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Wolf Blitzer speaks at UB
CNN newsman says UB experience key to his success in life
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
His face is one of the most recognizable in the world. Wolf Blitzer has traveled the world, spending time in such global hotspots as Kuwait, Kashmir, the Indian-Pakistani border and the West Bank. He's rubbed elbows with world leaders and covered U.S. presidents.
And he says he owes it all to UB.
The Cable News Network reporter and anchor told a UB audience last week that the four years he spent at UB were "critically important in making me who I am today."
"I learned a lot," Blitzer said, noting that the years spent at UB—between the ages of 18-22—were formative years. "It helped shape me, it developed a curiosity—I majored in history—and it certainly got me interested in history; I was always interested in current events," said Blitzer, who spoke at UB on Oct. 2 as the first alumnus to participate in the Distinguished Speaker Series. Blitzer donated his speaking fee to the university's new Institute for Jewish Thought for a fund to sponsor a lecture series in honor his late father, David Blitzer.
Blitzer pointed out that the years he spent at UB—1966-70—also were "tumultuous years" in the country and on campus.
"Those were years that I learned to report because I learned the importance of education and in the process, it established a lifelong education opportunity for me in the career that I chose."
He said he learned a great deal from some "gifted" professors—among them Milton Plesur and Clifton Yearley—"all of whom were very, very instrumental in shaping me as the journalist—indeed as the person—that I am today. I will forever be grateful to them, to this university, to this institution for giving me the opportunity to learn and to go forth from this campus and aspire to great things," he said.
"Thirty-three years ago, I doubt I could ever have imagined the stories that I would be covering over these decades. I've literally been blessed to have a "front-row seat to history."
During a press conference earlier in the day and later during the lecture in Alumni Arena, Blitzer said he had been skeptical about media coverage of the war in Iraq, particularly the process of "imbedding" reporters with the troops.
He said he had thought the Pentagon wouldn't give journalists the kind of access they had been promised, and that the new technological gadgets—including videophones and satellite phones—wouldn't work under desert conditions. He also feared that reporters would become so close to the soldiers that they wouldn't be able to report fairly and objectively.
"I'm happy to report that my skepticism, by and large, was unjustified," he said. "Was it perfect? No, but certainly a lot better that the first Gulf War War," where there were no imbedded journalists and the media was totally reliant on formal Pentagon and White House briefings and leaks.
Blitzer first earned international fame covering the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait for CNN in 1990.
"We've learned a lot, we can improve on it. I don't think we'll ever be able to go back to the bad old days when the military and journalists did not cooperate. The American public was well-served," he said.
Blitzer noted that the media is much more obsessed with the threat of terrorism since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, "as we should be."
"As bad as it was on 9/11, it could be worse," especially if terrorists acquire chemical weapons or weapons of mass destruction, which Blitzer says is possible.
"We're really aware of that and we cover it much more thoroughly than we used to. The realization that we now have—in the journalistic community and in the public at large—that there are people out there that really hate us and want to kill as many of us as possible—that's a story that we can't ignore."