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 want everybody in the news business to think of ABC before they go any place else. If it costs us an extra few thousand dollars to do that, what does it mean?

I respect the game that goes on of putting this against that, but I don't respect, nor do I enjoy, an awful lot of the actual programs that go on the air.

Most of what we report from Congress they don't care about unless it affects them directly.

You can only make so much money in life and only enjoy so many creature comforts. The important thing is to do something meaningful-to leave something behind.

I'm sensitive about my image of being hard to reach.

I don't think any industry was ever as closely scrutinized and written about and constantly in the public eye as television.