Connie ChungAlthough journalist Connie Chung became a household name in light of her trailblazing career as the first Asian and the second woman to anchor one of America’s major network news programs when she co-hosted the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, Chung says it was never her intention to be a pioneer.
Connie Chung’s Thoughts On…
The current state of the media”When I first started back in 1969, there just weren’t a lot of women in television news. I went into television because it seemed like it was a field that you could grow in.Back then, a newspaper in my hometown folded and that was pretty early on but it was pretty clear that newspapers would eventually be on the wane and television was the new kid in town.Now television has become the dinosaur and the Internet is the new kid in town. I’m sad about it. I hate to be such an oldie, but the fact of the matter is, television news really isn’t the same. There’s too much opinion in television news and I think today’s news creates a combativeness and a negativity that I prefer to not have. I really don’t want to turn the television on to hear people screaming at me.”Her son Matthew’s potential career as a journalist”Not a chance. He is so not the type of person who wants to be out there. He finds standing up in class just a horrible experience. He’s very quiet and not a big talker.”Her husband, Maury Povich, and his talk show”Determining the paternity of every child in America is a big job, so he has to keep going with his show. He keeps saying he comes back every fall after having the summer off and he thinks it’s going to be his last season, but NBC keeps telling him they’ve sold the show again for another couple of years. He says, ‘But I was going to go into assisted living at that time.’ But he keeps doing it. I think it’s a good thing. Otherwise, he would just be playing golf.”The most impactful stories of her career”Watergate was such a huge story. It was the story of the decade … the taking down of a president of the United States. The ones who covered it will never forget it. We all went through withdrawal symptoms after that like no other story will ever be as significant. It was just an amazing experience.One thing that occurred that was just so memorable to me was when President Nixon was literally hiding in the White House and was hunkering down and not dealing with press. I was walking back in the White House toward the press room to keep the seat warm for the White House correspondent-I was just a cub journalist at the time-and I ran into Nixon himself who was at the northwest gate. Naturally I ran over to him.The Secret Service swarmed around me, and I started talking to him and asking him questions about Watergate. When the other members of the press saw him, they started running over but the Secret Service kept them back. Of course he wouldn’t answer any of my questions, but he asked me, ‘How much money do you make?’ I said, ‘$25-26,000 a year.’ He said, ‘You got to try to make more money than that.’ What am I supposed to say to that? I’m talking to the President of the United States in the thick of Watergate, and he’s asking me about how much money I make. What a total weirdo.”
“When people say I’m a pioneer, I think ‘What, me?’ I was just a cub reporter and then-bingo. I think many times it’s longevity that keeps you there and the desire to continue to improve. I wasn’t raising a flag or burning my bra or anything like that,” says Chung. “It was just one foot in front of another and then one day you realize you forgot to go to sleep and forgot to get married and forgot to have a baby.
Tune in to Connie Chung
Three-time Emmy Award-winner Connie Chung will serve as the keynote speaker for Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute’s 9th Annual IMPACT Leadership Dinner on Thursday, February 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the Chattanooga Convention Center.For more information or to purchase tickets, visit cwli.org.
“I just decided what career I would pursue and I was trying to keep my head above water,” she says. “You struggle … you set one little goal and another little goal, and that’s what I did. I had my head buried in my work with dogged determination.”