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CNN Live Event/Special
Media's Big Stars Speak at Arledge Funeral
Aired December 09, 2002 - 10:55 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're watching a mix of personalities who are paying tribute this morning to television pioneer and innovator Roone Arledge. Right now, speaking at his funeral service this morning at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York is Ted Koppel.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
TED KOPPEL, HOST, "NIGHTLINE": ... and our good friend and colleague, Joanna Bistany died just a few short days ago. But then, Roone always did need someone to do the advance work on his more difficult trips.
May God bless them both and give comfort to you, Gigi, and to Roone's sons and daughters, Betsy, Susan, Patricia and the boss, and also to all of us who loved him.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS: I'm not sure I really trust myself to try to tell you everything Roone meant to me, but I do know that the biggest surprise to me last Friday morning was the silence in the universe, in the place where I used to hear Roone thinking. And it seemed to me, I never noticed that, for so many of us in this room, he was the global positioning system, whereby we always tried to fathom what path we were on, asking, "Did Roone smile, did he really smile, and, was it good enough for him, really good enough for him," or "he wants me to compete against Barbara?" It can't be he wants me to compete against Barbara?
And most of all, the thing that I guess meant the most, when you learn you had surprised Roone, because in any room he always had the youngest dreams. And I learned a little more about those dreams, thanks to Gigi, wonderful, intuitive, consoling and constant, Gigi, who has allowed me to read to you what Roone said about himself and the dream of entering television.
These are a few fragments from the opening chapter of the memoir he was writing. The legend looking back at the little boy. I wonder what he would have made of me. I'm talking about the ordinary little boy with the thatch of red hair and the funny-sounding first name. What would he have thought of this full-grown gray bearded in the next century, walking with a cane, my late life disease that now afflicts so many human beings, a legend in television, did you say? What would have been stranger to that little boy, the idea that he might grow up to win a lifetime achievement award in television or television itself.
Because we were listeners, the radio stars and personality were significant in our lives, Edward R. Murrow speaking from the rooftops of London, Eric Sevareid, Howard K. Smith, Charles Collingwood. From my mother, a Scott, I learn good manners. Also, I learned personal attention to detail, a characteristic that would annoy some of my BAC colleagues to no end.
HARRIS: We step away now from that ceremony and we take you to now live to Washington.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 9, 2002 - 10:55 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're watching a mix of personalities who are paying tribute this morning to television pioneer and innovator Roone Arledge. Right now, speaking at his funeral service this morning at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York is Ted Koppel.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
TED KOPPEL, HOST, "NIGHTLINE": ... and our good friend and colleague, Joanna Bistany died just a few short days ago. But then, Roone always did need someone to do the advance work on his more difficult trips.
May God bless them both and give comfort to you, Gigi, and to Roone's sons and daughters, Betsy, Susan, Patricia and the boss, and also to all of us who loved him.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS: I'm not sure I really trust myself to try to tell you everything Roone meant to me, but I do know that the biggest surprise to me last Friday morning was the silence in the universe, in the place where I used to hear Roone thinking. And it seemed to me, I never noticed that, for so many of us in this room, he was the global positioning system, whereby we always tried to fathom what path we were on, asking, "Did Roone smile, did he really smile, and, was it good enough for him, really good enough for him," or "he wants me to compete against Barbara?" It can't be he wants me to compete against Barbara?
And most of all, the thing that I guess meant the most, when you learn you had surprised Roone, because in any room he always had the youngest dreams. And I learned a little more about those dreams, thanks to Gigi, wonderful, intuitive, consoling and constant, Gigi, who has allowed me to read to you what Roone said about himself and the dream of entering television.
These are a few fragments from the opening chapter of the memoir he was writing. The legend looking back at the little boy. I wonder what he would have made of me. I'm talking about the ordinary little boy with the thatch of red hair and the funny-sounding first name. What would he have thought of this full-grown gray bearded in the next century, walking with a cane, my late life disease that now afflicts so many human beings, a legend in television, did you say? What would have been stranger to that little boy, the idea that he might grow up to win a lifetime achievement award in television or television itself.
Because we were listeners, the radio stars and personality were significant in our lives, Edward R. Murrow speaking from the rooftops of London, Eric Sevareid, Howard K. Smith, Charles Collingwood. From my mother, a Scott, I learn good manners. Also, I learned personal attention to detail, a characteristic that would annoy some of my BAC colleagues to no end.
HARRIS: We step away now from that ceremony and we take you to now live to Washington.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
