Sam Donaldson

Sam Donaldson
Samuel Andrew "Sam" Donaldson, Jr.is an American reporter and news anchor, serving with ABC News from 1967 to 2013. He is best known as the network's White House Correspondentand as a panelist and later co-anchor of the network's Sunday program, This Week...
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth11 March 1934
CityEl Paso, TX
apparent fourth homicide july ranch santa shocked sometime took triple weekend
My wife, Jan, and I are shocked by the apparent triple homicide that took place on our ranch in Hondo, New Mexico, sometime over the Fourth of July weekend while we were away in Santa Fe,
clarity greater nine punch
He can take a story, compress it into nine or 10 words, and have a greater clarity and punch then when I write two paragraphs.
american-journalist final five high promoted sergeant six year
At the end of that year I was promoted to sergeant. Only five or six of us got promoted to sergeant for our final year in high school.
american-journalist business early enjoyed knew might news
I knew early on that the news business was right for me. I enjoyed it, it was fun. If I thought it was work, I might not have done it.
answers damage media-training
The questions don't do the damage. Only the answers do.
two trying president
So when I cover the president, I try to remember two things: First, if you don't ask, you don't find out; and second, the questions don't do the damage. Only the answers do.
radio kind exciting
It was kind of exciting being on the radio. Not everybody was on the radio.
military school suits-you
And from a military school which taught me that to fit into society, you can't just do anything you damn well please because it will suit you. And that it's much better to be with the winners than it is with the losers.
boys agriculture looks
I was a typical farm boy. I liked the farm. I enjoyed the things that you do on a farm, go down to the drainage ditch and fish, and look at the crawfish and pick a little cotton.
texas hospitality born
Well, I was born in El Paso, Texas, it was in the nearest hospital to the family farm.
sticks overcoming wells
If you have a setback, and you're not doing well and then you overcome it somehow, it always sticks with you. You know it could happen again.
years age east
I didn't come east of the Mississippi for the first time in my life until I was 26 years of age, but I knew. I read magazines, I listened to radio, I watched television. I knew there was something out there, and I wanted a part of it.
night texas cities
And on election night I'd go down to city hall in El Paso, Texas and cover the election. In those days, of course, we didn't have exit polls. You didn't know who had won the election until they actually counted the votes. I thought that was exciting too.
success congratulations mean
I don't know many people, if any, who have had some straight line toward success. I mean, they start here, they work hard, they've got what it takes, and they just go straight to the top over some number of years. Most people get a little failure.