Wolf Blitzer: Education and Career
Wolf Isaac Blitzer, born on March 22, 1948, is an American journalist, television news anchor, and author. He has been a CNN reporter since 1990 and currently serves as one of the principal anchors at the network. Blitzer has been the host of The Situation Room (now formally known as The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown) since 2005, providing viewers with in-depth reports about political, international, and breaking news stories.
Early Life and Education
Wolf Blitzer grew up in Buffalo, New York, the son of Jewish refugees from Poland who immigrated to the United States under the provisions of the 1948 Displaced Persons Act. He was raised in Kenmore, New York, and graduated from Kenmore West Senior High School.
Blitzer received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1970. While there, he was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi. In 1972, he received a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. Reflecting on his time at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Blitzer mentioned the valuable role his education played in shaping his career as a journalist, specifically the professors who helped pave the way for his career by providing him with analytical skills and an intellectual framework on American foreign policy, economics, and the Middle East.
Blitzer also has numerous honorary degrees from educational institutions across the country, including The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; State University of New York at Buffalo; The Catholic University in Washington, D.C.; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; The Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA; The University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH; Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA; St.
Early Career
Blitzer began his career in journalism in the early 1970s, in the Tel Aviv bureau of the Reuters news agency. In 1973, he caught the eye of Jerusalem Post editor Ari Rath, who hired Blitzer as a Washington correspondent for the English-language Israeli newspaper. Blitzer would remain with the Jerusalem Post until 1990, covering both American politics and developments in the Middle East.
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Fluent in Hebrew, Blitzer also published articles in several Hebrew-language newspapers. Under the name Ze'ev Blitzer, he wrote for Al HaMishmar. He also wrote for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's most widely-read paper, under the name Ze'ev Barak. In the mid-1970s, Blitzer also worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as the editor of their monthly publication, the Near East Report.
During his tenure with the Jerusalem Post, Blitzer interviewed several American Presidents and Secretaries of State and broke news from Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan. At the time, he was perhaps best known for his coverage of the arrest and trial of Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli spy working in American naval intelligence. Blitzer was the first journalist to interview Pollard, and he would later write a book about the Pollard Affair titled Territory of Lies.
In 1977 Anwar al-Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, and Blitzer covered the negotiations between the two countries from the first joint Israeli-Egyptian press conference in 1977 to the final negotiations that would lead to the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty two years later.
CNN Career
In May 1990, Blitzer moved to CNN and worked as the cable network's military affairs reporter at the Pentagon. Blitzer has been with CNN for over 30 years. In 1991 Blitzer spent a month in Moscow, and was one of the first Western reporters to visit KGB headquarters. His team's coverage of the first Gulf War in Kuwait won a Cable ACE Award and made him a very popular news figure.
In 1992, Blitzer became CNN's White House correspondent, a position he would hold until 1999, covering President Bill Clinton. During this period, he earned an Emmy Award for his coverage of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. In 1998, he began hosting the CNN Sunday morning interview program Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, which was seen in over 180 countries. Blitzer's first assignment as an anchor was on the daily newscast The World Today, in 1999.
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Since August 8, 2005, Blitzer has hosted The Situation Room, a three-hour afternoon newscast on CNN. In 2013, he began anchoring the 1pm ET hour of CNN Newsroom; in 2014, the program was renamed to Wolf. In January 2022, Blitzer began hosting The Newscast with Wolf Blitzer on CNN+.
Blitzer has been pivotal to CNN's election coverage throughout the years. He served as lead anchor on key primary nights, caucus nights, and election nights. He moderated several presidential debates, including Republican and Democratic primary debates. During the 2008 presidential election, Blitzer spearheaded CNN's Peabody Award-winning coverage of the presidential primary debates and campaigns. He also led CNN's Emmy-winning "America Votes 2006" coverage and "America Votes 2004." Furthermore, he anchored the network's coverage during the inaugurations of Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
In addition to politics, Blitzer is also known for his in-depth reporting on international news. In January 2013, Blitzer traveled to Cairo, Egypt to sit down at the presidential palace with President Mohamed Morsy. In December 2010, he was granted rare access to travel to North Korea with former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Known for his Middle East expertise, Blitzer reported from Israel in the midst of the war between that country and Hezbollah during the summer of 2006 and he also returned to the region with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper in 2012. In 2005, Blitzer was the only American news anchor to cover the Dubai Ports World story on the ground in the United Arab Emirates. He also traveled to the Middle East in 2005 to report on the second anniversary of the war in Iraq. In 2003, Blitzer reported on the Iraq war from the Persian Gulf region.
As the child of Holocaust survivors, Blitzer has worked tirelessly to promote Holocaust education and combat antisemitism throughout his career. In 2023, Blitzer traveled to Poland to participate in the 35th International March of the Living, and to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, providing his reflections on the emotional journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In 2022, Blitzer produced “Never Again: the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, A Tour with Wolf Blitzer” for CNN, which was awarded the prestigious Grand Prize Award from Germany’s RIAS Berlin Commission.
Awards and Recognition
Blitzer has been awarded for his journalist work many times including the 2004 Journalist Pillar of Justice Award from the Respect for Law Alliance and the 2003 Daniel Pearl Award from the Chicago Press Veterans Association. His news team was among those awarded a George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina, an Alfred I. DuPont Award for coverage of the 1999 Southeast Asian tsunami, and an Edward R. Murrow Award for CNN's coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
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In November 2002, he won the American Veterans' Ernie Pyle Journalism Award for military reporting. In February 2000, he received the Anti-Defamation League’s Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. In 1999, Blitzer won the International Platform Association's Lowell Thomas Broadcast Journalism Award.
Blitzer was also part of the CNN team that was awarded a Golden ACE award for their 1991 Gulf War reporting. Among the numerous honors he has received for his reporting, Blitzer was the recipient of the American News Women’s Club Excellence in Journalism Award in 2019. In March 2014, he was awarded the Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism by the National Press Foundation. In 2013, he was recognized as the eighth recipient of the Urbino Press Award from the Italian Embassy for his excellence in journalism. Blitzer was a part of the CNN team to earn a 2012 Emmy award for the network’s coverage of the revolution in Egypt, leading up to and including the resignation of Hosni Mubarak. In addition, he was also vital to the network’s efforts to earn the 2006 Emmy-award for live coverage on Election Day.
He received honorary doctorates from several universities, including the University at Buffalo (1999), the George Washington University (2007), and Niagara University (2010). In 2024, CNN's Wolf Blitzer was selected to receive the 41st Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Author
Blitzer 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).
Appearances in Film and Television
Blitzer has appeared in numerous films as himself reporting on events, including the James Bond film Skyfall. Blitzer also made guest appearances in Netflix's political drama House of Cards, portraying himself.
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