Connie Chung on the ups and downs of trailblazing career in new memoir | The Excerpt

On Sunday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Connie Chung was a groundbreaker. She was just about the only ‘girl on the bus’ during the McGovern campaign in 1972, then chased the Watergate scandal. She reached her dream job when she became the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News, and the first Asian American to anchor a program on any of the networks. But it wasn’t easy, from the sexual harassment to what she calls the “big shot-itis” of most male anchors. In her new memoir, "Connie," she reveals how she would discover — decades later — how consequential her legacy really was.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Susan Page:

Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm USA TODAY, Washington Bureau chief, Susan Page. Today is Sunday, September 22nd, 2024.

Connie Chung was a groundbreaker. She was just about the only girl on the bus during the McGovern campaign in 1972 that chased the Watergate scandal. She reached her dream job when she became the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News and the first Asian-American to anchor a program on any of the TV networks. But it wasn't easy, from the sexual harassment to what she calls the "big-shot-itis" of most male anchors. In her new memoir, Connie, she reveals how she would discover decades later how consequential her legacy really was. Connie Chung, thanks so much for joining me.

Connie Chung:

Susan. It's so great to be with you.

Susan Page:

In your memoir, you talk about your parents' journey to America, immigrating from China in 1945, a harrowing story on its own. You're the youngest of 10 children, the only one born in the United States. You were so timid as a child that one of your elementary school teachers wrote on your grade card that your problem was, "Speaks too softly," and yet you became a TV pioneer and one whose signature is being loud and brassy and fearless. Do you think journalism was really a calling for you, like priests or some teachers or doctors? Was journalism what you were born to do?

Connie Chung:

I think once I decided that's what I wanted to do, I was driven, incredibly driven, and I don't really know why journalism intoxicated me so much. I think it's because my father was a news buff and a history buff, and we read The Washington Post and The Evening Star, the afternoon paper, and we watched Uncle Walter, Walter Cronkite. It was must-see TV, a time when the family sat down, and I sat on the floor, and we'd watch Walter Cronkite say, "Good evening."

Susan Page:

You were driven, and one thing I learned in your memoir that I didn't know was one reason you were driven was because support of your parents fell to you when you were young. You needed to make money to support your family.

Connie Chung:

I did. I was the breadwinner when I was only 25, 26, something like that. My father had a mild heart attack, and he left the U.S. government. He was working as a civil server, and I became their parents at a very young age. I'm related to Barbara Walters in that respect because her father's nightclubs tanked. She became the breadwinner, so she needed the job, like I needed the job.

Susan Page:

With Barbara Walters, it became a lifetime characteristic that she never felt she could stop or take it easy. Because of that, I think, feeling that too many people relied on her, her parents, her sister. Did you feel that same way that you could never take it easy, that you would always have this responsibility to keep going?

Connie Chung:

Yes. Yes. I always felt that it was my job to take care of my parents. Filial piety was so strong in my family and my four older sisters had gone off and got married, and they were doing things the American way. I did it the Chinese way, which was always be dutiful to your parents, do whatever they want you to do, not what you want to do. I thought that was so peculiar because I was the only one born in the United States. They were born in China. How come they didn't suffer the same kind of guilt that I did? It was Chinese guilt to the hilt.

Susan Page:

You write that, in some ways, you're still that dutiful Chinese girl.

Connie Chung:

I am, I am. And I think that was the one of the biggest mistakes I made in my career. I was still the dutiful employee when a boss, who is a male, would tell me, "You have to do this. It's for the team. It's for the network. Nobody else will do it. The men won't do it." And I think that dutifulness, I was a double dose of dutifulness, not only a woman, but Chinese.

Susan Page:

You had faced sexism and racism with employers, but I was struck by the candor of your memoir in that you name names about men who sexually harassed you. That surprised me. George McGovern kissed you.

Connie Chung:

Tried to. Yeah. Yeah.

Susan Page:

Jimmy Carter rubbed his leg against yours at a dinner.

Connie Chung:

Yeah. And then looked at me and smiled. Creepy.

Susan Page:

Marlon Brando, speaking of creepy, that was a creepy one.

Connie Chung:

Biggest creepy. Biggest creep, large in size. But he would call me on the phone. And you know how we had those old answer machines that had tiny little tapes? He would just talk and talk and talk, and the tape would run out. He's talking about taking me down the Nile. He was very, very disconcerting. And by the time I was seeing Maury, Marlon would call, my husband would say, "It's Marlon Brando."

Susan Page:

And how would you deal all this?

Connie Chung:

There were a lot of creepy old men. Seriously, I wouldn't even help them cross the street if they needed me. Many of them I tried to interview. John Mitchell, during Watergate, Henry Kissinger. I would ignore what they said. I didn't know what they expected me to say in response when they were flirting. But I would just move on and ask my question. I was there to do my job. Go away, you old man.

Susan Page:

In 1993, you get the job of your dreams. The first woman co-anchor of the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. At that point, only one woman had ever co-anchored an evening news program before Barbara Walters. And it had been 15 years since she had gone off the air on the ABC Evening News. What did Dan Rather think about having you sitting beside him on that set?

Connie Chung:

I mean, I don't know if a gun was held to his head, or they consulted him. I have no idea. But I soon came to learn that he did not want me there. I would guess, though, he would not have wanted anybody sitting next to him. He had occupied Walter Cronkite's chair for years. My guess is that even if they put a dog, a cat or a plant, it wouldn't have made any difference.

Susan Page:

What did it mean to you to be sitting in Walter Cronkite's chair?

Connie Chung:

I really thought I've reached the top of the mountain. It was the crème de la crème job. I couldn't imagine actually occupying half his chair. And Walter called me after I got the job. He was always so good to me. And he said, "I just have one bit of advice, Connie. Be yourself." And I thought, "He was himself. He was no phony." And I think you can tell who is a phony on television. You can tell when people are lying. You can tell who is manufacturing their personality.

Susan Page:

So, after you get your sea legs there, and you've done some big interviews, Dan Rather invites you out for coffee and gives you some instructions. What did he tell you?

Connie Chung:

He said, "You just stay in the studio. I'll cover the stories out there in the field. And you read the teleprompter."

Susan Page:

And what did you say?

Connie Chung:

I had a hard time with a quick comeback. I was so aghast. I thought, "Okay?" So I did tell the president of CBS News, and he told me the same thing. And I thought, "Really?" I was surprised. I thought those words were just for me. And not long after that, I was stumped.

Susan Page:

You weren't just stumped. You heard about it as you were preparing to go on the air of the CBS Evening News. You got a phone call, and then you had to go on the air and deliver the news. What was that like?

Connie Chung:

My lawyer, who was also my agent, Alfred Geller, called me before I was going on the air, and he said, "I've been with all of your bosses all day, and I have something to tell you." He told me that that was my last broadcast, that they offered me another job, but we'd have to talk about it and whether I wanted to accept the weekend news and doing specials during the week. And I thought my world came closing in and crashed.

So I called my husband, I called Maury, and he said, "Okay, let's talk about this when you get home." And when I went on the air, I thought, I looked over at Dan Rather and said, "I wonder if he knows what I know." And he didn't show any sign of it, not that I could necessarily tell. And I went ahead and did the news. Later I thought, "I wonder if the bosses were afraid that I would spill the beans and really cause an embarrassing scene." But you know what, Susan? I think they knew me better than I thought they did. They knew I was the good, dutiful employee who would not do anything untoward, and I didn't. I just did the news, bit my tongue and did the news the way I always did and said goodnight, walked off the set, got into a cab, came home and said, "Maury, pour me a stiff scotch."

Susan Page:

So you're writing your memoir, it's 2019, five years ago, and you get an email out of the blue with the most extraordinary revelation. What was it?

Connie Chung:

A young woman named Connie Wang emailed me, and she says, "I was named after you." And I thought, "Oh, how unusual. How funny." And so she said, "Can we talk on the phone?" Connie Wang and I talked on the phone. She told me that when she was only three, she came to the United States with her parents and there she was. They said, "We need to give you an American name." All she knew was what she saw on television, so she said, "Connie or Elmo."

Thank goodness her parents chose Connie. And Connie Wang then went to UC Berkeley, and half the school is Asian. So she's in the cafeteria and somebody says, "Connie!" Half the room turns around and looks at... And she apparently realized that when she was trying to get her email address for college, that there were so many Connies. And she thought there is something to this. And Connie became quite a journalist, but this was her mission. She wanted to find out if there were other Connies who were named after me, and she did. She found untold numbers of Connies that were named Connie after me. When she told me her revelation, I was flabbergasted.

Susan Page:

Now, these were Chinese girls and Japanese-

Connie Chung:

Japanese.

Susan Page:

-and Korean, Taiwanese.

Connie Chung:

Vietnamese.

Susan Page:

This whole generation of Asian girls named Connie. Some of them named Chung as their middle name.

Connie Chung:

Yes.

Susan Page:

So their name's Connie Chung, and then, whatever their last name is.

Connie Chung:

Exactly. It was really astounding, honestly. But the key is that Connie was... She's so smart. She found out that it was really the parents who were trying to create a Connie who they perceived as successful as I was. I mean, I wasn't declaring that I was successful because I couldn't get my arms around that, but the parents did. They gave me the denouement to my book. They gave me a beautiful ending that I had never imagined.

Susan Page:

Connie Chung's memoir: Connie is on bookshelves now. Connie, it's been a pleasure talking with you.

Connie Chung:

I've love being with you, Susan.

Susan Page:

Thanks to our senior producer Shannon Rae Green for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to [email protected]. Thanks for listening.

I'm Susan Page. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.