Eleanor Watson ’13 shares stories of covering campaigns and the Pentagon for CBS

Journalist Eleanor Watson ’13 kicked off the 2024–25 Circle Talk series on October 22, sharing her experience with CBS News covering the 2020 election and as multi-platform reporter and producer on the network’s national security team.

“I’m really not that old,” she said, “but I do feel like I’ve been in a newsroom for moments that will go down in history textbooks for years to come.” 

A native of Wichita Falls, TX, Ms. Watson practically grew up in a newsroom. Her mother was editor of the hometown paper, instilling in her a love for journalism early in her life. After her coursework at Groton created a curiosity about the world, she majored in international affairs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (with minors in French and journalism), where the convenience of so many national news outlets nearby made scratching her journalism itch easy.

“I had no real interest in television at first,” she said, “but a lot of the D.C. bureaus are right next to where I went to school. I fell in love with it pretty quickly as an intern.”

She started at CBS right after graduation in 2017 and soon got the chance to cover the upcoming 2020 elections. 

“There was a push to hire a campaign team, at least at CBS, earlier than in past cycles,” Ms. Watson explained. “Once our team officially started our jobs in 2019, we went through a bootcamp to learn from veterans of the news business about covering elections. They told us things like, ‘You won’t sleep and, when you do get some sleep, you’re going to wake up not knowing where you are.’”

As an associate producer, Ms. Watson found herself on a team essentially devoted to 24/7 coverage of the campaign. Hers was a hodgepodge of beats that took her all over the country, covering everything from Senate races to the national conventions to her fair share of Trump rallies. In the course of a day, she’d write for the CBS website, shoot video for broadcast, coordinate interviews, and do research for on-air talent, among many other things.

“People would often ask what a typical day was like,” she said, “and quite honestly, it was pretty different every single day.” 

The best part for Ms. Watson, however, was the chance to see the country and talk to voters about their lives and how the election will affect them. 

“That’s one of the most exciting parts about covering elections because it really is an education in itself,” she said, “learning about the people in the country that we live in, and the passion for that stems in part from my education here at Groton.

“I’d be making a huge mistake if I didn't give this school a shout out for fostering an appreciation for the bigger picture and for different perspectives,” Ms. Watson added. “I came here in Second Form from a small city that people have rarely heard of in Texas. I had such a great childhood there and love going back to visit, but the experience at school in Wichita Falls is not the same as the experience here. And so when I came to Groton, I was exposed to so much of not only the country, but also the world, just by being here and getting to know people here.” 

It also gave her a first peek into national politics during the 2012 campaign, when former development staffer Julia Alling took a group of students to New Hampshire to see Republican candidates make the rounds before the primary.

“I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see it all firsthand,” she said. “My friend Dominique [Danco ’13] and I were determined to see as many candidates as we could. In 2012, we got selfies with Ron Paul and with [Mitt] Romney, and even were mistaken for Jon Huntsman’s daughters at a house fundraiser we attended.”

Soon after the 2020 election, Ms. Watson had the chance to join CBS’s Pentagon team, and she jumped. 

“I joined a veteran team of journalists, a correspondent and a producer who have worked together for decades. I became their helping hand—whatever they needed, I was game,” she explained. “I appreciate going into work every day because defense issues can be for all the marbles. Very rarely am I focused on something that shouldn’t have even more scrutiny or coverage.”

It’s also given her the opportunity to travel, covering the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visits to Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, France, England, and Cambodia, with more travel expected before year’s end.

“There’s work to do, of course, covering the current conflicts, including in the Middle East and in Ukraine,” Ms. Watson said. “But part of why I like broadcast journalism so much is because we get to do longer-form pieces, spotlighting stories that could have been forgotten or that were never really told in the first place.” 

A true modern multimedia journalist, Ms. Watson projected photos of her in the field—covering both the Pentagon and the 2020 election—and stills from work she’s done, as well as video of a piece of hers exploring desegregation in the U.S. military that ran in 2023 on CBS Sunday Morning, on the screen behind her as she spoke.

After a question-and-answer session with students, Ms. Watson was asked about where she'd like to see her already-bright career go.

“I want to stay in national security,” she replied. “If that grows to Pentagon, State, intelligence agencies, then it grows. And then if it stays at the Pentagon, there’s a path to on-air too. People have asked if you want to be on air first, and I said, no, it’s Pentagon first over everything. If on-air is not an option at the Pentagon, then I don’t want it. But if I stay at the Pentagon and there’s a place for growth there, I’m going to take it.”