A: I find it so tiring. I'm tired of being interviewed--by you, by other people. It's a diversion of time that I'd rather be using for something else. It's part of the damned business of show business and news people are getting into that, like Woodward and Bernstein, for instance. I think we're beginning to examine our own navel to the point where it's getting ridiculous.

Q: Are you aware of a certain school of journalistic thought that contrasts you with Edward R. Murrow and concludes that Murrow was somehow a more cerebral communicator?

A: I think that's probably right. I think he was more cerebral.

Q: What makes Murrow such a giant?

A: Well, the same reason that I'm sort of giant at this time, and I say that only so it doesn't sound like I'm putting down Murrow. I have the advantage of longevity; that's one reason why, it may be the only reason, why I'm talking with you now. And not for any particular accomplishment, but just for this long standard of doing a lot of things. Murrow had the advantage of being a pioneer. Now this should not take away from Murrow; indeed it should add to Murrow's stature because it was Murrow's high standards in hiring during World War II when Mr. Paley said put together a news operation and he hired the right people...he insisted that they get away from the chauvinistic aspects of radio, which wasn't terribly keen on whether the facts were all there.

Q: Was Murrow mistreated by the network in the last years of his life? Robert Metz, in Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye, wrote at some length...

A: Which I haven't read.

Q: If you were Harry Reasoner, would you be upset at the way things have been handled with Barbara Walters?

A: I don't know how they've been handled. If you're talking about the publicity. I would have been upset if it had broken without my having any knowledge of it.

Q: Is it safe to assume that ABC will now crank up an enormous publicity barrage before Walters goes on the air?

A: I would think so...

Q: Not unlike what happened to Sally Quinn?

A: Barbara Walters is far more of a known broadcaster than Sally Quinn was. I don't think that any of us doubt that Sally Quinn was badly handled, because the publicity was all built up for an unknown quantity. But you're not doing this with Barbara Walters...presumably she has to win her spurs, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have a terrific track record.

Q: You think she's a good journalist?

A: I think she's very good for what she's done so far, what she's been permitted to do so far, and I don't know any reason why those talents can't be diverted. I don't know if she can write her name. I don't really know. But maybe she's not required to.