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The Excerpt

Former TV anchor Connie Chung on the ups & downs of trailblazing career in new memoir

The Excerpt

USA TODAY

Daily News, News

4.11.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2024

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:05.0

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0:08.0

Hello and welcome to the Excerpt. I'm USA Today Washington Bureau Chief

0:15.8

Susan Page. Today is Sunday September 22nd, 2024.

0:25.1

Connie Chung was a groundbreaker.

0:27.4

She was just about the only girl on the bus during the McGovern campaign in 1972, then chase the Watergate scandal.

0:35.7

She reached her Green Job when she became the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News

0:42.0

and the first Asian American to anchor a program on any of the TV networks.

0:46.8

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

0:57.6

how she would discover decades later how consequential her legacy really was.

1:04.0

Connie Chen, thanks so much for joining me.

1:06.0

Susan, it's so great to be with you.

1:08.0

In your memoir, you talk about your parents' journey to America,

1:13.3

immigrating from China in 1945,

1:16.1

a harrowing story on its own.

1:18.9

You're the youngest of 10 children,

1:21.1

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

1:37.9

signature is being loud and brassy and fearless.

1:43.5

Do you think journalism was really a calling for you, like priests or some teachers or doctors?

1:50.0

Was journalism what you were born to do?

1:53.0

I think once I decided that's what I wanted to do, I was driven, incredibly driven,

2:00.4

and I don't really know why journalism intoxicated me so much.

...

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