Your turn: Interview cable news pioneer Mary Alice Williams, April 21 at Great Conversations

Mary Alice Williams is a scheduled guest at the 2016 'Great Conversations' dinner.
Mary Alice Williams is a scheduled guest at the 2016 'Great Conversations' dinner.
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By Peggy Carroll

Mary Alice Williams was present at the creation.

In 1980, she was one of the founding members and architects of CNN, the first worldwide television network.

She oversaw the construction of its New York Bureau at the World Trade Center and served as one of the channel’s principal anchors. In 1982, she was named a vice president in charge of the New York bureau, making her one of the highest ranking female executives in American television.

Mary Alice Williams is a scheduled guest at the 2016 'Great Conversations' dinner.
NJTV anchor Mary Alice Williams is a scheduled guest at the 2016 ‘Great Conversations’ dinner.

Her career as a broadcast journalist, which began in her home town of Minneapolis when she was just 18, took her to NBC News.

There, she anchored the team that won a national Emmy Award for its coverage of the fall of communism, and was a frequent anchor for the Nightly News, Sunrise and the Today Show.

She also worked on PBS as a contributing correspondent and wrote a documentary called Picture What Women Do, broadcast on Lifetime Television, which won the 1995 Exceptional Merit Media Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Now, she is a presence in New Jersey as anchor for NJTV, where she is redefining what constitutes “local “ news.

And on April 21, 2016, she will be present at the Madison Hotel when Morris Arts offers its 8th annual Great Conversations dinner.

Billed as the “best dinner party in town,” the event creates a venue where guests can meet, mingle and dine with noted and fascinating “conversationalist hosts,” experts drawn from the worlds of the arts, health care, sports, science, public service and industry. Proceeds support the organization’s programs for local arts and artists.

This year, the event has a roster of more than 30 hosts. And guests can choose which one they want to converse with over dinner.

Williams, who is open and often critical of television news, is a choice not only for news junkies but for those concerned about the way news is presented.

Her views are different from what is seen – even those of the network she helped create.

Williams says her philosophy of news was born when she was just a child and heard for the first time about the Holocaust. She asked her father, a team physician for the Minnesota Vikings, why nobody did anything to stop it. Because, he told her, nobody knew.

great conversations 2016 logoHer goal, she said, was to make sure that people did know, to show what was happening. “When the whole world is watching, “ she said, “people are safer. If people know what is going on, they will stop it.”

One illustration: She did a story on the one million African children under the age of 5 who died each year from preventable disease – because their parents had no way to transport them to a clinic or hospitals for vaccination.

In response, a British motorcycle racer sent “wheels,” Doctors Without Borders brought in teams, and organizations from everywhere joined in efforts to erase the tragedy.

She is also willing to talk about her disappointment with what CNN has become – what she called a large talk fest.

Journalists, she has said, should not be giving opinions but telling stories, shining a spotlight on what is going on in the world and providing models of what works – like policing changes in Camden that have drastically reduced crime – that illustrate what can be done elsewhere.

At NJTV News, the focus is not on murders and fires, but on topics that help people make decisions that effect their lives. There are five areas that that she and her team of young professional journalists center on: Economics, health, environment, arts and education.

As a woman journalist, she also has stories to tell about her own working life. When she was 16 and thought of going into television, she was advised to start early.

Women, she was told, are “done” by age 25.

She was born in 1949. Do the math.

Tickets are $225 per person and can be purchased through the Morris Arts website (morrisarts.ort) At registration, ticket buyers sign up for their top five conversationalist choices in priority order. A complete listing of all participating experts is on the site.

Seating assignments are made based on when your paid registration is received.

Morris Arts is a nonprofit founded in 1973 to engage and build community through the arts. It serves as a resource for Morris County with a special focus on arts programming in the schools and in the community, and art advocacy and support of local artists and arts organizations.

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