female frenemyship

Connie Chung Says Working With Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer Was Like a ‘Game of Whack-a-Mole’

Photo: Getty Images

You never know exactly what the work environment is going to be at any job. For former news anchor Connie Chung, her experience working at ABC News was less than perfect due to the environment created by two of her co-workers — and it may not be the co-workers you were expecting. In an interview with Andrew Goldman for Los Angeles Magazine’s “The Originals” podcast, Chung shared that while working alongside fellow future famous female reporters Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer, she felt like she was “always playing a game of whack-a-mole.” “I popped my head up and one of them would have a hammer and go whack, and put me down back in my little hole,” says Chung in an excerpt from the interview, now making the rounds on Twitter.

Chung was initially optimistic about joining ABC News with Walters and Sawyer at first, thinking they’d be able to form a kinship as women. “Oh, this is going to be great,” said Chung. “It’ll be three women who get along.’” But things quickly took a turn south as the women were forced to compete for interviews and airtime, with Chung affirming Goldman’s speculation that the environment was “like a shark tank.” When asked how it feels to get knee-capped professionally by Walters and Sawyer, Chung responded, “It’s not unlike what Tonya Harding did to Nancy Kerrigan.” Yikes. From whack-a-mole to shark tanks to I, Tonya cosplay, it appeared to be very difficult to navigate an office full of girl bosses in the mid ’70s. Sigh, sounds like sisters were really doing it for themselves back in the day.

Connie Chung Dishes on Working With Barbara Walters