This Tennessee country boy got the last laugh on big time TV reporter Sam Donaldson … and taught him a lesson we all need to remember, too.

In the late 1980s, I was a young TV reporter working in western Kentucky. The station’s coverage area extended into northwest Tennessee, and I had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of a man who lived there named Ned Ray McWherter. He was a big, burly, friendly guy who physically resembled an old-time politician from the previous century.

That was partly because Ned Ray was a politician. He was elected to the state House in 1968, and was chosen House Speaker in 1973. (He went on to serve as governor from 1989-1997.) I remember the day he told me this story, which carries a lesson for all of us. Continue reading →