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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWolf Blitzer is a horrible person and a terrible journalist
I watched some of his coverage earlier today. He did what he typically does. His "reporting" is all dramatization. He is cheering on the violence and destruction without saying it. He puts words in peoples mouths and always defaults to the worst possible language.
I don't know why CNN keeps him around unless this is what they want.
boston bean
(36,221 posts)ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)realFedUp
(25,053 posts)Nt
shenmue
(38,506 posts)for stealing the 2004 election.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)It's news to me!
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)though they'd probably like him better if he was a busty blond female who spent half her time in a gym.
He's always been a propangandist, nothing more. Has dual Iraeli/U.S. citizenship, supports all things military and authoritarian with a thin veneer of objectivitiness (apologies to Colbert) to make it easier to swallow the swill.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)and I have to agree with your assessment.
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)and the endless fascination with the intricacies of the military hardware we were using to kill mostly innocent Iraqis with. No concern shown for the people at the other end of those weapons, at all.
Nice to hear from you, have a good one.
Behind the Aegis
(53,959 posts)What does that have to do with anything? Where did you obtain that information?
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)After reading your questions, I spent a minute or two trying to source his dual citizenship. All I found was a 1990 article refuting that and saying that he has only U.S. citizenship, so I can't back up that statement, a surprise to me. Was he ever an Israeli citizen, do you know? Can't recall where I heard that, it was long ago, and I retract it.
I did find this from his wiki page:
"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 remained with the Jerusalem Post until 1990, covering both American politics and developments in the Middle East.[11]
In the mid-1970s, Blitzer also contributed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as the editor of their monthly publication, the Near East Report.[12][13] While at AIPAC, Blitzer's writing focused on Middle East affairs as they relate to United States foreign policy."
What does his relationship to Israel and AIPAC have to do with anything? Probably a lot. I would be way over my head to wade into such waters, but our relationship with Israel and its effects on our foreign policy in the Middle East have a lot to do with a lot of things, including, in my admittedly non-expert opinion, our eagerness to engage militarily in that region. My understanding of regional politics is that, similar to the U.S., there are different opinions in Israel about attacking its neighbors verses seeking a peaceful coexistence, with the more hawkish forces being represented disproportionately by those in power, same as in this country.
In the past I have done some reading up on the links between AIPAC and the run-up to the Iraq wars. I came away from it feeling like I was getting entrenched positions from different factions without a certainty of where the truth was, but overall what I could make of it was that AIPAC suppported those wars with lobbying efforts and campaign contributions (and threats of withholding such from reps used to getting it) but did so on the down-low, trying to appear neutral about it to the public. This was not clearly established, it depended on which reports I believed.
I have always thought Blitzer was Mossad or some such, no evidence whatsoever to back that up, it's just how I view certain things. There is a lot of implanting of intelligence personel in our media. I don't make this accusation of Blitzer since I don't know, but I've seen him a lot (unfortunately) over many years and that is my impression. For perspective, I think Judith Miller and Judy Woodruff have U.S. intelligence ties, just off the top of my head, others too, I see things from a more conspiratorial perspective than many people.
Behind the Aegis
(53,959 posts)It was that reason I asked the question. Your confession you are more conspiratorial than most is likely why you believed (believe ) he is a dual citizen. Sometimes, it is better to deal with facts rather than "facts."
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)and Blitzer's reporting to be an important aspect of that alignment.
I agree AIPAC has no particualr interest in what's going down in Baltimore, if that is your point.
Facts are funny things, everyone has facts, ever read a Heritage report? Those are facts, yet the stories told with those facts are nothing but lies.
Me being more likely than most to see things through a conspiratoral lens was in no way a confession, I think many people are willfully blind to seeing such things. The powerful can and very often do collude in ways that further their interests, much more than we are led to believe.
Behind the Aegis
(53,959 posts)Just as APAIC and Israel having nothing to do with this story, nor did Blitzer's alleged dual citizenship, I still see it being used as some type of "proof".
"I think many people are willfully blind to seeing such things. The powerful can and very often do collude in ways that further their interests, much more than we are led to believe."
Yes, and just as true are those who always look for a conspiracy will find one!
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)I am quite aware of the dangers of believing any silly thing I hear. It's more important to me that he used to have a formal position with AIPAC than his citizenship, frankly. I can handle getting info from flawed sources like Blitzer, so long as I know where they are coming from I can attempt to process it while making allowances for their viewpoint, it's something we all have to do with any info on anything, info = data * viewpoint, or something like that.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)first, given the fact that it's not true, how did the idea get in your head?
Second, if it were true, it wouldn't be relevant, so why did you bring it in to the conversation?
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)which doesn't make it true. I had taken it as truth a long time ago so didn't bother to check on it before posting. When I looked in response to the question posed about it, I found other people making that same assertion, nobody credible though, and I found one article that looked credible from 1990 that refuted it, so I retracted it. I would still like to know more about it if anyone has info, it is not worth more of my time to research it so I will no longer make the claim.
I think his relationship to AIPAC and Israel is very relevant to his coverage, though not to the Baltimore incident in any way. I took the thread as a more general thread about Wolf's credibility as a reporter. So no apologies, I think he is a propagandist for the war machine, and I think his relationship to AIPAC is relevant to that. If you want to think I'm an anti-semite (I'm not) because of that, which seems to be your drift if I understand your implication here, knock yourself out. I do think Israel has far too much influence on U.S. foreign policy.
edit to add:
Here's a discussion that may go to the root of the Israeli citizenship myth, from a back-and-forth between Blitzer and someone named Robert Friedman who reviewed a book of Blitzer's in the New York Review of Books. I quote the last paragraph of Friedman's response to Blitzer's response to Friedman's review of Blitzer's book:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1990/feb/01/territory-of-lies/
I apologize for bestowing Israeli citizenship on Mr. Blitzer. Before, moving to The Jerusalem Post he worked for AIPAC where he wrote for their propaganda sheet, The Near East Report. Currently, he travels the American TV talk show circuit as the voice of Israel. Territory of Lies is a slick piece of damage control that would make his former employers at AIPAC (not to mention Israels Defense Ministry) proud.
I have not read Blitzer's book so I have no comment on where this reviewer is coming from, just thought it might be what started the rumor back in 1989 or 1990.
betterdemsonly
(1,967 posts)teaching Apartheid South Africa to control its majority black population through paramilitary oppression. They're making a profit from their own experience marginalizing Palestinians. His links to them are not insignificant in my view.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)They paid him handsomely to set them aside.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)FSogol
(45,488 posts)Response to Renew Deal (Original post)
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Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)Stellar
(5,644 posts)and then he put words into peoples mouth? That's not reporting, that leading the conversation for the outcome that he wants to see.
Response to Renew Deal (Original post)
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get the red out
(13,466 posts)I was yelling to my husband, "That's not what that person said, does Wolf not understand English?" So I agree with you!
Mike Nelson
(9,959 posts)...and a good example of CNN's downfall into propaganda.
spin
(17,493 posts)in order to increase their ratings. It took a while but it looks like CNN finally succeeded.