Tickets to see Connie Chung in conversation on September 25th areThree-part subscriptions to Portland Arts & Lectures, including David Grann’s event on January 25, 2024, are now available! Get yours here.
On September 25, 2024, Literary Arts will host pioneer news anchor and reporter Connie Chung.
Connie Chung, pioneer news anchor and reporter, was the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News, the flagship news broadcast on CBS. Also, Connie was the first Asian to anchor any news program on CBS, NBC, and ABC. Connie now splits her time between Montana, New York, and Florida. Her debut memoir Connie is out now.
Chung’s memoir, told with her signature wit and remarkable candor, takes readers through a behind-the-scenes tour of her life and career.
Listen to Chung discuss her career in this interview with NPR Wisdom Watch.
“I had always dreamt of being Walter Cronkite… I thought boy, if I could sit in his chair one day. But I always thought it was a dream. I never thought it would really happen. So when I got to sit in half of his chair, it was a mighty big deal in my mind.”
Connie Chung: On News, Family, Fighting With Humor – NPR
“I never felt torn between two cultures. I’m not Chinese hyphen American. I’m Chinese, but I’m also all American. I don’t feel bifurcated. I’m both, through and through.”
Life’s Work: An Interview with Connie Chung – Harvard Business Review
Chung took inspiration from newspaper publisher Katharine Graham’s memoir, Personal History. When speaking about this inspiration, Chung shares, “She was never woe is me. I found myself rooting for her until the last page of her book.”
You can read more about her journey to writing her memoir in this recent interview with Publishers Weekly.
“Libraries were critical to me throughout my childhood because we didn’t have a lot of money. My sister and I never had wheels to go to the library, so the two of us would beg anyone who came to see my parents to take us. I really believe that getting a library card was better than getting a driver’s license.”
Newsmaker: Connie Chung – American Libraries
Find out more about Chung’s life and career below!
Connie Chung was born in Washington, D.C., in 1946 to Chinese immigrant parents, the youngest of five siblings and the only one born in the United States. Growing up, her father was an intelligence officer for the Chinese Nationalist Government until the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China. Connie recalled in a recent interview with American Libraries, “Libraries were critical to me throughout my childhood because we didn’t have a lot of money. My sister and I never had wheels to go to the library, so the two of us would beg anyone who came to see my parents to take us. I really believe that getting a library card was better than getting a driver’s license.”
She graduated from the University of Maryland in 1969 with a degree in Journalism; as a child she aspired to be a ballerina but was unable to pursue it due to her family’s financial constraints. Chung’s interest in journalism grew from a summer internship with a congressman, where she spent time with reporters. She told NPR about her decision to go into television journalism, “For a small, diminutive-sized Chinese person who grew up in a very loud family and never spoke up in my life, it was dramatic.”
Immediately after graduation, Chung took a job with WTTG-TV, a Washington D.C. news station, working as a copier two nights a week for a few months, until a newsroom secretary position opened. While working as a secretary, she took every possible opportunity to participate in new stories, aiming to prove her capabilities. She was told that if she wanted to become a writer for the station, she would have to replace herself. Chung raced next door to her bank, asked her bank teller if she wanted a new job, and was promoted to a writing position. After less than a year as a writer, Chung’s career progressed as she worked closely with news anchors and became an anchor herself.
In 1971, Chung joined CBS News where she worked as a correspondent, reporting on major stories including the 1972 presidential campaign, the Democratic National Convention, and Nelson Rockefeller’s vice-presidential announcement. She recalls covering the Watergate scandal and President Nixon’s resignation as one of the highlights of her career, feeling that covering such historic political events legitimatized and cemented her place as a woman and Asian American news anchor. In an interview with the Television Academy Foundation, Chung shared, “At some point in 1972… I do remember thinking that I think I have reached some level competence in their minds, meaning the suits, some level that I had made it.”
At 29, Chung moved across the country to anchor local news for KNXT-TV Los Angeles, leaving her childhood home for the first time. She spent seven years with the station, but eventually grew tired of covering local stories, longing to return to national news. She moved back east to New York City in 1983 to join NBC as a correspondent and anchor for the Saturday edition of NBC Nightly News, NBC News at Sunrise, and NBC News Digests. During this period, she occasionally appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and served as a substitute anchor for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw and the Today Show.
In 1993, Chung received a call with an offer to come back home to CBS, where she would become the first woman and first Asian-American to co-anchor the CBS Evening News. Chung’s role grew and she became a household name. Appearing alongside her co-anchor and broadcast legend, Dan Rather, she covered the Israel peace signing ceremony at the White House, Nixon’s funeral, and the Oklahoma City Bombing. She notably got an exclusive with Chinese leader Li Peng, on the five-year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. She left CBS after two years to spend time focusing on her family, particularly raising her adopted son, Matthew.
In 1997, Chung held a fellowship at Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Later that year, she joined ABC News as a co-anchor and correspondent for the news magazine series 20/20. During the 1999-2000 season, she received the Amnesty International Human Rights Award for her reporting on young women in Bangladesh who were victims of acid attacks.
Chung’s illustrious career has earned her three Emmys, including two for Best Interview/Interviewer, the George Foster Peabody Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and many other honors. She was inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2016 and named a “Giant of Broadcasting” by the International Radio-TV Society, and Womankind’s (a nonprofit serving Asian American survivors of domestic violence) “Woman of the Year.”
Connie Chung’s memoir, Connie: A Memoir, marks her debut as a published author. The book delivers a candid behind-the-scenes look into her career as well as her personal life. Chung provides a compelling narrative that delves into her experiences with powerful figures, the intricacies of her career-defining moments, and the steadfast support of her husband, Maury Povich. With her characteristic wit and unflinching honesty, she shares the good, the bad, and the ugly, offering readers a rare and insightful glimpse into her world. This memoir is poised to be an irreverent and inspiring account of a trailblazing journalist’s life, showcasing Connie Chung as you’ve never seen her before. Chung and Povich own a newspaper, The Flathead Beacon, in Montana, where they have a vacation home. They split their time between Montana, New York, and Florida.
“I was truly intoxicated with the field of journalism, with news, and I was determined to succeed. I think it was obvious to everyone that I just wanted to be one of them. I would look around and see all white men, and think, I can’t see myself here, so I’ll be one of them.”
