Journalist Connie Chung did not stop when asked recently about her career, working with Dan Rather, Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer.
Talking to Andrew Goldman on The originals podcast, released on Thursday, Chung first commented on the days on CBS, where she was co-anchored CBS Evening News with Rather from 1993 to 1995.
“If I turned my back, I felt like I could be in a scene of psycho, in the shower, ”said Chung.
When asked clearly about “the most contemptuous man in the news,” she hurried to say, “I’d rather not say.” Twice.
When Chung joined the show, she was only the second woman to co-anchor a national news show. She was excited because she had always admired CBS News student Walter Cronkite, about whom she talked a lot. But his time on the network was not all he hoped for, and he said he often found himself attributed to sensational stories, such as the infamous OJ Simpson case.
“I think when the OJ Simpson story came up and they said, ‘You have to go,’ I think Dan Rather was going to Haiti for an interview with the leader,” Chung said. “I wanted to go to Haiti for an interview … I thought it would be a great punch for both of us to do interviews about an international incident. And then, I’m pretty sure, they insisted on doing an OJ interview. I really regret that I did so many tabloid stories under duress, honestly. “
Chung recalled being told the story of Tonya Harding, in which the skater was accused of planning a physical attack on her opponent, Nancy Kerrigan, just before the 1994 Olympics. Other CBS reporters refused to do so.
“When they wanted me to cover Tonya Harding [story], it was because CBS was wearing the Olympics, “Chung said,” and it was simply because they wanted to build the story, so they built this fairy tale good girl-bad girl. “
Chung left CBS in 1995 after being removed from the iconic news program and became ugly between her and Rather, while they went back to the press about why.
Two years later, Chung moved to ABC, where she was one of several well-known journalists, along with Sawyer and Walters. He had enjoyed the idea of working with women, but said he was “naive and stupid.”
“I’ve always played a Whack-a-Mole game. I would stick my head out and one of them would have a hammer and say, “Whack!” and put me down in my hole, ”Chung said of the experience.
(A representative for Walters said TMZ, “Barbara prepared the way for every journalist who came after her. She was a great supporter of all women. “)
Chung said she was told why stories should stay away and that she got one of the biggest – the first interview with US Rep. Gary Condit after Chandra Levy’s disappearance – after Condit’s team insisted they would only talk to her.
Chung, 74, also opened up about her cameo in the popular HBO series cancellation. The veteran broadcaster worked on the set of a scene in which the character of Hugh Grant, a murder suspect, tries to rehabilitate his image with a high-quality interview, but her voice is the most prominent in the final product.
Chung suspects he made a bad impression on her Bridget Jones’ diary star or director Susanne Bier. She thinks the problem was that she gave Grant advice on how to worry about the fake interview, including how to sit on his jacket, as the anchor does in the movie. Broadcast news. (Chung had met Grant before, when he interviewed him for his 1994 film Four weddings and funerals, so she asked him if he remembered her. He said, “No.” Whatever the reason, Chung was “overwhelmed” when she watched the show, but it had nothing to do with her small role: “She had such a great accumulation, then she fell off a cliff and was a end with nothing ”.
Yahoo Entertainment contacted representatives of Grant, Rather, Walters, Sawyer, CBS News and ABC News for comments.
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