Connie Chung's secrets to success: “Work hard, be brave and take risks”

Connie Chung’s career began with a performance: “I burst into a local television station, [said]'I can learn. I have no experience, but I can do this job.' … Do you know what it's like when you're young and you don't know any better? I just kept going like I knew what I was doing.”

And as she writes in her new memoir, “Connie” (out Tuesday), there was no surpassing of work for Connie Chung.

Back home in Montana, she has enjoyed the view with her husband, daytime TV legend Maury Povich, for nearly 40 years and has enjoyed a career spanning four decades.

Povich, who was then a rising star in the newsroom, recalls: “She wanted a job, and the news director said, 'No, no, no, you're my assistant.' She says, 'No, I want the job, weekend editor at the news desk.' And he said, 'Well, then you'll have to replace yourself.' She walks out of the newsroom, across the street, into the bank, looks at the first woman at the bank and says: You want to be on TV? She was taken across the street to the newsroom. She got the job and the bank clerk got a job as a secretary.”

She soon caught the attention of CBS News when she stormed into a restaurant that had been cited for health code violations with a camera crew in tow. “And lo and behold, the CBS bureau chief was sitting there eating lunch,” Chung said. “He saw me, gave me his card and said: Call me.”

In the Washington bureau of CBS News in 1971, which she described as “a sea of ​​men,” Chung developed a plan for survival: “I looked around and said, 'Well, what the hell, I'll be a guy, too.' So I took on their characteristics. I was brave; I walked into a room like I owned it!”

And she could talk like a sailor. “I had the offensive reputation of saying the unexpected to these men who were quite sexist and racist. And they were: Wow! But the swear words? Not good. I don't recommend that to anyone. That was just my way of surviving in that snake pit.”

Taking it one step at a time wasn't enough for Chung. When NBC wanted to hire someone to anchor the half-hour newscast before the “Today” show, Chung said, “I'll do it! But I don't just want to do that; I want to cover political stories for Tom Brokaw's 'Nightly News.' And I want to do the 'Saturday Night News.' And I want to do 'Newsbreaks' at 9 and 10 p.m. I could hardly sleep.”

Pauley asked, “You seem to be a strong mix of your American and Chinese nature. American, chance; Chinese?”

“Dutiful,” said Chung. “Always does the right thing. Strictly well-behaved. Respectful.”

“Ambition? Drive? Concentration?”

“Yes, sure, sure,” Chung replied. “The drive to success. It was a combination record.”

In the hyper-competitive network battle, the winning interview was “The Get.” In November 1991, Magic Johnson, the great point guard for the LA Lakers, announced that he had tested positive for HIV. Chung said, “I went into his agent's office and squatted down. I didn't leave until he left the office.” She got the interview.

She also received the first interview with the captain of the Exxon Valdez after the devastating oil disaster in Alaska.

But while the figure skating scandal surrounding Tonya Harding and documentaries with sensationalist titles (“Life in the Fat Lane”) ensured good ratings, the stigma of the tabloid press tarnished her name and reputation.

“It was one story after another and I just didn't have the strength to say no,” Chung said. “And I deeply regret that, Jane.”

Connie was the youngest of five sisters, the daughter of “very, very traditional” Chinese immigrants, and the only one born in America. Her father decided she should be the son he never had and carry on the Chung name.

She exceeded his expectations and realized her own dream by becoming co-anchor of the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in 1993.

But it wasn't the dream team. She remembered the line from Bette Davis' All About Eve: “She walks up the stairs and says, 'Buckle up, it's going to be a rough night.' And I thought: Wait, darling!”

After two years, she was fired. She said she was “completely devastated.”

But then, just days later, after years of miscarriages and infertility treatments, their adopted son was born. “We had Matthew when he was less than a day old,” Chung said. “He never left my arm, you know? He was an extension of my arm. And to this day, he's a grown man and so wonderful.”

At 49, Connie Chung had almost everything and admitted: “I could never call myself successful. I am Chinese. I was born humble. Never enough.”

According to Povich, it took the “Connie generation” to realize exactly what had become of them.

Last year, the New York Times published an article titled “Generation Connie” about Chinese, Korean and Japanese parents across the country who named their young daughters after her.

“I couldn't believe it,” Chung said. “It was the most exciting day I could have ever imagined. They were the ones who declared me successful. And when they did that, I thought: Really? I have to accept that.“

Pauley asked, “What did you mean to your parents?”

“Work hard, be brave and take risks,” Chung said. “I wasn't the smartest. I wasn't the toughest. But I did those three things.”

READ AN EXCERPT: Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung

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Story produced by Jay Kernis. Editor: Mike Levine.

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