by Madison Rutherford | Photography by Carrie Evans
Arizona’s Family investigative reporter Susan Campbell says the secret to telling consumers’ stories is simple: genuinely care about them. “You have to be empathetic in this job, because if you aren’t, then what’s the point?” The 40-year-old mother of three worked as a small-market general assignment reporter before finding her niche in consumer advocacy at a CBS affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2020, she and her journalist husband relocated to the Valley, where she worked alongside longtime reporter Gary Harper exposing phone scammers and rooting out grocery deals on 3TV/CBS5’s weekly On Your Side segment. With Harper’s retirement in November, Campbell slides into the main reporting role undaunted. “I felt called to consumer reporting because I like solving problems, and there are tangible problems every single day to solve,” she says.
How do consumer issues in Rhode Island compare to those you cover in Arizona?
People are so similar. No matter where you live in the country, people are worried about providing for their families. Some of the issues we reported on in Rhode Island had to do with problems with people accessing SNAP benefits for food. Those issues are happening today in Arizona… People struggle with bad car deals, problems with HOAs. We all want to provide for our families and try to figure out the best ways to do it.
Does seeing people struggle get to you? How do you cope?
There are people I’ve spoken to who’ve had catastrophic things happen to their family because of a safety problem, and those ones stick with me forever. We’ve done stories on furniture tip-overs that have seriously injured or killed children. I have younger children. The first thing we did when we found out we were having our first baby was anchor every single thing to the wall. That’s how those things stick with me… Families who share their stories want to make sure nobody else goes through what they went through.
How do you handle pushback from companies?
When I’m dealing with a company… we are finding facts, we are searching for answers, and my goal is to bring answers to light. Sometimes I don’t get the answers I want, and people who are opening their homes to me and sharing their stories aren’t getting the answers they want… We’ve recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars for people and we’ve solved problems, but there are also problems that go unsolved. I try to remember that if I’m helping one person, it matters to that person. It matters to that family. Those small wins count for a lot.
What do you do for fun?
I love golf… I just think it’s such a fun, amazing sport… Every year, amidst all the crazy problem-solving, I’ve come up with consumer stories for every morning of the Phoenix Open, so I get to go out and do some fun, consumer-related stuff. This year, one of the stories we had was about different brands of golf balls – is there a budget brand that performs as well as some of those really high-end ones? Think about all the golfers who would love to save a couple bucks.
What’s something you’re particularly proud of?
One of the coolest reports I’ve done was with a mom in Scottsdale who said, “I got a phone call from somebody who claimed they had kidnapped my daughter, and it was AI.” We interviewed her, we brought her story to light, and a U.S. senator saw the story and scheduled a hearing with her on Capitol Hill, so we flew to D.C. and watched her testify… On the less serious side, I love talking about strategies to save money. I’m a money-saving mom. When I’m talking about these things on TV, these are things I’m doing with my family, too.
