JNN: CNN - Connie Chung/AOL Chat Transcript

Connie Chung/AOL Chat Transcript

From Doug Mehus, JNN: CNN Contributor

09.29.2002

NewsStacie: Send in your questions now for Connie Chung. She will be joining us shortly. In case you missed Connie's show tonight, she covered the wildfires, U.S.A. soccer, Jon Stewart and more. For all of our West Coast AOL'ers, we won't give away too much of the show, but it was great! A very new and unique format to her program. The show airs on CNN from 8-9PM ET, Monday through Friday. Be sure to watch. And even if you missed it, you can chat with Connie about her amazing career and more.

NewsStacie: Hang tight, AOL'ers, award-winning journalist Connie Chung will join us in a few minutes. Connie just finished her debut show on CNN. The show was live, so she needs to get to a secure area and join our chat. Be sure to send in your questions now and tell Connie what you thought of her show. She ended her show with a request from the public to give her some feedback; now is your chance, right here on AOL Live. Be the first of Connie's fans to tell her what you thought of the show in this AOL Live exclusive chat with Connie Chung. Connie Chung will join us in just two minutes. Send in your questions now.

Host: We would like to welcome Connie Chung to AOL Live.

Connie Chung: Hi. I'm sorry.

Host: That's OK. Sounds like you are having a celebration going on to honor the debut of your show.

Connie Chung: Yes.

Host: Can you tell us how it went?

Connie Chung: It went terrifically well. We have this great director, a woman named Renee. She was just coming down to say hello to her staff, and me you know, and to thank them. She's really quite extraordinary.

Host: Great. Let's jump right into the questions.

Connie Chung: OK.

Host: We've got folks online who may be tuning in from the West Coast. They have not been able to watch the show yet. Maybe you can recap for them, without giving away too much good stuff, what the show is about tonight.

Connie Chung: OK. We check in on the Middle East, because President Bush gave a speech tonight telling us that Yasser Arafat has to step down. It was a tough speech. So we talked to two of our correspondents, White House correspondent John King and our Middle East correspondent, Wolf Blitzer. They gave us insight into how President Bush came to the conclusion he should take such a hard line with the Palestinians and with Arafat in particular.

Connie Chung: We recapped -- we tell everyone the latest on the fires in Arizona and Colorado. And we had an exclusive interview with a relative, the brother-in-law, of the accused arsonist in Colorado, the woman who is accused of starting the worst fire in Colorado history. And the brother-in-law was a man named Lowell Freeman. This is the first time that a relative of the accused arsonist has sat down and extensively explained how the family feels. He said there's no way that she could have deliberately started the fire; that, in fact, if she did start the fire, it was by accident.

Connie Chung: We have another exclusive story, which is really quite an extraordinary story. It is about a 28-year-old man from Milwaukee who knew he had a terrible problem -- that was that he was attracted to young girls. He went to a number of doctors, four at least, who could not help him and who did not help him, he says. So finally he turned, out of desperation, to Dear Abby. He wrote Dear Abby a letter. She was quite alarmed by the letter. Instead of writing him back or calling him back, she decided to go to the police. And that resulted in this young man who had never done anything... never improperly touched a child -- he was -- he did have pornographic pictures on his computer, but the reality is there are many people that download them, and anybody can have them. So this poor soul, in many ways, was just seeking help, and he ended up with the potential of facing life in prison. In fact, the judge just gave him probation, with other stipulations. So the exclusive interview was with him, first interview he has ever done.

Connie Chung: Then we went on to have a little fun -- interviewed Jon Stewart and the Team U.S.A. soccer team that did so beautifully in World Cup soccer -- and a couple of these players were pretty good-looking too!

Host: Right. Some of our members noticed how good-looking the guys were. One member asks during your interview with Team U.S.A.: I wanted to know, are the players as charming in person as they were on TV?

Connie Chung: They sure were.

Host: Well, that says it all.

Connie Chung: Yeah.

Host: AOL member Chimon201 asks -- she says first: Enjoyed your show tonight. Very well done. How does it feel to be back on prime time?

Connie Chung: It feels great. The only trouble I think I'm going to find myself in is that I can't quite figure out how to spend enough time with my husband and Matthew. They are off having a vacation right now. That's why I said good night to them on the program. I said good night, Maury and Matthew, because they are not here. But it is actually just as well that, you know, I'm so busy right now, otherwise I wouldn't be able to spend any time with them. That's something we women cannot figure out, because we are burdened with the -- with the struggle, you know, the tug of family and work.

Host: In fact that topic is on the minds of our members -- RNTC2 asks: How do you juggle being a mom and a full-time newswoman?

Connie Chung: I have a hard time. I think we all do. Women. And it is just -- it is so unfair that the men don't seem to have this problem. They just don't. They do not take on all the duties that we take on in the home as a parent and as a housekeeper and the runner of the household. And it is just such a shame that we are constantly stretched between the jobs. I just try to do everything, and it is impossible to do everything. But I do try.

Host: That might answer the next member's question. JoeGJaca asks what would say is the hardest thing about being a newscaster?

Connie Chung: I think it is -- I think it is just a demanding job. And it is very much what we were talking about before. It is all-consuming. It takes time. It is very gratifying, but for so many years, I think I had no life, and then I got married and got a life. Then we got our son, and I got a real life. I think being a journalist and being in news is a very demanding and consuming job. There are many jobs that are. But this one is particularly, I think, difficult to keep up with.

Host: Are you done with that question?

Connie Chung: Yes.

Host: BlondQD asks: What is your favorite part of being on TV?

Connie Chung: I think -- it sounds corny, but doing stories on how to change policy, change people's attitude. It is a classic statement, doing something worthwhile and sort of correcting the ills of society, you know. It is fixing mistakes out there, fixing -- I mean, affecting attitudes, and so if we can do some good -- it sounds very corny, but if we can, it is so gratifying.

Host: Great. OK. And this AOL member, RTN62, asks: What made you decide to go into the news business?

Connie Chung: I think it was just kind of a fluke in college. I was majoring in biology. And then when I worked as a summer intern on Capitol Hill between my junior year and senior year, I happened to run across a number of reporters on Capitol Hill, and I was just fascinated with what they were doing. So when I went back in the fall, back to college, I decided to switch my major from biology to journalism, because I thought, I don't want to work in a laboratory. That sounds boring. This was much more exciting.

Host: Wow. Imagine if you had stuck with biology?

Connie Chung: Oh, my gosh. Imagine that.

Host: OK. AOL member WRSSmith asks: Connie, who you would choose to interview if you could interview anyone you wish? God is not a choice.

Connie Chung: OK. I think Osama bin Laden, you know. Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein or -- this always sounds like a joke, because people always say, but -- in this particular instance, at this time, it would be quite incredible to interview -- the pope.

Host: Interesting. OK. And this is about your show, I guess, or just how TV works in general. AOL member ESSmithXO asks: Connie, how far in advance do you book your guests, and does that get in the way with booking topical interviews?

Connie Chung: Yes. We were working on these various stories for months, and we were hoping that some of the people we booked would stay below radar so that, you know, we could hold them until the right time came to tell their story on-air. So it is -- it was hard. But we booked a number of stories that we would be able to hold. But we had to keep parts of our programs wide open for developing news and breaking stories. So it is a real a little bit of a dance, that we just needed to make sure that we aren't booking ourselves up with stories that are not timely.

Host: Right. Here is another member question that talks about your particular show right now. It says: I noticed your show was part taped and part live. Is this the plan for all of the shows moving forward?

Connie Chung: Probably it will be more live. Every once in a while -- with the admitted pedophile, the guest was under house arrest, so he could not leave. I had to go to him.

Host: Right.

Connie Chung: Tomorrow I think we are going to use an interview that was with someone overseas, and he couldn't come to us either. So I had to go to him.

Host: OK.

Connie Chung: Every once in a while, that will happen. Not that often.

Host: Here is a member question that sounds like it is from an aspiring journalist who needs your motivation. TNewsGirl10: I'm a producer working in Grand Rapids, Mich. I get really frustrated in this field. I would say that two to three days out of the week, I just want to quit. Do all journalists have a love-hate relationship with work? It is tough.

Connie Chung: Yeah. I think they do, but I think some people hate it a little more. I think she's obviously one of those. I think she's kind of like my niece, who hated it enough to abandon it, she just didn't like the rough-and-tumble of it. I love it, but I also come home with and unload all the baggage of my day on my husband, and he sits there and listens and coaches me and makes everything into a joke, so that I laugh about it instead of cry about it.

Host: Which is interesting, because as many of our members might not know, your husband is Maury Povich. He is in sort of the same industry, right?

Connie Chung: Yeah. Sure.

Host: Daily shows. Is that how you met, through TV?

Connie Chung: Yes. Exactly. He is a very good -- he has a very big shoulder for me to cry on every night, because I always have something that's my little problem of the day.

Host: As we all do. So this is AOL member SellEastE, who asks: Have you ever in your career refused to do a story because you did not agree with it for any reason?

Connie Chung: There were plenty that I objected to. But I had this horrible habit of feeling obligated to be the team player, to do what my boss wanted me to do. And I think that is a syndrome a lot of women suffer from, being the good little girl and being the dutiful player and not rocking the system, because we are -- women are always struggling for equality in the workplace. And it was finally when I reached -- I don't know what age, but I stopped doing that. I would gracefully and nicely say, I don't want to do this. It is OK. It is OK. If you just say it nicely and explain why, you should not be forced to do what you don't want to do. Is it okay if we just do two more questions?

Host: Sure. We can do that.

Connie Chung: Is that OK? I think I ought to -- people are waiting for me. I don't want to keep them much longer.

Host: Let's get in this question, then, from member Sarg114, who says: How does it feel to have the first show behind, and do you have any big interviews coming up?

Connie Chung: Actually, I have a big interview that we air tomorrow.

Connie Chung: Well, I don't want to give it away. I did mention it on the program. It is an interview with a world-renowned singer who answers a question that he has avoided for more than a decade. It makes news. It is a newsmaking interview.

Host: Great. That's a great.

Connie Chung: Yeah.

Host: The last question, one that hopefully is a good one, from AOL member Sequin13. It says: What is your biggest accomplishment in your life?

Connie Chung: I would say having a wonderful family. I was smart enough to realize that Maury was the one I should marry, and that led to our son, Matthew. And I just think I am very, very lucky to have them in my life.

Host: OK. Great. You were so wonderful to take the time to chat with all of us. You have a lot of big fans on AOL who watched the show tonight and loved it. And for all of the fans on the West Coast, you can still tune in and catch the show later tonight on CNN.

Connie Chung: Great.

Host: Thanks for chatting with us. Have a good night.

Connie Chung: You too.

NewsStacie: Thank you for chatting with us! Connie had to run -- tonight was a bit crazy. In case you missed it, tonight was the debut of her new show on CNN called 'Connie Chung Tonight.' The show airs at 8PM ET, Monday through Friday. Be sure to check it out tomorrow night -- as she told us during the chat, there will be some big news. Thank you for all of your great questions. Have a good night, everyone.