenburg interview
• Library of Congress Book Festival streaming video: Greenburg talks about her Supreme Court book
• Video of discussion with Jan Crawford Greenburg and Dahlia Lithwick on Bloggingheads.tv