Press: Just Bray It Again, Sam

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Donaldson's demeanor of adolescent rebellion—as the kind of kid who got A's on tests and F's in behavior and took equal pride in both—can make him appear undisciplined. In reality, he brings to his work the same dogged determination that carried him from a "sad rat" freshman to a "sharp sergeant" at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. Raised by a strict Baptist mother in El Paso, Donaldson returned to attend Western Texas College. After graduate school at the University of Southern California and a stint in the Army, he came back to Texas. In 1959 he got a job with KRLD, the Dallas radio affiliate of CBS. All three TV networks initially rejected him for lack of newspaper experience; but after he reported from 1961 to 1967 for the respected WTOP in Washington, he joined ABC, which lagged far behind in news, and soon began to cover Congress. Donaldson rose steadily and was assigned to follow Candidate Jimmy Carter in 1976. When Carter won, Donaldson drew the White House beat and stayed, as ABC's ratings and prestige slowly climbed under Arledge's leadership.

Twice divorced and the father of four children, Donaldson lives in a McLean, Va., condominium and admits, "I do not do anything but work." Though he blames his job for destroying his second marriage, he plans to wed again on April 19, to Kansas City TV Reporter Jan Smith, whom he met at ABC.

Donaldson is the most controversial White House correspondent since CBS's Dan Rather left that post in 1974. Moreover, in contrast to Rather and most other reporters and anchors, Donaldson voices his political opinions freely. On the Sunday-morning ABC roundtable led by David Brinkley, where Donaldson is a regular, he lambasted the Reagan Administration's so-called squeal rule, which would compel health agencies to inform parents when dispensing birth control devices to women under 18. Said Donaldson: "It is an awful idea. That is the problem with this Administration. Too often it wants to dictate morals to the American people."

Donaldson wins no popularity contests with the Reagan team. In fact, he says he was told that an Administration official once warned ABC executives that the White House might revoke Donaldson's press pass. One reason Donaldson has since been able to achieve peace with the Administration, suggests former longtime CBS White House Correspondent Robert Pierpoint, is that the confrontational style, far from putting the President on the spot, "has played right into Reagan's hands. Donaldson and others intrude with a simple shot, and Reagan bounces it back with a shallow quip that plays beautifully onscreen. The exchange gives the appearance that he has answered the question when he has not." Says Donaldson: "Sometimes what comes out of my mouth is not carefully formed, and that can let Reagan off the hook."