CNN not only reported the news, but was in the news last week, as one of their journalists was arrested live on TV by Minnesota State Police as he covered the demonstrations following the police killing of George Floyd. In addition, demonstrators in Atlanta defaced the iconic CNN sign outside their headquarters. CNN was launched in 1980 by Ted Turner as the first 24-hour cable news channel. In 1990, journalist Wolf Blitzer joined CNN as a reporter, and he eventually became a news anchor and host of CNN’s Sunday interview show, Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. He has won numerous honors including an Emmy and the Anti-Defamation League’s Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. Blitzer’s parents were Auschwitz survivors who emigrated to Buffalo where he was raised. He studied Hebrew at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and one of his first jobs was as a Washington correspondent for the Jerusalem Post. Not everyone is a fan of Wolf Blitzer, however. Which of the following has criticized Wolf Blitzer?

Wolf Blitzer - CNN Portrait by Philkirwin is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

A. David Duke, white nationalist and former Ku Klux Klan leader, stated that the “Jewish media” was unfairly attacking Donald Trump, and said directly to Wolf Blitzer during an interview, “You can’t handle me, and you can’t handle the truth, and the fact is, you are an agent of Zionism. You work for AIPAC…You’re an Israeli agent.”

B. Journalist and MSNBC reporter Joy Reid criticized Wolf Blitzer for supposedly treating Jewish guests too deferentially. She wrote in a blog that Blitzer is a “former flak for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)” who “doesn’t even try to hide his affinity for his Israeli guests, or his partisanship for their cause, while turning instantly to prosecutorial mode when questioning any guest who has the dumb luck to be an Arab or Muslim in King Blitzer’s court.”

C. Wolf Blitzer recently criticized President Trump for concluding a coronavirus press briefing without taking questions from reporters. Said Blitzer, “This is the first time that the President has been afraid to answer questions from reporters...The President clearly, uh, shall we say, was chicken today.” Trump later tweeted about Blitzer, “Today I was called chicken by that kosher turkey Wolf Blitzer. HOW RUDE IS THAT. I’m the President. I answer questions when I want to answer questions.”

D. Kellyanne Conway, political consultant and advisor to President Trump, was offended when Wolf Blitzer asked her questions about her husband, George Conway, who is an outspoken critic of Trump. She responded, “You wanted to put it in my husband’s voice because you think somehow that will help your ratings or that you’re really sticking it to Kellyanne Conway. And let me make it very clear, you didn’t stick it to Kellyanne Conway. I think you embarrassed yourself and I’m embarrassed for you.”

E. Wolf Blitzer studied journalism at the State University of New York in Buffalo, where he joined the Jewish Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He basically spent all of his time in the frat house in front of the TV, watching every news program he could find. He wouldn’t even hear his fraternity brothers calling out to him, thus earning him the nickname Laser Wolf because of his laser focus on the headlines. He adopted this nickname as a badge of pride and when he began anchoring a news program on the campus radio station, he called it “The Situation Room with Laser Wolf.” But shortly thereafter, he received a cease and desist letter from a lawyer representing the writers of Fiddler on the Roof which stated, “Your radio show title infringes on our copyright and brings discredit to our character, the butcher Lazar Wolf. Simply put–If Blitzer says he’s Laser Wolf, we pity him so. He’ll broadcast for three weeks. And when three weeks are up. We’ll drag him into court. We’ll guard our copyright. And thus we’ll sue you Blitzer. Litigate you, Blitzer. Prosecute you Blitzer. Here’s our court subpoena if you say you’re Laser Wolf!!!!”

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