This column is a part of a series of alums reflecting on their time at The Eagle in celebration of our 100th anniversary. If you would like to submit a column, visit this page. The Eagle is also fundraising to support its future. If you’d like to give a donation to support The Eagle, please consider doing so here.
I owe my career to The Eagle. Or perhaps, more accurately, I owe my career to the people I worked with at The Eagle.
As an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California, I wrote a few stories for the student newspaper. But I was never a staff member or saw myself as a journalist. I was headed to law school.
After only a few weeks as a law student at American University in 1988, I needed a break from my studies. I walked into The Eagle office and offered to report on whatever they would assign to me.
They must have been needy, because I got assignments right away.
At that time, I wasn’t much of a reporter, let alone a writer. My stories were clunky. My English was riddled with errors. In fact, the only strength I brought to The Eagle was my willingness and desire to learn. I quickly learned that I could learn a lot from the undergraduates running the paper, especially if I watched them edit my stories.
I learned so much from Chris Kain, Daniel Ginsburg and later Jodi Cleesattle. I was amazed at how they could refine and streamline my wording, improving the readability by deleting unnecessary words.
I was also inspired by Jeff Erlich, Liz Tucci and others to be a more aggressive reporter — to get more sources, better sources. To double-check my facts. To strive for objectivity and fairness in my reporting. To hold those in authority accountable.
Our editorial board debates, led by Jaret Seiberg and others, became the highlight of my week. Students debating issues of importance. It was intellectual curiosity at its best.
Soon, my social life revolved around The Eagle’s deadlines and the people who spent untold hours in that office. Law school became secondary to reporting for The Eagle.
Along the way, I learned from Linda Way how to manage a staff, and from Greg Springs how to bring a vision to reality. I marveled at how Jim Brady could craft an entertaining column, and at just how much better the journalism was at The Eagle compared to the television station.
Overall, it was an amazing group of future leaders, and I was their pupil — soaking up as much as I could with the time that I had. I never did take a class in journalism or had a story reviewed by a professor. I only learned about journalistic ethics and how to engage a reader by doing.
Everything I learned was from students — Eagle staff members who befriended me, even though I was the odd law student. They inspired me and gave me the confidence I needed to take over a law school magazine in my last year at American.
When I graduated, I turned that student magazine into a business — again, with the help of former Eagle staff members, including Todd Dickinson, Kain and Cleesattle, who co-founded the publication.
I have published The National Jurist magazine for law students since then — 34 years and counting. I now also publish other magazines, websites and host conferences.
Somewhere along the way, I started calling myself editor-in-chief. That did not happen right away. When I launched my company, I was just a salesperson and reporter. But there came a time when I realized that, despite my lack of formal training, I was, indeed, an editor.
And I had been taught by the best.
While some of my former Eagle staff members are still in journalism in some shape or form, at least four chose a legal career. And while I would like to think that I had a small role in inspiring them to follow that path, I know they had a much bigger impact on my career.
I still love to follow the story, interview the famous as well as the unknown, hold those in authority accountable for their actions and write. I owe a debt of gratitude to The Eagle and the students who labored so intently over its pages from 1988 to 1991.
Jack Crittenden is CEO and Editor In Chief of Crittenden Research, publishers of The National Jurist, preLaw magazine, Golf Inc. magazine and the Crittenden Report, among other titles. He graduated from American University’s Washington College of Law with his J.D. in 1991, but never practiced law. He has won regional and national awards for his reporting, column writing and editing. He lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho with his wife, and has five children.
