But you were entertaining. Like fellow Texan Dan Rather nailing Nixon in 1974 after the exasperated prez demanded to know if pesky Dan was "running for something." Dan: "No, sir. Are you?" Those were the days when reporters had balls and weren't intimidated by the White House press machine. [I'm trying to fathom why the Huffington Post used this photo, right, to announce Sam's retirement]Sam Donaldson - he of the bad toupee and booming pipes - is retiring. The 74-year-old ABC News gets off the hamster wheel after 41 years. Howard Kurtz Wash Post
The no-bullshit Texan got into it with George W. in 2006 when Bush called Donaldson a "has-been." Donaldson shot back: "Better to have been a has-been than a never was."
Donaldson was famous for yelling at Ronald Reagan during WH press conferences. As you'll see here it was hard to pull one over on "The Great Communicator:"
Read more about Donaldson's broadcast career here.
The wonderful unintended consequences of the Bush video is that I get to see the wonderful Tony Snow again.
ReplyDeleteI will always miss him.
Once, at the ABC bureau on DeSales Street in DC, Sam jumped up on the desk of an intern to shout at her. Apparently, the intimidation wasn't sufficient to cause a career change for Katie Couric.
ReplyDeleteGood Bye ye olde Sam we shall miss thee.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Donaldson when he was a panelist with Cokie Roberts on "This Week With David Brinkley". Not so much when they had that show themselves, but that may have been because Stephanopoulos started on there with them. I don't care for that little weasel... reminds me of a boy with a man's head.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was an anchor at WTOP radio in Washington where Sam was for a time way before me.
ReplyDeleteSomebody in the newsroom told me that Sam could do a radio newscast without a script. He was that good.
Years later I tried to do the same and was nearly fired.
Isn't that the broadcasters' nightmare? Going on the air without a script? I cannot tell you how many times I've had variations of that dream. I still have them today...
I remember when I was an anchor at WTOP radio in Washington where Sam was for a time way before me.
ReplyDeleteSomebody in the newsroom told me that Sam could do a radio newscast without a script. He was that good.
Years later I tried to do the same and was nearly fired.
Isn't that the broadcasters' nightmare? Going on the air without a script? I cannot tell you how many times I've had variations of that dream. I still have them today...