TV REVIEW : Connie Chung Goes ‘Eye to Eye’ With Roger Clinton

“Hey, bubba, what’s up?”

That’s First Brother Roger Clinton greeting the President on the phone in the lead segment of tonight’s premiere of “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung” (at 9 on CBS, Channels 2 and 8).

An “Eye to Eye” story by Edie Magnus is more compelling, exploring claims by a California girl that she was sexually harassed by boys at her junior high school.

So is Bernard Goldberg’s piece on the mysterious case of Marine Col. James Sabow, whose death was officially termed a suicide but whose family and friends believe the Vietnam hero was killed by U.S. military operatives to stop him from revealing an alleged Marine connection with international drug smugglers.

But it’s bubba’s baby brother, Roger, who will capture the most attention, not only because of his past associations with drugs and alcohol but also because the reporter for this thin profile is the newest superstar of CBS News, Dan Rather’s new co-anchor and the headliner for this magazine series, Connie Chung.

Will singer-musician Roger Clinton turn out to be President Clinton’s Billy Carter?

The segment features some tender home movies of the Clinton brothers as kids, and some interesting footage of then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton announcing Roger’s indictment on drug trafficking charges in 1984. The younger Clinton was snared in a sting operation that, we’re told, was approved by his brother.

We also hear Roger Clinton--who was released from prison in 1986--denying rumors that he’s fallen off the wagon. Viewers can draw their own conclusions from footage of Clinton seeming to lose control at a New York Knicks game and physically assaulting another fan who said something that offended him.

Talk about being offended, though. It’s at this point that Chung goes eye to eye, giving Clinton an earful while grabbing the spotlight and self-righteously judging her subject instead of remaining an uninvolved reporter.

“Do you think that incident was embarrassing to your brother?” she asks.

“Not at all.”

Chung is incredulous. “You really don’t?”

“No.”

Now Chung is pleading. “You honestly don’t think that was embarrassing?”

“No!”

“C’mon, are you serious?”

“I’m dead serious. I’m dead serious.”

Now Chung is lecturing. “Roger, don’t you know by now that you shouldn’t react that way? Your brother is President of the United States.”

“Every now and then I slip up.”

Schoolmarm Chung verbally boxes his ears. “Isn’t it not good enough to say, ‘Every now and then I slip up’?”

“No, it has to be good enough.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m human, and I can’t change just because I’m supposed to.”

His response doesn’t satisfy Chung. “I can’t help but wonder,” she says, as if anyone cares what she’s wondering, “if something’s happening to you, you know? That you’re getting a little out of control and this being in the limelight is just a little too tough.”

That makes two of them.