Dan Rather

The former CBS anchor, 75, has just launched his own weekly news magazine, Dan Rather Reports, on the high-definition network, HDNet.

ON HIS NEW JOB Our goal is to pull no punches, play no favorites. I do not exempt myself from criticism, but I think American journalism has demonstrated that it is too tentative, too bowing to power.

ON KATIE COURIC Katie is a nice person and a very experienced television performer. I haven't seen a lot of the broadcast. I have said before that, from what little I have seen, they seem to want to do something like Today in the evenings. They are still in the formative stages of what they are doing. In my mind, it will be the end of February, early March before we see.

ON WHETHER HE HAS A LIBERAL BIAS I am independent with a capital "I." Fiercely independent. When you don't report the news the way someone with their own partisan agenda wants you to, they try to pin some negative label on you. When you work on stories such as the civil rights movement, Vietnam and Watergate, you make enemies, and your enemies don't forget.

ON HIS COMEDY CENTRAL ELECTION-NIGHT GIG I loved it. Let's face it, being with people as smart as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is a risky business. They are equal-opportunity insulters, and I mean that as a compliment. What's life without risk?