''Eye to Eye With Connie Chung'' is an American news show that aired on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
from 1993 to 1995. The show, hosted by
Connie Chung
Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist. She has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow ...
as a second project from her time as co-anchoring the ''
CBS Evening News
The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature s ...
'' with
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. (; born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist, commentator, and former national evening news anchor. Rather began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hurr ...
, she hosted and would often report, either on individual stories or doing interviews. The series typically ran about 4 or 5 stories in each one-hour installment.
Controversy
The show caused a great deal of controversy in early 1995 when Chung was interviewing then-
Speaker of the House
The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England.
Usage
The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U ...
's mother, Kathleen. Chung asked her what her son thought of then-
First Lady
First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
, and, when Kathleen didn't answer right away, Connie said she could whisper, and it could be between them. Subsequently, Ms. Gingrich's microphone volume was turned up, and her reply was "He thinks she's a bitch", which sparked instant attention. Congressman Gingrich complained publicly, saying the network "took advantage" of his mother. The unwanted publicity to both Chung and CBS News contributed to Chung being dropped as co-anchor of the ''Evening News'' in May 1995, which prompted her to leave the network altogether. ''Eye to Eye'' would continue airing until that August, although "with Connie Chung" was dropped from the title.
Correspondents
When Chung herself was not reporting or interviewing, the program's other stories were reported on by one of five correspondents. The correspondents were:
*
Bernard Goldberg
Bernard Richard Goldberg (born May 31, 1945) is an American author, journalist, and pundit (expert), political pundit. Goldberg has won fourteen Emmy Awards and was a producer, reporter and correspondent for CBS News for twenty-eight years (1972â ...
* Edie Magnus
*
Russ Mitchell
Russell Edward Mitchell (born March 25, 1960) is an American journalist best known for his career at CBS where he was anchor of ''The Early Show'' on Saturday, news anchor for ''The Early Show'' during the week, and weekend anchor of the ''CBS ...
*
Roberta Baskin
Roberta Baskin is an American journalist and nonprofit director. She co-founded and served as Executive Director of the AIM2Flourish global learning initiative, hosted at Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at the Weatherhead ...
* Bill Lagattuta
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eye To Eye With Connie Chung
1990s American television news shows
CBS original programming
1993 American television series debuts
1995 American television series endings
Television series by CBS Studios