Wolf Blitzer, BA '70

Award-winning journalist Wolf Blitzer joins other UB alumni in a media panel at the National Press Club 

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A panel of award-winning UB graduates led the discussion at the Feb. 5 National Press Club meeting in Washington, D.C. UB alumnus Wolf Blitzer (B.A.'70), anchor of CNN's nightly newscast Wolf Blitzer Reports, was among them. Other panelists were Tom Toles, B.A.'73, Pamela S. Benson, B.A.'76, Jo-Ann E. Armao, B.A.'74 and James M. Militello, B.A.'79. Douglas L. Turner, who attended UB for one year, was also on the panel as Washington bureau chief for the Buffalo News.

A Western New York native, Blitzer is a well-known and respected journalist who has reported on a wide range of major breaking stories around the world for more than two decades. In 1972 he began working with the Reuters News Agency in Tel Aviv and shortly thereafter became a Washington, D.C., correspondent for The Jerusalem Post. He then joined CNN in 1990 as its military-affairs correspondent at the Pentagon, where he was among the team of CNN reporters who won the Golden CableACE from the National Academy of Cable Programming for coverage of the Persian Gulf War.

Prior to hosting his nightly CNN newscast, he co-anchored The World Today. He also served as CNN's senior White House correspondent covering President Bill Clinton from 1992 to 1999.

Blitzer has won several journalism awards. In November 2002, the American Veteran Awards honored him with the prestigious Ernie Pyle Journalism Award for excellence in military reporting. In 1999, he won the International Platform Association's Lowell Thomas Broadcast Journalism Award for outstanding contributions to broadcast journalism. His coverage of the 1996 Oklahoma City bombing earned him an Emmy Award, and the American Journalism Review cited him and CNN as the overwhelming choice of readers for the coveted Best in the Business Award for "best network coverage of the Clinton administration" in 1994.

He is the author of two books, Between Washington and Jerusalem: A Reporter's Notebook (Oxford University Press, 1985) and Territory of Lies (Harper and Row, 1989), and he also has written articles for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

In addition to his bachelor of arts degree in history from UB, he holds a master of arts degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. Blitzer also received an honorary degree from UB in 1999.

At the National Press Club February 5, Blitzer offered his perspective on world events, particularly from the vantage point of the Middle East, where he has traveled extensively and spent a great deal of his career. "I think it's fair to say that there are people out there who hate us, who despise us and who think that we want to destroy them," he said. "It's not just Al-Qaeda but other terrorist organizations that have links with various governments, and they would love not only to do another 9-11, but they'd like to do something much worse. Unfortunately, they have that capability. They have access to biological weapons—anyone who has seen and heard how these people feel about us and how they think they're going to enter paradise if they kill themselves and destroy us in the process...It's a chilling situation."

Blitzer said he was concerned about restricting civil liberties in the quest for security, but countered that "we face an enemy out there that has no respect for any of the basic ground rules."

Blitzer also spoke to concerns about media conglomerates and their effects on news-gathering and the competitive factors involved. "In the end," he says, "it's going to make us better journalists. Even though there's a smaller and smaller number of corporate giants buying these mainstream journalistic organizations, it's still competition. There's plenty of quality journalism on television and I think we have a lot of that at CNN."

On a lighter note, Blitzer also remembered fondly his days as a UB undergraduate. He recounted an amusing anecdote about a surprise reunion in Bethlehem with a fellow alumnus from Palestine.

Note: Biographical information based on CNN.com.

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