Biography of Connie Chung

Before joining CNN in 2002, the icon journalist co-anchored ABC's primetime news magazine program, 20/20 and worked as a correspondent for the network. She has established herself as a pre-eminent reporter numerous times and been honored for her work with multiple awards.

Chung began her journalism career in 1969 in her hometown of Washington, D.C., where she worked at WTTG-TV first as a copy person and later as news writer and, ultimately, a news reporter. She joined CBS News in 1971 as a national correspondent based in Washington. While at CBS, she covered the 1972 presidential campaign of George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic National Convention, Watergate, the Vice Presidency of Nelson Rockefeller, Capitol Hill and politics in general. Additionally, she traveled around the world to report on the Nixon/Brezhnev SALT I talks and on Nixon's final trip to the Middle East.

In 1976, Chung moved to Los Angeles, where she spent seven years as an anchor at KCBS. In 1983, she joined NBC News as a correspondent and anchor. Her assignments at NBC included anchoring the Saturday edition of the NBC Nightly News, NBC News at Sunrise, NBC News Digests, several primetime specials and a news magazine. While at NBC News, she often served as a substitute anchor for NBC Nightly News. She was a floor correspondent at the 1984 political conventions and a podium correspondent during the 1988 conventions and provided political reporting and analysis during the presidential campaigns and elections.

In 1989 Chung returned to CBS news as anchor and correspondent on Saturday Night With Connie Chung, also anchoring the Saturday edition of the CBS Evening News. In 1990, she became the anchor and senior correspondent for the Emmy Award-winning CBS News primetime series, Face to Face with Connie Chung. During this time, she conducted a series of exclusive interviews, including the first and only national television interview of Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of the Exxon Valdez and the first interview with L.A. Lakers star Magic Johnson after his announcement that he was HIV positive. She was also the first network television correspondent to report on the controversy over testing rapists for AIDS, for which she earned the American Bar Association's 1991 Silver Gavel Award.

From 1993 to 1995, Chung co-anchored CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and was anchor and correspondent on Eye to Eye With Connie Chung. During this time, she covered the historic Israeli/PLO signing ceremony at the White House and the Israeli/Jordan signing ceremony in the Middle East. Additionally, she obtained an exclusive interview with Chinese leader Li Peng five years after the massacre at Tiananmen Square. Chung was a floor reporter for CBS News during the 1992 national political conventions and provided analysis during election night coverage in 1990, 1992 and 1994.

Chung has won several awards for her work, including three Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, the National Educational Media Network's Golden Apple Award, the CINE Golden Eagle Award and honors from American Women in Radio and Television.

During the 1999-2000 season, Chung was awarded the Amnesty International Human Rights Award for her report that revealed that young women in Bangladesh are being brutally burned with acid in acts of revenge for turning down a man's advances. Chung's report included the story of Bina Ahkter, a young woman whose face was severely burned in an acid attack, who is speaking out against violence against women. Also during the 1999-2000 season, Chung won the National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award for "Justice Delayed", her investigation that uncovered new information in the 1966 murder of a black Mississippi man named Ben Chester White. As a result, the U.S. Justice Department opened the case after more than three decades and announced the indictment of Ernest Avants for the murder. He had lived as a free man since his acquittal on state murder charges in 1966. "Justice Delayed" has won a number of other awards, including the 1999 Chicago International Television Competition's Silver Plaque for Investigative Reporting, the 1999 Communicator Award's Crystal Award of Excellence and the United States International Film and Video Festival's first place Gold Camera Award.