Sam Donaldson is one of the few newscasters that started their careers in their forties. He was born in El Paso in Texas, March 11, 1934 - the same year as his coeval college Nick Clooney. His full name was Samuel Andrew Donaldson Jr. and he was born in the family of a Chloe, a teacher, and Samuel Andrew Donaldson who was a farmer. His spouse is Jan Smith. His first acquaintances with nationwide media involve sending reports to
ABC from Vietnam in 1971.
Broadcasting was an interest of his from an early age. He attended New Mexico Military Institute, but had a great interest in media, too. After graduating high school, he majored in telecommunications at Texas Western University, where he was the station manager of the campus radio station. Sam took many different jobs at radio stations and had a fair share of luck as he was one of the few who saw television emerge as an announcer in an El Paso television station. After supporting a successful election campaign for Eisenhower in 1956, during which he first saw the American leaders, Samuel went to serve in the military for two and a half years and was discharged only in the beginning of 1959. The end of Donaldson's military service marked a new beginning in his career.
He started working in Dallas as a television announcer, but left after a year and flew to NYC and then to Washington, where he found a job in WTOP. Initially being affiliated with
CBS news, Sam found his fortune as the anchorman of the
ABC News. The first ten years of his work in
CBS were quite pale; Samuel covered mainly long-forgotten presidential campaigns. He did, however, cover some historical events like the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War.
He finally found his luck in 1977. He was assigned to cover the Carter administration, and was quickly recognized by viewers (and White House staff, too) for his powerful voice and aggressive interviewing style, and remained the main person to cover White House events until 1989. After the change of administration, Donaldson was one of the few who had the courage to put difficult questions on the new president Ronald Reagan. Sam is perhaps mostly remembered by his deep voice that could always be heard in the press conferences of the Reagan administration.
After he left the White House covering post in 1989, he was the host of a Sunday news program for a whopping ten years, when he returned to the White House right on time for the Clinton sex scandal. He only remained in the post for a year and a half as his White House press influence was quite rusty. He returned to the Sunday news program and still occasionally can be seen on
ABC World News.
Donaldson had worked 41 years at
CBS before announcing retirement in February 2009. Mind that Donaldson will turn 76 in the following year. Albeit not a reporter of historical events, Sam was quite a sensational figure during Reagan's run as president and will probably be remembered for that. In an interview he jokingly said that he'll be remembered best for his voice, and will have 'He yelled at president Reagan!' written on his tombstone.
