News Releases

RTNDA to Honor Sam Donaldson of ABC News With Prestigious Paul White Award

WASHINGTON—ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson has been named the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Paul White Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. RTNDA will honor Donaldson on April 14, 2008, during the RTNDA@NAB convention in Las Vegas.

In a broadcast career that has spanned a half century, Donaldson has spent 41 years with ABC News, working in television, radio and a number of emerging digital media platforms. He has co-anchored such TV programs as “PrimeTime Live,” "This Week With Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts," and “World News Sunday”; he has hosted a daily news/talk show on ABC News Radio; and he has served two stints as White House correspondent In 1999, he moved to the World Wide Web when he hosted the first regularly scheduled Internet webcast produced by a television network.

Donaldson now hosts a show on the ABC News digital network called “Politics Live”—a daily half-hour unscripted dialogue between guests and commentators on the top political news stories of the day.

“This award is one of the most distinguished individual honors in our industry. It recognizes those rare individuals who embody the very best in our profession—a dedication to our craft, a commitment to service and a passion for excellence,” says RTNDA past chairwoman Angie Kucharski, who chaired the committee that chose the Paul White honoree this year. “Sam Donaldson has been a guiding force in broadcast journalism for a half century. His devotion to seeking the truth and holding the powerful accountable can serve as a model to all of us in this political year, and always.”

Donaldson began his career as a college student working for local radio stations in his hometown of El Paso, TX. After serving on active duty with the U.S. Army from 1956 to 1959, he returned to broadcast at KRLD-TV in Dallas. In 1961, Donaldson moved inside the Beltway and joined Washington’s WTOP-TV, covering local news as well as some of the biggest national stories that occurred in the 1960s, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Senate hearings on the Vietnam War. He joined ABC News in 1967.  

In addition to receiving the 2002 Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, Donaldson has received four Emmy Awards and three George Foster Peabody Awards. The Washington Journalism Review named him the Best Television White House Correspondent in the Business in 1985 and the Best Television Correspondent in the Business in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989. The National Press Foundation honored him with the Broadcaster of the Year Award in 1998.

RTNDA established the Paul White Award in 1956 to honor the broadcast news pioneer who served as the first news director at CBS. The award recognizes an individual’s lifetime contribution to electronic journalism. Past recipients include Christiane Amanpour, Charles Gibson, Charles Osgood, Ted Koppel, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, Barbara Walters, Ed Bradley, Bob Schieffer, Jane Pauley, Pauline Frederick and Edward R. Murrow.

RTNDA@NAB, which will take place at the Las Vegas Hilton April 13-16, is the premier conference and exhibition for radio, television and online news. To learn more about RTNDA@NAB and the Paul White Award, visit the new RTNDA.org and click on Convention under Popular Picks.

RTNDA is the world’s largest professional organization devoted exclusively to electronic journalism. RTNDA represents local and network news executives in broadcasting, cable and other electronic media in more than 30 countries.