To clarify, not confuse, is a journalist’s duty

On April 22 CBS and NBC featured Lisa Christensen, an alternate juror in the Derek Chauvin trial. She was the first juror to speak out about the experience. Their reports were based on basically the same information. The results were different — sometimes in important ways.

CBS’s Jamie Yuccas and NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez interviewed Christensen on a couch in what appeared to be her living room. Both included a video of the prosecution’s medical expert testifying. Both reported that his testimony solidified Christensen’s opinion that Chauvin was guilty. Gutierrez noted Christensen being deeply moved by the young witnesses testifying to the horror of watching the crime.

Both showed video of the Brooklyn Center protests over the Daunte Wright police shooting. Viewers could associate Christensen’s words with video of the real-time situation. She told both how aware she was of the protests.

To Gutierrez: “I could hear all the press helicopters. Also, I could hear the flash bangs going on.”

To Yuccas: “I was very aware of it because I live in Brooklyn Center, 6 ½ blocks away from the police department. Every night … we had helicopters flying over my house until 1 to 2 in the morning so I could hear that.”

Were the jurors influenced by outside events like the Wright killing? Yuccas asked: “How aware were you and other jurors about Duante Wright being killed?”

Christensen answered only for herself. Yuccas said, “Christensen says she took the judge’s instructions to not watch the news seriously, but some headlines were unavoidable.” Yuccas did not follow up by asking about other jurors. Christensen’s answer leaves unresolved whether the jury was compromised in some way and consequently, whether Derek Chauvin had received a fair trial.

Gutierrez, however, reported that the jurors had followed the judge’s instructions. His report ends on a much clearer note: “Christensen says she always knew it was a high-profile case but didn’t realize the full magnitude of it until she was able to go home and turn on the TV.” Gutierrez could have been more precise, that Christensen had waited until it was permissible to go home and watch the television news.

The discrepancies in coverage, despite the similarities, left a fog over Christensen and even the guilty verdict.