False Feathers v. True Colors

Field Guide to TV's Lukewarm Liberals

Sam Donaldson

False Feathers: "Resident liberal" on ABC's This Week, according to the Washington Post (1/21/96).

True Colors: Donaldson is mostly seen as liberal because of his years of shouting inaudible questions at President Reagan. Hawkish on foreign policy, he used to refer to the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev as "a terrorist system" (This Week, 11/27/88) and to Nicaragua's elected President Daniel Ortega as "the Nicaraguan dictator" (This Week, 12/4/88).

Donaldson's no environmentalist, either: A big recipient of federal subsidies for his sheep ranch, he's received federal help to exterminate wildlife, authorizing leghold traps, neck snares, cyanide, aerial gunning and the killing of young in their dens to rid the ranch of coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and black bears (Extra!, 5-6/97). Referring to the reintroduction of endangered species, he told David Letterman (11/28/95), "If they introduce the Mexican wolf, you'll never see a Mexican wolf on my ranch. You might see some newly spaded ground."