April 1, 2003
Ex-KEYT reporter now in Kuwait By HILDY MEDINA CNN reporter Daryn Kagan had never been to the Middle East, let alone covered a war there. "It feels like a journey leading up to this," says Ms. Kagan, from her hotel in Kuwait. "I really believe that my time in Santa Barbara adds to where I am today. It was an invaluable experience." The Los Angeles native landed her first television job in 1985 on KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara where she remained until 1988, when she was laid off after the station was sold. Fast-forward 15 years and she's a co-anchor for "CNN Live Today." In February she was approached about going to Kuwait should a war begin. When she agreed, she was put through a rigorous one-week training known as "war school." A security firm made up of former British special forces set up different scenarios for the students, ranging from medical training and walking through land mines to getting kidnapped and shot. On the last day of training, instructors set up a true-to-life kidnapping plot in a rural area. "We were in a van supposedly covering a story in Colombia and the local driver takes us down a road we're not comfortable with. Some people then jumped out of the bushes and pulled the whole group out of the van. They were yelling things at us and putting guns in our faces," said Ms. Kagan, 40. "And that was only outside Atlanta." With only two hours notice, she left for Kuwait on March 16. She joined a pool of about 80 CNN personnel sent overseas to report on the war. "To be covering the big story with CNN is an opportunity of a career and a lifetime," she said. "I didn't go without great thought and consideration." Before heading to Kuwait, Ms. Kagan was also on track to cover the 75th Annual Academy Awards and was told by her bosses to prepare for both events. "It was a very weird experience to be studying Middle East military and trying to line up a dress for the Oscars," she recalled. Ms. Kagan isn't the only journalist with ties to Santa Barbara covering the war. Scott Canon, former reporter for the News-Press, works for the Kansas City Star and is part of a Knight-Ridder News Service pool of journalists in Iraq. And Kevin McKiernan is a Santa Barbara-based freelance journalist covering the war for ABC. Ms. Kagan, being in Kuwait, is in a somewhat calmer place than Iraq. "Kuwait is very modern. It looks like Phoenix," she said. "But just when you start getting comfortable the sirens start going off." On any given day, sirens blast through the night sky up to four times in one 24-hour period. Ms. Kagan and her CNN colleagues follow the same drill every time. They grab a bag of their belongings, their gas mask and head down to the hotel basement. The cable news network has set up a temporary news set at the hotel where Ms. Kagan is staying. Kuwaiti military stand guard outside. She rises at 4 a.m. every day and anchors the news show for seven hours, as well as reporting live from the field. It's not nearly as tough as what her fellow reporters are doing in Baghdad, she said. "I look at what embedded reporters are going through," she said. "I'm in a decent hotel and I get to take a shower every day." It's a world away from her first job in Santa Barbara. She got the position after driving up and down the California coast dropping off her resume at various news stations. After being told there were no job openings at the station, Ms. Kagan asked the news director if he would look at her audition tape and give her some feedback. She was hired shortly after. "I loved, loved every single minute of it," said Ms. Kagan of her time in Santa Barbara. "Reagan was in office then and a lot of his big supporters would have these great barbecues for the White House correspondents at his ranch." A graduate of Stanford University, she now lives in Atlanta, Ga. But Santa Barbara is still on her radar. "I try to get out there once a year," she said. |
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