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Not doing it?

--not doing it, considering that the days at CBS became more difficult for you eventually, in the late sixties?

No, I never regretted it. I think it would have been much, this is probably an admission of my own arrogance, really. I didn't contemplate that I would have any difficulty being confirmed. Ruth had said to me: “I don't want you to go through what you're going to have to go through to do something that you can't do because the staffing and everything else is so built in that you're not going to have a free hand. Don't kid yourself that you're going to do something. I'll be loyal.”

There wasn't any question about staying with me, but I know she said to me one time, when Johnson got her on the phone and chewed her out about the fact, because he smelled the fact that she was--

Really? That's interesting.

--that she was holding me back. She answered the phone, and she was very rigid in telling him that she would not discuss it. That it was my decision, and if I wanted to do it, that was okay. She was very clear on that. She hung up and she said: “You go, but I think I'll stay here because I'm not going to go down there and see you get beat up the way you'll get beat up.” And I think she was right.

Yes. Very realistic.