Cbs Rises To Defend Chung’s Journalism

CBS officials say they are worried about possible damage to the image of news anchor Connie Chung and will do what they can to protect her from further hits.

Chung’s journalism has come under fire in the past year for three incidents:

Her near Siamese-twin attachment to skater Tonya Harding during the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Her interview on her “Eye to Eye” newsmagazine with Faye Resnick, author of a controversial - some say sleazy - book about O.J. Simpson’s late wife Nicole.

And her “just between you and me” inquiry last week, also on “Eye to Eye,” that prompted House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s mother, Kathleen Gingrich, to confide - to the country, as it turned out - that her son had called first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton a “bitch.”

“There is a potential image problem (for Chung) that obviously I’m concerned about,” said Andrew Heyward, vice president of CBS News and executive producer of “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and Connie Chung.”

Heyward said, “I would be lying if I didn’t say I that I’m worried … but I’m not losing sleep over it.”

Appearing before a gathering of TV critics on Saturday, Heyward and other CBS executives blamed network pressure and mismanagement, but not Chung, for shots she has taken from critics.

“It’s our obligation to continue to do everything we can to get her past this, because most of it, I think, is unfair,” said Eric Ober, president of CBS News. “But did we cause some of it ourselves? Absolutely.”

Ober said CBS needs to “work real hard at achieving a balance” for Chung between investigative reporting and major interviews.

Though it has been her interviews that have come under criticism, Ober said the network would not forbid Chung from pursuing highprofile interviews “even if they’re not quite high road.”

Howard Stringer, president of the CBS Broadcast Group, called Chung “smart and hard-working and perhaps one of the best on-air anchors that television has ever seen.” He said he planned to phone Chung and tell her to relax, adding that CBS may have put too much pressure on its newsmagazine shows to succeed. Chung may have felt the pressure intensely because her “Eye to Eye” was low in the ratings and appeared near cancellation.

Ober and Heyward defended Chung’s “just between you and me” approach in the interview with Kathleen Gingrich. But they acknowledged that the network erred in promoting Chung’s newsmagazine by using the “bitch” quote and by airing the interview to coincide with Newt Gingrich being sworn in as House speaker.