close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • This week, TV presenter Connie Chung’s memoirs will be published
    news

    This week, TV presenter Connie Chung’s memoirs will be published

    Vaseline Posted on

    2 minutes reading

    play

    New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee Connie Chung, a television journalist and longtime Middletown resident, will release “Connie: A Memoir” on Tuesday.

    Chung, who has a parking lot on the Garden State Parkway named after her, has carved out an illustrious path marked by countless television news scoops.

    New York Times bestselling author Walter Isaacson called the book “delightful” and said it was “full of colorful tales of rivalry and triumph. But it also has a larger theme: how the line between serious reporting and tabloid journalism has blurred.”

    In 1993, Chung became the first woman and the first Asian American to co-host a major U.S. evening newscast.

    Story continues below photo gallery

    The memoir, which Isaacson described as sharp and witty, is expected to offer an in-depth look at her journey through a male-dominated field.

    Chung graduated from the University of Maryland in 1969 with a degree in journalism. That same year, at age 23, the daughter of Chinese immigrants got her first job at a local television station.

    “I stormed into a local TV station,” she told CBS. “‘I can learn. I have no experience, but I can do this job.'”

    Chung interviewed Nixon during Watergate

    She started at WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C., and quickly rose to CBS News as a Washington correspondent in 1971, according to the New Jersey Hall of Fame. Her first major exclusive interview was with former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

    Chung worked for five major networks in her decades-long career. Other high-profile interviews included Tonya Harding and basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

    Topics she discusses in her memoir include the challenges she faced, from overt sexism to fierce rivalries, and she celebrates her successes, including the support of her husband, Maury Povich, according to Amazon.

    In her memoir, Chung promises a behind-the-scenes look, for example at the truth behind her interview with Nixon early in her career, which Chung says happened by accident.

    “I happened to walk into the White House and he was just standing there,” she told talk show host Andy Cohen. So Chung got Nixon talking and went on the air that night with her scoop.

    Chung was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2016 in the Arts and Letters category, in recognition of her significant contributions to journalism and her close ties to New Jersey.

    The Connie Chung South Service Plaza of the Garden State Parkway is located on the south side at mile marker 153, between exits 153A and 151 in Bloomfield.

    “Connie: A Memoir” will be released on September 17.

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like