Broadcast journalist Wolf Blitzer touched upon his roots at UB and major world issues at his Distinguished Speakers Series lecture Thursday evening in Alumni Arena.
As an anchor for CNN, Blitzer has broadcast many of the major news stories of the past decade, from locations as far as Bosnia and Iraq. However, Blitzer's career began here at UB -- in the stone buildings and grassy lawns of South Campus.
"I will be forever grateful to this university for giving me the opportunity to learn and go forth from this campus and to aspire to great things," he said.
According to Blitzer, he attended UB on the advice of his father, who has a unique connection to the university's history.
David Blitzer began building single-family homes and buying property in Western New York. He ended up selling a large portion of his land in Amherst to the state -- land on which parts of North Campus were built.
Blitzer has waived his speaker fee, instead putting it towards an honorary fund for the Institute for Jewish Thought and Interdisciplinary Center at UB, in memory of his father.
"Here's something that's very, very eerie but true," he said. "David Blitzer was born exactly 83 years ago today."
After a brief personal introduction, Blitzer shared his perspective on both journalism and major world events of today.
"Thirty-three years ago I doubt I could have even imagined the stories I would have been covering over these decades," he said. "I've literally been blessed to have a front row seat to history."
Blitzer discussed several concerns he had with the practice of embedding journalists with U.S. troops during a war, as was done in Iraq during the recent war.
"I worried that some reporters might get too cozy with the troops and avoid the kind of reporting that the American public and the U.S. military itself deserve," he said.
Blitzer also expressed concerns about modern journalists' use of technology during the war.
"I worried that a new generation of mini-cams, video phones, other technological gadgets wouldn't work in a wartime environment, especially with the dust, where the sand of war was everywhere," he said.
Despite the problems in journalism -- like The New York Times' revelation in May that reporter Jayson Blair had plagiarized many of his articles -- Blitzer said he believes this year has brought the "best and most courageous reporting in years."
After giving a summary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the War on Iraq and how he covered them, Blitzer posed a question to the audience.
"Have we learned the lessons of the past century, the bloodiest century in history?" he asked.
According to Blitzer, war should be avoided at all costs, but sometimes it is the only answer and cannot be avoided.
"The most dangerous threat to many of us in the free world is the refusal to admit that threat exists," he said.
Blitzer ended his speech with a final thought: that he believes democracy will and must fight for freedom.
Olga Kozhinova, senior undecided major, said she thought Blitzer was a good speaker but was disappointed about empty seats in the audience.
"I was surprised not a lot of people came, but college students are not really into CNN," she said. "I thought he had some really insightful things to say."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
