The current wisdom now is that if the three networks are covering the news the same way the difference is the anchor people. I think that won't be true in the future.

In the past ABC has made half-hearted efforts or, worse, cosmetic efforts, to do something about news and I wasn't certain about what their real aim was - nor am I now.

But unlike the setup in most organizations, where there's an administrator on top and creative people or doers underneath, I'm basically a doer and I like to have administrative people underneath me.

One of the towering people in this industry said, why don't you go and make a five-year contract with somebody, make yourself several million dollars and put it away, then go and do whatever you want, work for public TV if you want.

I don't expect to win every battle but I think Fred Pierce has enough respect for me that I can go fight my battles and win my share.

But if you cover the World Series on the news or do a feature on an Ali boxing match then all of a sudden ears go up all over the place and people say what the hell are you doing. The reason for that is that we're doing something that people are really interested in.

I think we have erred on the side of being too conservative so far, to tell you the truth.