Dion Lim is an American
news anchor and reporter for
KGO-TV
KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network through its ABC Owne ...
/ABC7. She is known for reporting on violence against Asian Americans.
Early life
Lim was born in Michigan and moved to
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
as a teenager. She often states, including in her first book published by
McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...
, being one of only a handful of Asian Americans in her predominantly white communities.
Career
Lim's first on-air job was in
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...
, and she was then offered a job as an anchor in
Kansas City. Lim also worked as a news anchor in
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...
, and the
Tampa Bay area of Florida. While working, she faced racism from viewers, including being compared to
Connie Chung.
Lim was working for
KGO-TV
KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network through its ABC Owne ...
when the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
began. She had reported on previous attacks on Asians, such as the attack on an elderly man collecting cans in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, but she saw instances of
anti-Asian sentiment increasing during the pandemic. She wrote in an
op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted a ...
that reporting on these attacks gave her purpose.
In an interview with Lawrence Yee and J. Clara Chan of ''
TheWrap'', she and fellow journalist
CeFaan Kim spoke about the experience of being Asian American journalists reporting on the subject. She was also interviewed about her coverage of anti-Asian violence on a
PBS NewsHour
''PBS News Hour'', previously stylized as ''PBS NewsHour'', is the news division of PBS and an American daily evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stat ...
segment.
In January 2021, she conducted an interview with
Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco
district attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...
. During the interview, Lim questioned him about a fatal car crash caused by Troy McAlister, a parolee Boudin's office had previously declined to charge following other infractions.
Honors
* Named in nonprofit
Gold House's list of 2021's 100 most impactful Asians and
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
s
*2020
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
, Anchoring: "Three Hour Solo Anchoring, Gilroy Shooting"
*Certificate of Honor recipient from the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California.
Government and polit ...
See also
*
Xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Dion
Living people
American women television journalists
21st-century American women journalists
21st-century American journalists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Emerson College alumni
American people of Chinese descent
American women of Asian descent