Connie Chung Revisits the Interview That Ended Her CBS News Career

The substitute

It should be noted that Kathleen Gingrich only appeared on Eye to Eye in the first place because her son declined the interview request. In his memoir, Chung describes how the newly elected Speaker gave permission for the magazine to speak with his mother, father and three sisters on his behalf at the Gingrich home in Dauphin, Pennsylvania. She also remembers being impressed by the matriarch of the family right away.

“Mrs. Gingrich struck me as a fierce and fearless woman,” Chung writes, comparing the general tone of her interview to “kibitzing … around the dining room table.”

Despite the sincerity of her subject, Chung says she didn’t expect Gingrich to be so honest about her son’s opinion of Hillary Clinton. “I thought, ‘Oh my god, did he really say that?'” he recalls reliving the exact moment he heard that infamous whisper. “The expression on my face shouldn’t have revealed anything, even though I think my eyes popped a little!”

Chalk that reaction up to a combination of shock value and a recognition that she had a mother of a soundbite. “When TV reporters hear something that we know is going to be a sound, it certainly gets recorded,” he says. “It didn’t fly over my head. And [Mrs. Gingrich] he pulled no punches – she walked away. She was having a lot of fun, I think. “

The floodgates open

The blockbuster potential of that soundbite also registered with those in charge of CBS News, who put the quote “B****” front and center in a press release that made the rounds the day before Eye aired to Eye. That specific clip also played on the Jan. 4 episode of CBS Morning, which featured co-hosts Harry Smith and Paula Zahn interview with Newt Gingrich and the Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.

In his memoir, Chung describes CBS News’ decision to release that part of the interview out of context as “a blatant attempt to drum up ratings” for Eye to Eye. She also notes that it gave Gingrich himself time to craft an indignant response suitable for his CBS Morning appearance.

“My mother is not a professional politician,” he told Zahn, adding, “I think it’s disrespectful for a national correspondent to say, ‘Whisper me,’ and then put it on the air.”

As Chung notes in Connie, the CBS Morning excerpt omitted an earlier part of the interview where Gingrich’s mother whispered an unprompted answer, indicating that the “shy whisper game” in the spotlight in the controversial clip it originated with her. That moment was preserved in the Eye to Eye segment, but by the time it aired on January 5, the damage had been done.