April 2001

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Draggan Mihailovich shares insights and reflects on his journey from the School's "News Editing" class to producing Emmy-winning stories for "60 Minutes II."

Mihailovich loves telling stories, making a difference

Photo by Maricarmen Josephs

The opportunity to make a difference — that's what Draggan Mihailovich loves most about his job as a television news producer.

"I firmly believe the job of a television producer is one of the greatest in the world," said Mihailovich, a producer for CBSıs "60 Minutes II" who has won five Emmy awards. "Maybe, just maybe, my stories might impact people's lives."

Mihailovich, a 1983 graduate of the School, addressed a crowd of about 100 faculty, students, family and friends Feb. 9 at the eighth Nelson Benton Lecture in Carroll Hall. Among the audience members were his parents and his wife, Hope.

Following graduation from UNC-CH and an 18-month stint as associate sports editor at The Chapel Hill Newspaper (now The Chapel Hill News), Mihailovich worked as a research assistant for ABC Sports at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

ABC Sports was drawn to Mihailovich, he said, not because of his impressive résumé but because, as the son of Yugoslavian parents, he spoke the native language. He was paid $750 for the four-week job, but he paid his own airfare, which cost $704.

Although the job didnıt pad Mihailovichıs bottom line, it did land him a similar assignment with ABC Sports at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. Between 1984 and 1998, he worked on six Olympics for ABC and CBS, serving in roles ranging from chief researcher to senior features producer.

Mihailovich said he decided to move to "60 Minutes II" because he wanted to produce stories that made a difference.

"For me, a well-crafted story that impacts peopleıs lives is much more fulfilling," he said.

Working with correspondent Bob Simon, Mihailovichıs first piece for the show, "The Lost Children," won an Emmy. It told the story of 10,000 British children who had been deported to Australia after World War II and in many cases were forced to work as slave laborers or were sexually abused.

Mihailovich showed a five-minute clip, an emotional scene in which one of the deported children was reunited with her mother in England after 50 years. Neither woman was aware the other was alive before Mihailovich helped break the story.

"Their story is an example of why itıs easy to get up in the morning," he said.

Mihailovich reflected on his time at UNC-CH, where he wrote for The Daily Tar Heel and helped Woody Durham broadcast Carolina football games.

"There's no substitute for a Carolina education," he said.

Mihailovich said he learned the importance of accuracy while in Professor Raleigh Mannıs News Editing class. Taking it the spring semester of his senior year, Mihailovich said he thought he could breeze through the class. After a cursory 20-minute editing of the first assignment, he confidently strode out the door. When he returned to class two days later and received the graded paper, he was surprised by the results.

"All I saw was red," he said. "There was more red than you'd find on pickup trucks on the (North Carolina) State campus. After News Editing, I just wasn't as cocky as I used to be."

Mihailovich said this attention to detail served him well at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He received word that Israel had won a rare medal. Rather than report the scoop to the anchor immediately, he double-checked it and found that "ISL," the country abbreviation on the information he had received, stood for Iceland, not Israel.

"It's better to be right than first," he said. "That's a lesson we all learned in November."

Mihailovich said he was concerned about the declining standards for people entering broadcast journalism. He urged the students in attendance to practice their skills as much as possible while at UNC-CH.

"Writing skills set you apart," he said. "Hone your writing skills every chance you get."

The lecture series honors the late Nelson Benton, a 1949 graduate of UNC-CH who worked at CBS News for more than 20 years, covering watershed events including the assassination of President Kennedy, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and Watergate. Bentonıs son, Joe, a member of the Schoolıs Board of Visitors, attended the lecture.

Established in 1989 by family members and friends of Nelson Benton, the lecture series brings leaders of broadcast journalism to the School. Past speakers have included Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Cokie Roberts and Charles Kuralt.

Although he never met Benton, Mihailovich said he was proud to give the lecture, especially coming from CBS News.

"It's an honor to be here and an even bigger honor to give a lecture named after Nelson Benton," he said.

Bill Freehling is a first-year master's student in the news-editorial sequence.