Sam Donaldson Offers Look at News Reporting
By Mike Zerbe
Sam Donaldson, "rude,
insensitive, crude, debasing, autocratic,
unfeeling, judgmental, condescending,
superior and stubborn," so writes a
woman from Waterford, Maine. Not so,
says the man who has been the ABC
News White House correspondent since
1977. "I understand criticism goes with
my job," says Donaldson.
In, Hold On, Mr.
President, both the title of his
autobiography and a phrase Donaldson
claims to have never actually said to
either Presidents Jimmy Carter or
Ronald Reagan, he presents the "story of
how I got into the news business, got
into the White House press room and
under the skin of presidents and other
public figures."
Much of what Donaldson says
relates closely to the role and
responsiblities of a journalist, both in
print and on radio/television. In his
position as ABC News White House
correspondent, Donaldson states that he
has but one goal, "to find out what's
'really' going on at the White House,"
not to report just what the President and
his aides say, but to report what it all
means. He feels to be effective,
questions which reporters ask must be
short and specific, not ones that will
allow the president to talk around the
question and restate his views on a
particular topic.
He feels the main objective in
questioning the president is to put him
on the public record. When questioning
a president, Donaldson says there are two
things he tries to remember. "First, if
you don't ask, you don't find out; and
second, the questions don't do the
damage. Only the answers do."
Donaldson feels Watergate was
the most intense and most difficult story
he ever covered. He felt convinced that
President Nixon was guilty of criminal
conspiracy to obstruct justice. As a
good reporter, he knew he had to keep
his personal views out of his reporting,
which in retrospect, he doesn't feel he
was always able to do. The intensive
coverage by the media of the Watergate
scandal, from the initial break-in, the
Saturday night Massacre, the
impeachment vote of the House
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Book Review
Judiciary Committee to the final
departure from Washington of Richard
Nixon, is detailed by Donaldson, as an
insider. In his role as a reporter
speaking in retrospect on both the
Watergate affair and the Vietnam war,
Donaldson feels that the press in those
early days wasn't skeptical enough of the
government. He feels that lies and
attempts to cover up the truth were
accepted by the media because they came
from the White House. Because of this,
he now says, "I conclude that a reporter's
role ought to be one of continuing,
Call wur mummy
unrelenting skepticism about
government's actions, not hostility, but
a continuing eyes-open look at what the
establishment is doing."
Donaldson continues
throughout his book to relate his
experiences both before his White House
days and during the days of the Carter
and Reagan presidencies with stories too
numerous to mention in this report, but
ones which I feel compel me to
recommend this book to others who
have an interest in the politics and
policies of Washington and the White
House occupants over the past ten years.
As a final note, for all that he
says about the responsibility of
journalists to keep their personal
opinions out of the news, to not allow
themselves to become insiders, swayed
by those who make the news, and to
always be accurate in the news they
report, I found what I consider to be a
flaw in Donaldson's book-- an inaccurate
quote. When writing about Richard
Nixon's famous "last" press conference
after the California 1962 gubernatorial
race, Donaldson quotes Nixon as saying,
"you won't have Nixon to kick around
anymore." As most of us know the true
words spoken by Nixon that night were,
"You won't have 'Dick' Nixon to kick
around anymore." I must admit, a minor
error, but come on Sam, that first rule of
reporting is accuracy, especially when
using quotes!!!
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