Madame reporter

FROM SEASONS OF HER LIFE: A BIOGRAPHY OF MADELEINE KORBEL ALBRIGHT, BY ANN BLACKMAN. SCRIBNER. 398 PP. $27.

Madeleine worked on the Wellesley College News [graduation photo, left], a weekly that published on Thursdays and featured noncontroversial stories about campus life. Her first bylined story, written when she was a freshman and headlined "Hamburgers and Harvard, Diets and Dates," described low-calorie meals available in The Well, a popular campus eatery. "Calorie conscious?" Madeleine asked in her lead paragraph. "Hate liver and fish? The Well answers all these needs, according to Miss Aniela Gruszyska, supervisor." In her sophomore year, when Madeleine was an associate reporter, she wrote a frontpage story on the importance of American students learning foreign languages, quoting five Wellesley language teachers in one nine-paragraph article. Her awkward opener: "Need for more complete communication, higher rewards in academic pursuits, promotion of national interest and better international understanding in a shrinking world were cited as reasons why Americans should study foreign languages."

In 1958, when she was associate news editor, Madeleine wrote a piece about John E Kennedy, who was running for a second term in the U.S. Senate and was making a campaign stop at the Wellesley railroad station. By this time, Madeleine had learned the formula for a news story; the catchy lead, a few new facts to grab the readers' interest, and a memorable last paragraph, called the kicker: "No whistle blew and no train stopped, but Senator John E Kennedy did saunter out on the platform of the Wellesley railroad station," Madeleine wrote. Her kicker: Kennedy was a half-hour late but signed a great many autographs, including "one for me, too."

Blackman is a correspondent in Time's Washington bureau.

Copyright Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism May/Jun 1999
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