Athens, Ga. – Wolf Blitzer, CNN’s lead political anchor and anchor of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, has been named recipient of the 2010 DiGamma Kappa Distinguished Achievement Award in Broadcasting.
Blitzer will be honored during the annual DGK/Georgia Association of Broadcasters Banquet on Monday, March 15, at 7 p.m. at Hilton Garden Inn, Athens. Following presentation of the award, Blitzer will provide brief remarks to attending students and professionals.
DiGamma Kappa is the nation’s oldest professional broadcasting society for students and was founded at the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1939. Blitzer is the 37th annual recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award in Broadcasting. He joins previous recipients and broadcast luminaries such as Ed Bradley, Barbara Walters, Charles Kuralt, Ted Turner, Linda Ellerbee, Brian Ross, Bernard Shaw, and Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
During the 2008 presidential election, Blitzer spearheaded CNN’s Peabody Award-winning coverage of the presidential primary debates and campaigns. He also anchored programming surrounding all of the major political events, including both conventions, election night and the full-day coverage of President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Blitzer interviewed all of the nominated candidates at some point during the 2008 presidential election cycle, includingthen-Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. Blitzer led CNN’s Emmy-winning “America Votes 2006” coverage and “America Votes 2004.” During the 2004 election cycle, he anchored events including the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, the Democratic and Republican national conventions, election night from NASDAQ in Times Square and President George W. Bush’s second inauguration.For the 2000 election, Blitzer interviewed all of the major party presidential candidates, anchored Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer from the road, and hosted many of CNN’s special events.
In addition to politics, Blitzer also is known for his in-depth reporting on international news. He reported from Israel in the midst of the war between that country and Hezbollah during 2006. In 2005, he was the only American news anchor to cover the Dubai Ports World story in the United Arab Emirates. He also traveled to the Middle East that year to report on the second anniversary of the Iraq war. In 2003, Blitzer reported on the Iraq war from the Persian Gulf region.
Blitzer also served as the anchor of Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer for more than a decade. The program, which was seen in more than 200 countries around the world, featured interviews with presidents and heads of state, politicians, candidates and observers.
Blitzer began his career in 1972 with the Reuters News Agency in Tel Aviv. Shortly thereafter, he became a Washington, D.C., correspondent for The Jerusalem Post. After more than 15 years of reporting from the nation’s capital, Blitzer joined CNN in 1990 as the network’s military-affairs correspondent at the Pentagon. He served as CNN’s senior White House correspondent covering President Bill Clinton from his election in November 1992 until 1999.
Among the numerous honors he has received for his reporting, Blitzer is the recipient of an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his 1996 coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing and a Golden CableACE from the National Academy of Cable Programming for his and CNN’s coverage of the Persian Gulf War. He anchored CNN’s Emmy-award winning live coverage of the 2006 Election Day.
He was also among the teams awarded a George Foster Peabody Award for Hurricane Katrina coverage; an Alfred I. duPont Award for coverage of the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia; and an Edward R. Murrow Award for CNN’s coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. He is the recipient of 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.
In 2002, he received the prestigious Ernie Pyle Journalism Award for excellence in military reporting, and, in 2000, he was awarded 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 for outstanding contributions to broadcast journalism. In 1994, American Journalism Review cited him and CNN as the overwhelming choice of readers for the coveted Best in the Business Award for “best network coverage of the Clinton administration.”
Blitzer is the author of two books, Between Washington and Jerusalem: A Reporter’s Notebook and Territory of Lies. The latter was cited by The New York Times Book Review as one of the most notable books of 1989. He also has written articles for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.
He earned a bachelor of arts degree in history from the State University of New York, and a master of arts degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Blitzer also holds honorary degrees from 10 colleges and universities.
For additional information about the banquet, contact Andy Kavoori, DGK faculty adviser, at akavoori@uga.edu or Cheryl Christopher at cherylch@uga.edu, 706/542-3785.
Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in advertising, broadcast news, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and telecommunication arts. The college offers two graduate degrees, and is home to WNEG-TV, the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow Grady on Twitter at twitter.com/ugagrady
