Roone Arledge Quotes & Sayings

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Television is a powerful medium that has to be used for something better than sitcoms and police shows. On the other hand, if you don't recognize the forces that play on what people watch and what they don't then you're a fool and you should be in a different business.”

“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.”

“One of the reasons why when Elvis dies or the Son of Sam is captured ABC News' ratings go up is because people who don't normally watch news are watching then. The question is, do you want to attract people who don't watch network news or fight over the people who do?”

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

“People also don't care about the daily comings and goings of diplomats and yet we must report it.”

“In fact, I had a series of offers which would have brought me a lot of money to make films and package TV programs. There were people who said to me, we'll put a million dollars in your bank account tomorrow, which is a hard thing to turn down.”

“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.”