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Invasive beetles are killing SoCal’s trees. Can this local surfer stop them?

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Invasive beetles are killing SoCal’s trees. Can this local surfer stop them?

That is the newest in a sequence we name Plant PPL, the place we interview individuals of colour within the plant world. In case you have any options for PPL to incorporate in our sequence, tag us on Instagram @latimesplants.

Together with his tousled black hair and heart-melting smile, Gabe Verduzco definitely has the appears to be like of an influencer, however as a substitute of sharing dance strikes or loopy pranks he’s making his mark on social media by posting footage of bugs and native flowers, or himself in an orange workman’s vest climbing a large oak tree searching for tiny beetles threatening our city timber.

See, Verduzco is to flora what Superman is to Lois Lane. He’s had a tough crush on crops since he was a younger teen — embracing chores like weeding or mowing the garden, rising pumpkins and tomatoes for his household and, at 15, making a Tumblr web page referred to as #GardenBros — “only a group of pals attempting their fingers at gardening” close to their San Joaquin Valley properties in Kingsburg, south of Fresno.

Some 18 years later he lives in Dana Level so he can surf not less than as soon as a day. However crops are nonetheless the mainstay of his personal {and professional} lives. He tends a vegetable backyard outdoors his residence. He manages the Orange County chapter of the California Native Plant Society’s social media as a volunteer. He’s a part-time park ranger attempting to cease poachers from stealing succulents and different native crops off coastal hills. His Instagram account, @antsyplantsy, is chockablock with posts about native crops and creatures.

After which there’s his predominant gig as a analysis affiliate for the College of California Cooperative Extension’s Agriculture and Pure Assets division, crawling round huge city timber like oaks and sycamores trying to find the invasive shothole borer and the goldspotted oak borer (a.ok.a. GSOB) — rice-size beetles which have killed many 1000’s of Southern California oaks, sycamores, willows and different timber since they have been found right here lower than 20 years in the past and will nicely destroy a lot of our city timber if left unchecked.

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Gabe Verduzco friends intently at a sycamore on the lookout for invasive shothole borer beetles in Anaheim Hills.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Occasions)

“I’ve seen them kill timber in six months,” Verduzco says. “They usually’re powerful. We had an contaminated piece of wooden from a pallet put right into a cage in our lab and a [shothole] beetle got here out three months later, from a lifeless piece of wooden.”

Proper now, these beetles don’t have any pure predators in Southern California, so there’s little to cease their unfold besides spotters like Verduzco. And infrequently, by the point the harm to a tree turns into obvious, little could be carried out to reserve it. One of the best (but saddest) plan of action is to take away the tree so the beetles received’t infect others close by.

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Verduzco’s employer, UC Cooperative Extension, focuses on agricultural and horticultural analysis and training in each county of the state. His job is to look timber in a given space to find out whether or not they’ve been infested and, if that’s the case, how badly. Then he marks and maps these timber so others can both deal with or take away them.

Discovering infestations is a frightening activity — simply consider all of the timber in your avenue — however Verduzco makes the work look enjoyable, as in a TikTok video the place he’s climbing up and over the sprawling limbs of a large oak. His movies are playful, however Verduzco is lifeless critical in regards to the menace. On the Anaheim Hills Golf Course, as an example, the grounds are edged and dotted with lush stands of native oaks, sycamores and willows. This spot is gorgeous, nearly not possible to imagine it’s only a few miles from the stark 91 Freeway hall. However Verduzco and his colleagues have discovered a number of lifeless timber right here, principally oak, and plenty of others which are contaminated, some past saving.

Invasive shothole borers depart rust-colored stains on the skin of a tree and tiny holes roughly the dimensions of a half-grain of rice. The GSOB beetle is more durable to identify. It makes a tiny D-shaped exit gap, however on a craggy part of tree bark it’s nearly not possible to seek out till Verduzco factors one out.

It took some follow to spot the indicators, Verduzco stated, however now he can’t cease seeing them, like throughout a current go to to a Los Angeles museum, when he seen some telltale holes on a tree outdoors.

“It wasn’t something critical, a reasonably gentle infestation they will handle,” he stated, speaking nearly to himself, “however I simply reminded myself … I must allow them to know.”

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A finger points to a small hole on a tree's bark.

Gabe Verduzco factors to a small, D-shaped gap the place a goldspotted oak borer exited the trunk of a coast stay oak.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Occasions)

Right here’s how Verduzco explains his journey from inquisitive boy within the San Joaquin Valley, carving pumpkins and questioning how they develop, to a gung-ho, plant-centric, browsing grownup.

He knew nothing. After which grew one of the best corn ever.

“I grew up enjoying sports activities and being outdoors. I all the time had a knack for nature; bugs and different critters have been all the time attractive to me. I simply love being outdoors.

“We all the time carved pumpkins after I was a child and baked the seeds, and at some point I assumed, ‘Why don’t I develop pumpkins?’ I simply put the seeds within the soil, not understanding what I used to be doing, however that’s how I began. I used to be 12 or 13 and my mother thought they have been weeds and pulled them out. She didn’t know. I used to be the one who favored doing yardwork — pulling weeds, mowing the garden — and no person ever confirmed me. That’s one factor I really like about gardening — you simply be taught by doing, by instructing your self.

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“I began rising tomatoes the following 12 months and getting magazines and seed catalogs, and doing extra analysis. My mother moved right into a rental in Kingsburg and stated I might develop stuff within the house on the aspect of the home. I lower down all of the bushes there so I might plant greens and my mother stated, ‘Are you going to plant the bushes again once we depart?’ and I stated, ‘Yeah’ … however I don’t suppose I ever did.

Gabe Verduzco cradles some leaves in his hands as he stands between a living and dead oak tree.

Gabe Verduzco, a analysis assistant for UC Agriculture and Pure Assets, spends his days trying to find two invasive beetles which are killing oaks, sycamores and different timber in SoCal’s city forests.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Occasions)

“I began rising tomatoes and cucumbers, these tremendous thrilling Armenian cucumbers, and lemon cucumbers, that are superb. After which I grew some candy corn varieties from Johnny’s Seeds. It was the corn they have been rising at Fresno State, individuals went loopy for that corn, and I lastly discovered anyone who gave me the variability identify — Imaginative and prescient — and I began rising that corn too, one of the best corn I’ve ever had.

“Then after I was 15½ I began working with the USDA, watering and planting crops for a grape breeder. They have been doing totally different experiments to seek out natural strategies to extend the lifetime of desk grapes moreover coating them with pesticides. They let me use the greenhouse to start out my seeds and that basically helped me get into the plant world.”

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GardenBros turned an excuse to only hang around

“I began GardenBros on Tumblr with a few of my pals. We have been nonetheless in highschool, about to start out school, and one in every of my pals was fascinated by my gardening. His household lived out within the nation with an acre of house on the market, they usually had a big plot we might develop stuff on.

“We began it as a method for our pals to hang around. We’d have bonfires and barbecues, get different pals concerned. My entire aim was to get the Backyard Bros into native farmers markets to promote corn and tomatoes, however that type of fizzled out after we graduated and went to work. However that all the time has been a private aim, beginning a farm and rising stuff for people.

Gabe Verduzco holds a sesame-seed-size invasive beetle in a vial.

Gabe Verduzco holds a pattern of the invasive shothole borer that’s killing off timber in Southern California.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Occasions)

“The actual pleasure I’ve in rising greens is reaping the rewards of rising your individual — understanding the place it got here from, understanding what you’re rising and the way you’re watering it, the way you’re feeding it and constructing the soil, and all these issues coming collectively so ultimately you may decide it and eat it. That pleasure, that style, is so rewarding.

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“However the different factor I really like is giving greens away. Once I was rising up we had so many tomatoes we have been giving them to household and pals. Then at some point I noticed we had a brand new neighbor throughout the road, so I assumed I’d simply be pleasant. Right here I’m, 16 or 17, and I’m going over there to say, ‘Hey, I grew these tomatoes and I wished to offer you some,’ and it broke the ice. I advised them my identify was Gabe and we talked just a little, however the actually particular second got here a pair weeks later after they introduced over a watermelon, only for me. It was cool to see we have been principally bartering, with greens.”

Instagramming secret wilderness zones

“I acquired my diploma in plant science at Fresno State and I went to work for Filoli Gardens, a botanic backyard in Woodside, close to Palo Alto. I actually acquired into native crops there whereas I used to be serving to to revive their native backyard, and it actually took off from there.

“Now [as a research associate for UC Cooperative Extension looking for invasive beetles] I work instantly with native timber in county parks and among the wilderness zones within the county. I see a variety of untouched areas the place the general public has no entry to, and I’ve began documenting all the gorgeous flowers I see. I wish to analysis them, discover out their scientific names or how the Native People used them, after which submit them on Instagram [@antsyplantsy].

“Native crops have been right here for years and years earlier than we got here, they usually’re nicely tailored to their explicit areas. For right here, it’s wet winters and scorching summers, and the native bugs and birds depend on consuming sure seeds or crops. Whenever you take that away and put in palm timber as a substitute, it breaks the entire ecological net. And I believe native crops additionally supply some magnificence of their historical past with the Native People and the way they used them. … Like I’m additionally a park ranger part-time; I assist patrol on the Dana Level Nature Reserve, and I discovered this native wild cucumber that appears like an alien plant. It’s so spiky and superior, it simply spurred me on. It’s within the cucumber household but it surely’s toxic, so how did Native People use this? They made the basis right into a powder and used it to stun fish!”

“Now I’m heavy into native crops and serving to the California Native Plant Society by volunteering to do the social media for the Orange County chapter. I’m so intrigued by bugs and crops, and studying about them — educating myself — simply excites me about life.”

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Gabe Verduzco crouches on his surfboard as he rides a wave.

Gabe Verduzco takes a break to surf on the north aspect of the Newport Seaside Pier.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Occasions)

He additionally surfs day by day

“I picked it up 5 years in the past, after I spent a 12 months in Hawaii planting a fruit farm. I’d all the time wished to surf, so I simply moved to Hawaii for a 12 months and went head-on at it, and after I got here again in 2017 I saved browsing. I surf each single day — any time I can match it in, primarily based on the swells and excessive tide-low tide. I’ll go at dawn or sundown or the center of the day throughout lunch break. I’ll exit for half-hour, or on Saturdays, three hours. I’d say I’m now submersed in surf tradition — and I’ll be browsing the remainder of my life.

“That’s why I moved to Dana Level. My landlord is a former professional surfer who grew up in Dana Level, and he’s tremendous cool, completely into the surf tradition right here. He is aware of all in regards to the wind and swell measurement, all of the surf stuff that’s past my data as a result of he’s been doing all of it his life. I’m studying quite a bit from him, and he lets me have a vegetable backyard the place I’m dwelling, just a bit raised mattress with strawberries and, this summer time, cucumbers and tomatoes.

Posting on TikTok reveals that ‘anybody can do that’

“I’m [of] Mexican heritage, born in California, and I’m attempting to point out those who anybody can do that. You don’t have to slot in a sure mildew. It’s like, ‘Hey, you don’t should be Martha Stewart to care about crops and care in regards to the Earth.’

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“And I wish to present individuals what I’m doing. I’ve been on a path not a number of individuals have been on, and I’m attempting to be an advocate for different people, perhaps these coming from a much less lucky background or not understanding what they wish to do. I’m attempting to say, ‘Hey, in the event you actually take pleasure in one thing and also you’re captivated with one thing, simply since you grew up in a small farm city like Kingsburg or an interior metropolis space, it’s nonetheless attainable to succeed. There’s so many avenues you may select with crops.’”

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Olivia Hussey, star of the 1968 film 'Romeo and Juliet,' dies at 73

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Olivia Hussey, star of the 1968 film 'Romeo and Juliet,' dies at 73

“Romeo and Juliette” movie director Franco Zeffirelli (from left), actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting are seen after the Parisian premiere of the film in Paris on Sept. 25, 1968.

Eustache Cardenas/AP


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Eustache Cardenas/AP

LONDON — Olivia Hussey, the actor who starred as a teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died, her family said on social media Saturday. She was 73.

Hussey died on Friday, “peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones,” a statement posted to her Instagram account said.

Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy after spotting her onstage in the play “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.

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“Romeo and Juliet” won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for best new actress for her part as Juliet, opposite British actor Leonard Whiting, who was 16 at the time.

Decades later Hussey and Whiting brought a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film.

They alleged that they were initially told they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in a bedroom scene, but on the day of the shoot Zeffirelli told the pair they would wear only body makeup and that the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity. They alleged they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge.

The case was dismissed by a Los Angeles County judge in 2023, who found their depiction could not be considered child pornography and the pair filed their claim too late.

Whiting was among those paying tribute to Hussey on Saturday. “Rest now my beautiful Juliet no injustices can hurt you now. And the world will remember your beauty inside and out forever,” he wrote.

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Hussey was born on April 17, 1951, in Bueno Aires, Argentina, and moved to London as a child. She studied at the Italia Conti Academy drama school.

She also starred as Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series “Jesus of Nazareth,” as well as the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” and horror movies “Black Christmas” and “Psycho IV: The Beginning.”

She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, her three children and a grandson.

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Justine Lupe

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Justine Lupe

For years, Justine Lupe bopped back and forth between Los Angeles and New York.

It wasn’t until the pandemic that she decided it was time to stop living out of her suitcase in hotels and short-term sublet apartments. “The world was in upheaval,” the actor says. “My idea of what my life was felt like it was [too].”

Sunday Funday infobox logo with colorful spot illustrations

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

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In 2021, she and her fiancé, Tyson Mason, bought a house in L.A. Then this summer, the couple welcomed a baby named Ellis, whom Lupe was carrying while she was filming Netflix’s romantic comedy “Nobody Wants This,” alongside Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, which is set to return for a second season next year.

“I was right in the sweet spot of the second trimester for most of the shoot, so you have energy, you feel creative and your body feels good — at least that was my experience,” says Lupe, who plays Bell’s sister and podcast co-host Morgan.

Lupe, who also starred in “Succession” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” adds that certain concerns she had about working while pregnant, such as gaining weight on camera, disappeared when she was on set. “It was just kind of this magical experience because there’s so much emphasis on bodies in this industry,” she says. “So just to be healthy and happy through that experience, embracing my body through that big, big change, feeling confident in it and feeling ecstatic about this life inside of me, it was just the best.”

On an ideal Sunday for Lupe, 4-month-old Ellis is strapped to her body as they pick up veggies and fruit from the Atwater Village Farmers Market, take a baby-friendly yoga class and walk around a glorious botanical garden.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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7 a.m.: Cuddles in bed

I mean 7 a.m. sounds great with my baby. A little bit lazy, lying in bed. I love snuggling with her, Tyson, our dog Lilly, and our cat Addie. It’s kind of a fort that we have in our bed with all of our little creatures living in it and it’s really nice to just chill.

8 a.m.: Catch up with friends over coffee

I would probably go and get a coffee from this place called Amara Kitchen. It’s a really nice farm-to-table spot. Everything is organic, grass fed and ethical. I go there to meet friends a lot, so I’d probably meet a few friends for a coffee. I usually get an iced coffee. They make their own almond milk. If I want something sweet, I’ll get a pastry, and if not, I’ll just get a bone broth with my coffee. They make really good pastries in house and they have incredible gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate chip cookies that are way more delicious than you’d imagine when you say those two words aloud. It’s usually too early for me to eat a lot, but on days where I have a really long night or I’m starving, I’ll get their breakfast burrito.

9 a.m. Go to the Farmers Market

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Then we’d all go to the Atwater Village Farmers Market. It’s really sweet and small. I know all the stands well by now. It was kind of a project when I first got there to understand which stand had the vegetables I like, which ones had the right eggs that I like, which ones had the best cheese. You kind of get to know which stands you prefer and you form relationships with all these farmers. I care a lot about the quality of the food that I eat, so having kind of a rapport with them and figuring out what their standards and practices are is important. It’s also just lovely. There’s flowers and honey, lots of families are there, there’s so many kids and it’s just a happy place to be.

I usually get ingredients that I want to make for the week and for whatever other things I need, I’ll go to Whole Foods. As I shop, I will snack on Nature’s Fynd, which is a vegan yogurt. It’s sustainable, it’s ethical, it’s dairy free and it’s high protein. [Editor’s note: Lupe is a brand ambassador for Nature’s Fynd.]

12 p.m. Baby-friendly yoga

Then I would go to Silverlake Yoga for a yoga class. It’s run by this woman, Juliette Kurth. I found it during my pregnancy and they do a lot of prenatal classes, postnatal classes, baby and me yoga classes where moms can bring their baby and get their yoga in while the babies are hanging out there. It’s just like the sweetest place. She does labor workshops and I’ve fallen in love with it in the past year. To have a postnatal class so that you can still the care that you need and take care of your body after having the baby and to have free childcare essentially — it’s just the best. Juliette is just an angel on Earth.

2 p.m.: Walk around Descanso Gardens

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I’d probably go home and cook myself a little something to eat, then the whole family would go to Descanso Gardens. It’s so pretty and we’d walk around. You can get a snack at the door and have a little picnic if you want. Sometimes we’ll get a coffee or a tea and just post up somewhere.

5 p.m.: Pick up dinner

I’d go pick up Side Pie or Sugarfish on the way home for a cozy evening at home where we just eat pizza or sushi, hang out on our deck and just enjoy being in L.A. [Laughs]

At Sugarfish, we always do the Trust Me or Trust Me Lite box [which comes with edamame, tuna sashimi, salmon and more] depending on our appetite. It’s so good and sometimes we’ll throw in a little bit of eel. At Side Pie, we like the house herb ranch salad and the Altadena and the Z pizza, which is a vegetarian option with jalapeños. There’s another pizza with ham and honey that we like called the Honey’s Hammered. It’s soooo good. Side Pie is a little hole in the wall. You order it inside, then you can eat in their back area, which is really cute especially during the summer, or you can take it home.

For my beverage, I’m usually a water-with-electrolytes kind of person, which is so boring. [Laughs] I do drink wine, but just because I’m breastfeeding, I try to keep it to a minimum and do it well. I have a couple of glasses of wine a week. I’m a pretty light drinker, but when I do, I usually will pick up something from Cookbook Market in Highland Park. They’ve got a really great natural wine selection.

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6:30 p.m.: Luxurious bath

Every day the baby and I take a bath together. It’s a really good wind-down for her and I. Tyson sets up our bath area up each night. He puts out candles, plays music, puts our towels out and puts out a glass of water with ice. He’s just so sweet, so it’s kind of this ceremony for us. Then I give her a baby massage, which I also really love doing. My daughter has got it really good. I’m like, “I want a massage every night.” [Laughs]

8 p.m.: Watch T.V. until we fall asleep (and the baby wakes us up)

Then we’d get into bed and watch “The Great British Baking Show” or some fun TV show until we fall asleep. I know this is my ideal day, but the reality is that you go to bed kind of going like “Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Here comes the night” because of the baby. [Laughs] She’s 4 months now, so I think she’s about to hit that four-month sleep regression. So I think we’d get to bed fairly early just because we know we’re going to be losing sleep. She goes to bed at like 7 p.m., so we’ll probably get in bed by like 8 p.m. and fall asleep by 9 or 9:30 p.m.

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Connie Chung says booze and bawdy jokes helped her break into journalism's boys club

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Connie Chung says booze and bawdy jokes helped her break into journalism's boys club


TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Tonya Mosley. We’re looking back at some of our favorite interviews of the year. Today, pioneering TV journalist Connie Chung. When Chung appeared on television back in the ’70s, it was the first time many Americans had seen an Asian woman reporting the news and setting the national conversation with her interviews with heads of state and controversial figures. For three decades, Chung was a key player in every major news cycle, covering Capitol Hill, the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department. In 1991, she was the first journalist to get a sit-down interview with Magic Johnson just a month after he announced his HIV status.

Connie Chung has worked for ABC, both NBC and MSNBC, CNN and CBS, where she got her start and later became the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and the second woman in the history of television news to anchor an evening newscast. I spoke with Chung in September for her memoir, where she gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it took for her to climb to the top of the male-dominated field of TV news. Chung spills the tea on some well-known celebrities and politicians who hit on her and she doesn’t shy away from naming names of people who crossed her and sometimes made her job more difficult than it needed to be. We also talk about one of the more challenging interviews with Donald Trump in 1990.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “SATURDAY NIGHT WITH CONNIE CHUNG”)

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CONNIE CHUNG: What Donald Trump does, of course, is make a lot of money and make sure everybody knows it – a yacht, a mansion, a bigger mansion, an airline, two casinos, a bigger casino.

DONALD TRUMP: That is really incredible. There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing like this place.

CHUNG: By now, his possessions are more familiar to us than what we have hanging in our own closets. His buildings? Well, you know which one they are.

TRUMP: I sell very great condominiums in New York. I have the best casinos in the world.

CHUNG: They aren’t that great.

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TRUMP: They’re the best.

CHUNG: Come on. They’re not the best.

TRUMP: What, the Trump Tower?

CHUNG: Maybe if you can try and answer this question without giving me the normal spiel.

MOSLEY: That’s Connie Chung interviewing Donald Trump in 1990. I asked her what she remembered most about that interview.

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(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

CHUNG: I’ll set the stage; otherwise, I’m going to get myself in such trouble, Tonya. I was doing this program called “Saturday Night With Connie Chung,” and I was the only correspondent because we had another format prior to that, and it really was excoriated, and it tanked. So I had to then go out on stories every week to fill an hour program. I was traveling all over the country in the world and everything. I was pretty darn exhausted. Then the executive producer comes to me and says, we have an interview with Donald Trump. At the time, he had not planned to run on – run for president by any means.

MOSLEY: Right, yeah.

CHUNG: He was a mogul. He was actually a very – he was a tabloid king because he was always on – in the New York tabloids. And that was his – that period of his claim to fame. So I went, I don’t want to. Why are we – whining. Oh, boy, did I whine. And he said…

MOSLEY: Well, you didn’t mince words. I mean, after your interview aired, Trump did what we’ve seen him do to many reporters over the years, and he dug into you ’cause you dug into him.

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CHUNG: Well, guilty as charged, I did. And he went on “The Joan Rivers Show,” and at the time, she had a talk show. And he said that I was – he used all those words that he is wont to use with some female journalists, you know? That was…

MOSLEY: He called you a lightweight.

CHUNG: Yeah. And I can’t remember the exact words, but that I was basically stupid and didn’t ask good questions and all of that. So I would see him – my husband is a crazy golfer. You know, my husband, Maury Povich, who’s been…

MOSLEY: Yes.

CHUNG: …Determining the paternity of every child in America.

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MOSLEY: Yes (laughter).

CHUNG: You are the father. You are not the father. Well, in addition to that, my husband is a very good golfer as well. I would see Donald Trump at celebrity golf tournaments in which my husband was playing. And he ghosted me, essentially. He – it was as if I were invisible. I wasn’t there. Maury would say, you know Connie. And I was just invisible.

MOSLEY: You started in the early ’70s, and in many instances, you were the only woman among these guys. In particular, you write about being on the road covering the 1972 presidential campaign. You were traveling, essentially with the press corps of all men. And you realized that being funny was a way to disarm or diffuse. But did it ever feel dangerous?

CHUNG: No. No, it wasn’t dangerous. It was just fraught with sexism. And, I mean, I think they all saw me as this unusual little toy. And I…

MOSLEY: They almost seemed you like a delight, like, almost a novelty…

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CHUNG: Yes.

MOSLEY: …Kind of tinged with fetish behavior. But that was until you started to scoop them.

CHUNG: (Laughter) Well, they did – they were surprised when I came up with a story that they didn’t have. It was a little competition, you know, and I loved the competition. So I just developed this sense of humor, and what I did was I tried to get them before they got me. And I had this propensity to be much too bawdy. And it was antithetical to what I looked like. You know, I looked like a lotus blossom, and they were appalled that I had the audacity to use a bad word. But at the same time, they found it very comical.

MOSLEY: There’s this story that you tell about being a Goody Two-shoes. Is it Timothy Crouse? He wrote in his book, “The Boys On The Bus,” which is about covering the ’72 presidential campaign, that – he says this about you, quote, “TV correspondents would join the wee-hour poker games or drinking. Connie Chung, the pretty Chinese CBS correspondent, occupied the room next to mine. And she always was back by midnight, reciting a final 60-second radio spot into her Sony or absorbing one last press release before getting a good night’s sleep.” And the next morning, he noted, you would be up and at them with the other reporters – all guys – and they were staving off a hangover. But the thing about it was, they would always scoop you, even still. You were in your room doing all of that hard work, and they were at the bar getting to know the sources.

CHUNG: You got it. And when I realized that, and I did because I would call the assignment editor in Washington, the overnight assignment editor, and I’d say, what broke overnight? Or what’s the – what’s on the front page of The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, LA Times, whatever? Whatever he had access to or whatever was released early enough. And I realized that they were getting stories. And it suddenly dawned on me they were saucing up the campaign manager and everyone who worked for the candidate and letting them spill the beans. So I said, end of staying in my room. I’m going down to the bar. And I did.

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MOSLEY: Yeah.

CHUNG: I could drink when I was in college. I learned how to, you know, take a few down and still stay sane. I wasn’t driving anywhere. I was just walking back to my room. And therein lies a great way to learn how to be a reporter.

MOSLEY: Right, right. You had to get in there. You had to do that – play that game.

CHUNG: Exactly. The only place I couldn’t enter where the men were, obviously, was the men’s room.

MOSLEY: Yeah.

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CHUNG: And they got stories there. You know, I couldn’t…

MOSLEY: That was – yeah.

CHUNG: …Infiltrate the men’s room.

MOSLEY: Your book, as well as this book I read a few months ago, it’s a biography about Barbara Walters. It just showcases how even at the height of your career – because you were very well known then – you were out there getting your own stories.

CHUNG: You know, Barbara Walters taught me that. I knew that she picked up the phone herself. She wrote a letter. She faxed. She called. She nudged. She would say, let’s have lunch. And I recall it being Barbered (ph). And she – Barbara Barbered me. When we were – when I was fired from the CBS Evening News, she called me and started trying to get the first interview with me when I emerged from my bunker. It was just remarkable.

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You know, Barbara and I had a lot in common. I – she was clearly the pioneer and paved our way. But she was the breadwinner in her family because her father’s nightclubs tanked, and she had to take care of her mother and her father, support her mother and her father and her disabled sister. I was the breadwinner in my family as well for my mother and father. I supported them for – till the day they died. From about 25 on, I was their parent. We both co-anchored with someone who despised us, a man. We were both fired after two years. We both adopted a child. We both married nice Jewish boys. Although, I think Barbara married maybe two or three (laughter).

MOSLEY: Yeah.

CHUNG: But, you know, I really did – I admired Barbara because she paved our way.

MOSLEY: Let’s take a short break. If you’re just joining us, my guest is Connie Chung. She’s written a new memoir that chronicles her life growing up with her four older sisters and parents who migrated from China and her career as the first woman and Asian American to anchor a national network news program in the U.S. We’ll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR. This is FRESH AIR. Today, I am talking with trailblazing television journalist Connie Chung. She’s written a new memoir about her life and career in television news, titled “Connie: A Memoir.” The book chronicles her parents’ harrowing migration from China to the U.S., her first job in television news, breaking major news stories, interviewing luminaries and how she made history as the first woman to co-anchor the “CBS Evening News” and the first Asian to anchor a news program in the United States.

Connie, you’ve mentioned your husband, Maury Povich. You all have been married for nearly 40 years. You got married late, 38 years old. No matter how much it seems to be common knowledge – ’cause even for a time you guys had a show together – there’s always somebody in the room that’s surprised you two are a couple. And it’s surprising, I think, because your personas are so different – your public personas. But as you write in this book, you all seem to be the perfect match. When did you realize that?

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CHUNG: I’m still wondering how come we are the perfect…

(LAUGHTER)

CHUNG: …Match, you know, because we are so different. But the public personas belie what is really behind our door. And the reason why I say that is because he, although he does this – has been determining the paternity of every child in America and utters these, you know, words, you are the father, and you are not the father. He is…

MOSLEY: Do you joke with him about that at home. I just get the feeling.

CHUNG: Yeah, I tease him. And – but also, he says, I’m just a trashy talk show host. So he he’s a very down-to-earth, realistic guy. He’s – what belies his public persona is that he is very much a voracious reader. He’s a political buff. He’s a history buff. He could run circles around these pseudo-intellectuals who do interviews with important people. And I always say that to him. Why don’t you do a serious talk show? And he says – and I said, you’re so smart. And people don’t know how smart you are. And he says, as long as you know that, I’m fine. And I thought, oh, my goodness. What a guy.

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MOSLEY: Is it also an indication of two different things that drive you, both?

CHUNG: Yes. The difference is, I am not serious. And you now know that, Tonya, because you’ve read my book. And I – he has to curb my enthusiasm because I’m liable to do something off-the-wall. It is not he who would do something off-the-wall. It is I. And he has to talk me out of it. Because I say, why? You would do it. And he’d say, no, you have a reputation to uphold.

MOSLEY: The thing about it is that publicly, what you do is that it seems like you’re always explaining to people who Maury Povich really is behind, I am not the father. And I did not realize that you actually have been doing this even before Maury had the Maury Povich show. Back when he was on “A Current Affair,” there’s this legendary skit that you and David Letterman did back in 1989. You were a regular guest on the show, and he decided to do a skit outside of the studio with you, ’cause you guys had really great chemistry when you were on the show. The jokes always really landed. And I want to play a clip from this skit that you all did. What we are going to hear is you and David going to a shoe store to buy shoe trees for Maury Povich, for your husband. And David is being really snarky about your relationship. Let’s listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN”)

DAVID LETTERMAN: Connie, let’s check in here. Hi. We need to pick up some special order shoe trees.

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UNIDENTIFIED SHOP ASSISTANT #1: Hello.

DAVID LETTERMAN: Hi. How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED SHOP ASSISTANT #1: Oh, my God.

DAVID LETTERMAN: Nice to see you. Special-order shoe trees for Connie’s husband, Murray (ph).

CHUNG: Maury.

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DAVID LETTERMAN: He has problem feet. We had to special order them.

CHUNG: He doesn’t have problem feet.

DAVID LETTERMAN: This is why. He has extra-wide feet.

CHUNG: No, no. I think they’re right over here.

UNIDENTIFIED SHOP ASSISTANT #1: Right over…

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DAVID LETTERMAN: Oh, those are beauties.

UNIDENTIFIED SHOP ASSISTANT #2: Yeah, they are.

DAVID LETTERMAN: Look at those, Connie.

CHUNG: That’s great.

DAVID LETTERMAN: What exactly do…

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UNIDENTIFIED SHOP ASSISTANT #2: Cedarwood.

DAVID LETTERMAN: What’s the purpose of shoe trees? What do they do?

UNIDENTIFIED SHOP ASSISTANT #2: Keeps the – keep the shape of the shoes, all right?

DAVID LETTERMAN: Well, don’t your feet do that?

Let me buy the shoe trees.

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CHUNG: No. Really? no.

DAVID LETTERMAN: All right. Turn off the cameras. Turn off the cameras. See, if you – on “60 Minutes,” if you can get a guy to do that on camera…

CHUNG: Yeah.

DAVID LETTERMAN: …Say, turn off the – then you’re set for life to…

CHUNG: Yes, you’re right.

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DAVID LETTERMAN: How much is it?

CHUNG: But, David, I can’t have you pay for this, really.

DAVID LETTERMAN: Stop the whining.

CHUNG: No.

DAVID LETTERMAN: Just don’t whine, please.

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CHUNG: No, I’m paying for it. Maury’s going to be very upset.

DAVID LETTERMAN: He won’t know. How will he know?

CHUNG: ‘Cause it’s going to be on the show.

DAVID LETTERMAN: No, he’s never – yeah, like he stays up to see this.

CHUNG: He does.

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(LAUGHTER)

DAVID LETTERMAN: Pretty much dozes off in his food, doesn’t he?

(LAUGHTER)

CHUNG: I can’t believe you found that clip and you used it (laughter).

MOSLEY: Well, that was you. That was our – my guest today, Connie Chung, with David Letterman on the show in 1989. Connie, he couldn’t even say Maury’s name right. I mean, that was part of the bit, right? You’re always taking up for your husband, huh?

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CHUNG: Yes. Oh, he refused to call him Maury. He would always call him Morty (ph), Murray, Marvey (ph), I mean, whatever. And it – I said – he said, do you want to go out for pizza sometime? And I said, sure. Can I bring Maury? And he’d say, no.

MOSLEY: But, you know, I wanted to play this clip because he’s making fun of Maury, and it’s funny. But I wondered if this kind of view of your relationship – you being this revered, highly-respected journalist, Maury being seen more as a tabloid journalist – did it ever have an impact on your relationship?

CHUNG: Oh, no. Maury is very secure in who he is. I mean, it’s the biggest thing I admire about my husband. He knows he is this very, very intelligent person. And he has – he’s had a storied career as a journalist for many, many years. Then he hit upon the current type of talk show. When he was doing a talk show in Washington, D.C., he was interviewing authors and politicians – I mean, every author from Gore Vidal to Tom Wolfe to Maya Angelou. And it was a classic old talk show. And he did cooking segments with (impersonating Julia Child) Julia Child.

And he did – during Watergate, he was in the thick of it. You know, he covered Kennedy’s funeral, JFK’s funeral – covered Martin Luther King’s assassination. So he’s an old-fashioned journalist.

MOSLEY: Yeah.

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CHUNG: Then he hits upon the talk show circuit, and one of his producers comes up with the idea of the paternity of every child in America. Suddenly – so he has six and a half million Facebook followers and a million Instagram followers, and he’s become this – a walking meme. And it’s just a big kick for him. He’s – he can wax poetic about what his actually – what he actually accomplishes by determining the paternity of children, and fathers, you know, resume paying for their children instead of denying their existence. So it’s a funny – he doesn’t care what critics say, and I always care. So we have completely different views.

MOSLEY: His memoir is the one that I want to read next. But you actually say if it wasn’t for Maury, you really wouldn’t have the career that you have.

CHUNG: No. He talked me off the ledge many times when I came home, and I said to him, do you know what so-and-so said to me today? And he would say, don’t think about it. Don’t take him seriously. Take your work seriously. Don’t take yourself seriously. Don’t take the critics seriously. Let’s have dinner.

(LAUGHTER)

CHUNG: And I would seriously calm down.

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MOSLEY: Our guest today is Connie Chung. We’ll be right back after a short break. I’m Tonya Mosley, and this is FRESH AIR. This is FRESH AIR. I’m Tonya Mosley, and today my guest is award-winning journalist Connie Chung. She’s written a new memoir about her life and career in television news. She takes us, in the book, behind the scenes of her news career from the showdowns with powerful men to the stories behind some of her career-defining reporting. In 1993, Chung became the first woman to coanchor the “CBS Evening News.” And a few years ago, Chung learned about a phenomenon. From the late ’70s through the mid-’90s, Asian American parents, inspired by seeing Chung on TV, named their daughters Connie, forming the Connie generation.

You know, Connie, your career, it’s not a straight line in that you had to play offense and defense. And you had to be strategic to get the big stories and the interviews. And many times, you won. That’s why you’re so successful. You got what you wanted, but it was never a straight line to get there. And one of the things that you really struggled with is being put on the celebrity beat. Yet, your news bosses felt like you were the one to do those, especially in the ’90s. You were assigned to cover, like, the O.J. murder trial and the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding skating fiasco.

These assignments were, like, an indication of something bigger happening in network television news. There was kind of this shift towards sensationalized journalism and this, like, information saturation at the same time, where the news is always on. And you were in the thick of that. That was really, like, your prime. How did you grapple with that at the time, with your news bosses basically pushing you in that direction?

CHUNG: Well, the problem was that the men could not be pushed into that direction. At CBS News, Dan Rather, who was my coanchor, wouldn’t touch it. At “60 Minutes,” it was all men at the time, and they wouldn’t touch it. They wanted nothing to do with O.J. Simpson. And, frankly, I didn’t either. But the management would come to me and say, Barbara Walters is getting X, Diane Sawyer is getting Y and Katie Couric is getting Z. You have to do this for the team, you know? I said, I don’t want to. I don’t see the value in it. It’s tabloid. I don’t know. You know, Tonya, I have a lot of regrets, but that was one of the biggest ones, of being the good girl.

MOSLEY: Allowing yourself to be put in that…

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CHUNG: Yeah. Absolutely.

MOSLEY: …That category of the entertainment?

CHUNG: Or being told what to do, resisting but never being able to put my foot down and say, I am not doing it. Go find somebody else.

MOSLEY: Well, in hindsight, was there a way to do that? What would’ve happened, do you think, if you had said that?

CHUNG: I don’t know. I really don’t know. I think they just knew I would acquiesce. I wish I had pushed them and put my foot down to take a stand.

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MOSLEY: Well, the thing about the interviews that you did, you really did bring yourself to them. You tried to make them a Connie Chung interview. One of the celebrity interviews that you went after yourself was NBA basketball star Magic Johnson…

CHUNG: Yes.

MOSLEY: …Shortly after he announced he was HIV positive. And I want to play a clip of your interview with him. It was for your show “Face To Face” in 1991. Let’s listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “FACE TO FACE WITH CONNIE CHUNG”)

CHUNG: You’ve known about a month now that you test positive for HIV. How are you handling it? I mean, I get the feeling, see, you put the game face on for me, (laughter) you know, and that you really have some feelings that are down deep in here that you don’t really want to share with me.

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MAGIC JOHNSON: Well, first of all, I share – you know, I’ve never shared my life with anybody publicly, you know, because that’s just me. You know, at home is at home. Now, what you want to give to the public, that’s what you give. Now, with this situation, I’ve given everything from my heart.

CHUNG: Really?

JOHNSON: Yeah. I mean, I came out to say I have it to help people.

MOSLEY: That was my guest, Connie Chung, interviewing Magic Johnson in 1991, just a month after he announced that he was HIV-positive. And, Connie, I know you just mentioned how you really didn’t want to do the celebrity interview because who cares if – you know, about someone’s personal life? But this was a story that had such cultural and social significance because of HIV at that time frame. How did you get that exclusive?

CHUNG: You’re so right, Tonya. The reason why I wanted to get it was because HIV/AIDS was at the – it was a front burner story. And when Magic sacrificed himself and his reputation, his career, everything, and came out, he was such a gem. I used to kind of know Magic because I did the news in Los Angeles. And when he came on live with the sports reporter at the time, he would always say, with his big, beautiful smile, say hi to Connie. And I would (laughter) – you know, he’s just an – his smile is infectious. And he actually asked me to go have some soul food with him and his very tall friends. And we went to Maurice’s Snack ‘n’ Chat, and it was the most incredible gravy-covered fried chicken I had ever had in my life. And I wolfed it down. At that time, I was young. You know, I could eat anything I wanted, and it didn’t show up in bad places. Now there’s a festival going on below my waist.

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(LAUGHTER)

CHUNG: I said, where the heck did that come from? But it – I thought to myself, I can get that interview because I know him and I’m kind of his friend. And then when I called some other people in LA, they all said, oh, Magic’s my friend, I’ll be able to get that interview. But I thought, uh-oh. You know…

MOSLEY: But you actually did it.

CHUNG: I did.

MOSLEY: How did you do it?

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CHUNG: I flew to LA, went straight to his agent’s office and I squatted. I actually became a squatter. I sat outside his office. His assistant said, you know, he’s not going to do – the agent is not going to talk to you, and Magic is not going to do the interview with – and I said, but I’m his friend. And she said, yeah, everybody’s his friend. So I sat down and I said, I’m not leaving until he leaves to go home. So I squatted. And he had only one door to get out. Finally agreed to…

MOSLEY: And he had to pass you, yeah.

CHUNG: Yeah. And somehow, he talked to Magic, and Magic said OK. I was just so happy because it was a big interview, and Magic was too kind.

MOSLEY: Let’s take a short break. If you’re just joining us, my guest is Connie Chung. She’s written a new memoir that chronicles her life growing up with her four older sisters and parents, who migrated from China, and her career as the first woman and Asian American to anchor a national network news program in the U.S. We’ll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR. This is FRESH AIR. Today, I am talking with trailblazing television journalist Connie Chung. She’s written a new memoir about her life and career in television news titled “Connie: A Memoir.” The book chronicles her parents’ harrowing migration from China to the U.S., her first job in television news, breaking major news stories, interviewing luminaries and how she made history as the first woman to coanchor the “CBS Evening News” and the first Asian to anchor a news program in the United States.

You mentioned being fired from the “CBS Evening News.” But it was the day that you were named coanchor with Dan Rather. You call it the best day of your professional life. It was May 14, 1993. And it was a huge deal because Barbara was the only other woman to ever anchor an evening news program. But this relationship that you had with Dan Rather, how would you describe it?

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CHUNG: On the surface, it was very superficially normal-ish. I mean, we seemed as if we were both professional and doing our jobs, but it was pretty clear to me that he didn’t want me there. I don’t blame him totally because he had owned Walter Cronkite’s chair for many years and had to move over a few inches to make room for me. I became the first coanchor at CBS. And he really – I think they must have held a gun to his head because I can’t imagine that he would’ve done it voluntarily. So there I was. And I do believe that had I been another man, had I been an animal, had I been a plant, he would not have wanted me to share. He would not have wanted anyone to share that seat with him. It was not his cup of tea.

MOSLEY: Well, there were so many rules back then with male and female anchor pairings, one being that men had the upper hand on who even spoke first.

CHUNG: Yes. Jane Pauley had to endure that when she was coanchoring with men.

MOSLEY: And you found that out when you were filling in for her on the “Today” show.

CHUNG: Yeah, could not say good morning and could not say goodbye.

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MOSLEY: Bryant Gumbel had to say it first.

CHUNG: That’s right. And she fought it, and she acknowledged that she lost. And I didn’t know that at the time. I thought, how could she acquiesce to this kind of ridiculous rule? And so I tried, and I lost, too. So I was, you know, hoping that I could set a new term for my substitution period when I was substituting for her during her pregnancies.

MOSLEY: Do you still have that thing you referenced many times in the book, do you still have that male envy…

CHUNG: I do.

MOSLEY: …In spite of all of your accomplishments? Yeah. How does that show itself? Like, what is that envy, just the power that they have?

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CHUNG: Yes, it’s the automatic respect that men get just by virtue of the fact that they’re men. I think we are perpetually trying to prove ourselves. And I think we’ve made great progress. I think women and minorities have made great progress. But Asians suffer this incredible Asian hate these days, which has reverted back to a peculiar – I mean, not peculiar, but horrible results. Women have not reached the level of parity. I think we can’t sort of quietly sit and see if it’s going to happen. We just need to continue to move forward.

MOSLEY: I know that you talk with a lot of young folks who are television correspondents and reporters and anchors. And you watch the news now. Do you see a difference? Do you see a change in that dynamic? What do you notice when you watch TV news today?

CHUNG: Well, I really appreciate the investigative reporting in television news, in all print everywhere. Any time I see an investigative report, I’m impressed. What I don’t like, of course, is if I see opinion. And there’s a lot of that. I would really like the news to swing back to objective, honest, credible straight news. And I know a lot of people – you know, people I just run into – want facts. That’s all they want.

MOSLEY: Do you miss it?

CHUNG: Only when I see – when I’m watching an interview on television, I want to throw my shoe at it if somebody isn’t asking the question, the next question that I would ask, you know, doesn’t do a follow-up. It’s very strange. I miss that, the interviews and being able to dig deeper, but I also miss the joy of going after a story that’s worthy. And I know it sounds really old-fashioned, but it’s the – if I can change a government wrong or change an attitude regarding social ills or whatever, something like that, I think it’s so gratifying. And I know a lot of my friends still feel that way as well. And they get to do it sometimes. But sometimes the ball is rolling over them, and they’re just lucky to be still in the business. And I’m happy for them because I’m looking in from the outside.

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MOSLEY: Connie Chung, thank you so much for this conversation.

CHUNG: Tonya, I think you did the best interview that I’ve done on this – that I’ve ever done, seriously. You’re a hottie not only as you – I’ve seen in pictures…

(LAUGHTER)

CHUNG: But you’re a really, really good interviewer, too.

MOSLEY: Well, this was such a pleasure, Connie.

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CHUNG: Thank you, Tonya. You were great. I mean, seriously.

MOSLEY: Connie Chung. I spoke with her in September when her memoir, “Connie,” was released. Coming up, jazz historian Kevin Whitehead looks back at the musicians we lost this year. This is FRESH AIR.

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