"The most important part of our jobs is to be accurate"
Philip Crowther is the International Affiliate Reporter for the Global Media Services department at the Associated Press. He reports live for the AP’s broadcast affiliates from the biggest news events around the world. He reports fluently for national and international TV and radio stations in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Luxembourgish. He is based in Washington where he covers the White House and has traveled to breaking news events in the Americas but also further afield. He recently returned from the UN climate conference in Glasgow and before that the Tokyo Olympics, and Pakistan during the mass evacuation in Afghanistan. Philip Crowther is the recipient of the Annual Prize of Professional Excellence of the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in 2021.
Philip Crowther
As a foreign correspondent, how did your journey begin in the US?
I was a reporter and anchor with the international news channel France 24 in Paris when the Washington position became available. I jumped at the chance of covering U.S. politics and breaking news and came to the United States in June 2011. I arrived in time to cover the re-election campaign of President Obama, and the failed campaign for the presidency of now-Senator Mitt Romney. Since then, it’s been a rollercoaster ride, as most fellow foreign correspondents based in the United States will undoubtedly attest to.
In your capacity as a foreign journalist based in the United States, what is the most important part of your job?
In my case, it is to stay abreast of news in the United States even while traveling abroad. I am increasingly called to cover breaking news events around the world, but my home base is still Washington.
And after more than ten years in Washington, the risk of taking the news consumer’s knowledge for granted becomes more of a risk. In other words, keep things simple, and don’t forget that your role is to explain and simplify sometimes complex stories to foreign audiences.
What effect did your experience as a foreign correspondent in the US have on your perspective of America?
Traveling around the U.S., seeing its diversity, and meeting its people provides constant reminders of the complexity of this country. But over the last few years, most encounters have also re-affirmed the divisions that appear to be getting deeper by the day.
Donald Trump and his policies opened our eyes to a current in U.S. politics and society that very few of us were fully aware of. Our collective perspective has changed. There’s been a true wake-up call for the United States, and for us.
What lessons have you learned over the years of working as a foreign correspondent?
Back to Trump: never presume you know and understand this country. The biggest lesson all of us learned as foreign correspondents came on the morning of November 9th, 2016. We thought we knew who would win, and most of us were completely wrong. We underestimated the Trump phenomenon and misunderstood a large part of the country. The Trump presidency brought another big lesson: get some rest whenever you can because the next breaking news event is just one short tweet away.
Which is the most important part of your work as a US-based foreign journalist?
As foreign correspondents I’ve always thought one of our main roles is to tell the small story that explains the bigger picture. Find the individuals whose views or actions encapsulate a greater tendency, instead of falling into the trap of reporting on extremes.
But in an era in which many of us are accused of lying and creating “fake news,” the most important part of our jobs, by far, is to be accurate. One single mistake can be seen by millions on social media. We must check and re-check our facts and quotes more meticulously than ever before.
How do you define success in your work as a foreign correspondent?
Success is giving the reader, listener, or viewer the tools to understand the country from which you are reporting. But there’s much more: our responsibility is to make our patch interesting, entertaining, and intriguing as well.
Can you recall a story you did well and one you did not? What did you learn from this experience?
I remember interviewing a Republican Party chairwoman in one of the Pennsylvania counties that so surprisingly voted for Trump in 2016. She foresaw his victory through a very non-scientific means: counting the amount of people who stopped by the local GOP headquarters to pick up their Trump/Pence yard signs. Many had traveled a long way just to get their hands on a piece of cardboard that would show their neighbors for whom they would be voting. And many of these individuals, just a few days earlier, would not have been willing to admit that they would be voting for Trump.
So, I found out about these so-called secret Trump voters before his election win shocked the world. I used the chairwoman’s soundbites, but I did not think they presaged anything. She was right, and I was wrong in not taking her prediction more seriously.
If aspiring foreign correspondents from around the world wish to work in the United States, what advice would you give them?
The first piece of advice is a purely logistical one. You are likely to need a news organization that trusts you enough to help you get your visa to live and work in the United States.
Next: always do the groundwork before arriving in the U.S.
Come here with a lengthy list of potential clients for your work, especially if you are a freelancer. Meet as many editors and producers in your home country as possible, make an impression in person, and then confirm that impression with your work on the ground.
What message would you like to share with the rest of the foreign correspondent community in America?
Just that we are lucky to be doing this job, we should never take it for granted, and we should be aware at all times of the huge responsibility we have of telling a story accurately. Don’t copy others, don’t just read the wire articles, get your own sources, and break stories.
