Photo by Hannah Plishtin
On Friday, December 2, Connecticut College wrapped up its centennial speaker series “Great Beginnings: Conversations with Alumni” with a discussion with Alice Maggin ’91. Maggin spoke to an audience gathered in Evans Hall at 8 PM, preceded by a dinner in Bluestein with Bridget McShane, Director of Alumni Relations, and a handful of students.
While a student, Maggin designed her own major, titled Power and Impression Studies, which incorporated her interests in history, government, philosophy and religion. She also minored in studio art, threw in track and field and served as editor of The College Voice.
Maggin is currently producer for ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer, where she chooses, covers, films, edits and produces nightly news stories. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, Wayne Nelson, producer of Dan Rather Reports, and their seven-year-old daughter.
During the dinner, Maggin spoke about her experience at Conn, her family life and told stories from her career.
Maggin discussed having to follow an unmanned aircraft by plane in order to cover its crash, which occurred in South Dakota. She also mentioned dropping her daughter off at school with Jon Stewart’s son, in response to a question about how she felt about The Daily Show.
Shortly after eight, the formal discussion began in Evans to a small but engrossed audience, centered around an interview with Maggin conducted by Gracie Pearlman ’14.
The interview began with Pearlman asking Maggin why she chose to come to Connecticut College. “I wanted a small liberal arts school,” Maggin explained, and the school’s proximity to her hometown of New York made Conn appealing. Originally, she had expected to transfer to another school, but that notion was driven away “within about six minutes of being here,” she said.
Maggin credited her Conn education with teaching her “to express myself and ask a lot of questions, skills that drove me towards journalism.”
As Conn does not offer any courses in journalism, Maggin said it was her time at The Voice both provided her with experience and sparked her interest in the field.
Originally she had expected to move to Washington, D.C., and work in politics after graduating, but once she began working in news broadcasting, she never looked back.
“Television journalism can be a drug,” Maggin said. “There’s amazing adrenaline and a sense of satisfaction.”
Later, she spoke about her current position at ABC News and her daily routine and responsibilities. Her day begins with a morning call, in which all of the producers meet to discuss all the stories they find interesting, which ones they are going to cover and how they’re going to cover them differently. They find many of their stories from the AP Wire, as ABC News is a member of the Associated Press, but Maggin also admitted that she finds many stories to cover from reading the New York Times.
In reference to a question asked about the difference between national and international reporting, Maggin quickly answered, “safety is your number one concern” when it comes to reporting overseas.
She recounted having been shot at, pepper sprayed, and driven around in armored cars. “You get dropped into Jerusalem, you have no contacts there.”
She also explained the importance of the role of the translator or “fixer” who sets reporters up with contacts who are willing to speak with them. Maggin also addressed issues in dealing with language barriers. “It’s harder to tell a story when people aren’t speaking English because you don’t get the emotion,” she said. “You can say what they’re saying, but if you don’t understand what they’re saying it doesn’t have the same impact.”
While at ABC News, Maggin worked with a team that covered the September 11 attacks, for which they were recognized with the 2001 Peabody Award, one of the most prestigious journalism awards in the United States.
When asked to recall that experience, Maggin began by explaining that when she saw smoke rising from the North Tower of the World Trade Center, her first thought was “some idiot has flown their plane into the World Trade Center. That’s going to be my story for the day.”
However, upon arriving at work, it quickly became clear that the situation was far more serious than she had originally suspected, and eventually her husband informed her that there had been a terrorist attack.
Maggin, along with George Stephanopolous, now the co-anchor on Good Morning America, immediately took the subway downtown, which Maggin admitted might “not have been the smartest move.” When they were about two stops north of the World Trade Center, their car stopped, the lights dimmed and smoke began to fill the subway. Finally, though, they were able to exit the subway and reach street level.
“It was like a nuclear winter,” Maggin recalled. “There was nobody on the streets, ash falling.” Maggin ended up spending two weeks in a rented apartment with a view of Ground Zero, covering the developments in the story as they unfolded.
While the September 11 attacks are undoubtedly a huge moment in the timeline of American news coverage, tragedy is not what defines Maggin’s career as a journalist.
When asked about her favorite story that she ever covered, Maggin recalled having done a report on a woman who held therapeutic horseback riding sessions for disabled children, mainly those suffering from cerebral palsy. What made the story so interesting, though, was that the horses used for these sessions were both caught and trained by prisoners at a nearby penitentiary.
When Maggin and her team arrived on scene, they first shot footage of a boy who, in his wheelchair, seemed sad and uncommunicative. “We put him on a horse and his face lit up, he giggled, he spoke,” said Maggin. “It was truly a magical moment. Then we went to the prison where they were training the horses, and we showed the prisoners the video of the kid on the horse that they trained. They were crying, and it was an incredible piece. It was all cylinders fired, the news gods were smiling. It worked.”
During the interview, Maggin also spoke about the struggles of having to produce news for ratings. “Our average viewer is a white, urban, fifty-six year old woman,” she explained, “so we do a lot of stories that appeal to white, urban women.”
In doing so, Maggin conceded that World News might not appeal to a wide range of viewers who producers wish were watching the show; however, those stories ensure the continued support of the show’s current demographic.
Maggin also addressed the individual “identities” of the ABC, NBC and CBS news programs. She described ABC’s coverage as somewhat “soft,” while CBS shows the most “straight news.”
After the formal interview, the forum was opened up to the audience with a round of questions and answers. One student asked how Maggin had successfully moved up the ranks in her field from a research assistant to her current position as a producer.
In response, Maggin quoted what she considered to be the best advice she had ever received: “Whatever job you have, find a way to make yourself indispensable.” •
