EOTO 4 (Connie Chung)

 Connie Chung

Background & Upbringing

Connie Chung is a popular American journalist that has been an anchor as well as a reporter for U.S. news networks such as NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, AND MSNBC. Chung was born on August 20, 1946, as Constance Yu-Hwa Chung. She was born and raised in Washington D.C. to William Ling Chung and Margaret Ma. William Ling Chung was an Intelligence Officer in the Chinese Nationalist Government. Connie was the youngest of 10 siblings, however, 5 of them sadly died during wartime. Chung later went on to study journalism and received her bachelor's degree at the University of Maryland. Her inspiration for becoming a Broadcaster actually came from her interning with a congressman who at one point was a journalist himself.

Journalism Career

In 1969 Chung received her degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, and not long after that, she officially launched her career in journalism. She worked at Washington's WTTG-TV and soon worked her way up to reporter. In 1972 she was hired by CBS News to work as a Washington-based correspondent where she scored her first large-scale interview with President Nixon during the Watergate Scandal. From 1976 to 1983, Chung lived and worked in Los Angeles as the lead news anchor for KCBS. In 1983 Chung moved to NBC and became one of the most popular journalists in tv news at that time.

Chung launched a program titled Face to Face with Connie Chung which was popular but often criticized for being more entertaining than informative. In June of 1993, CBS announced that Chung was to become the co-anchor of the nightly news broadcast while at the same time launching a magazine titled Eye to Eye with Connie Chung. In May of 1995, Chung was informed by CBS that she was being removed from the co-anchor chair and she declined and asked to be let out of her contract. Chung unsuccessfully attempted to launch her own news program before moving to ABC in December of 1997 in which she anchored the Friday night newsmagazine 20/20. Later in 2002, Chung moved to CNN but they dropped her in 2003 which prompted her to take a break. She came back in 2006 with her husband on a show titled Weekends with Maury & Connie which was canceled after six months.

Accomplishments

Connie Chung was one of the first female reporters on national television in the United States. This aided in breaking down the gender barriers of the late 20th century. Her marks on American journalism did not end there as she was also the first Asian American anchor of a major network newscast. Chung has gone on to win multiple different awards including, the George Foster Peabody award, The Amnesty international Human rights award, and three emmy awards. She won two for Best interview/interviewer. Although her tv career ended in 2006 she is still known for making huge strides in American Journalism.