News Intelligence Analysis
A Little
Story About Pat Robertson, Wolf Blitzer, and David Corn
Does Wolf Blitzer Owe His Career to
Pat Robertson?
October 21, 2005
By Katherine Yurica
[Editor's Note, October 27, 2005: Read Jim
Wallis' comments at: All
about Pat Robertson and Venezuela! ]
This story isn’t earth shaking. It’s
barely interesting. And it’s probably a waste of your time
to read—especially in certain circles. It’s just that
those “certain” circles are so damn smug! They are
so sure of the rightness of their cause, if you know what I mean,
that I can’t resist.
This essay is all about Pat Robertson’s
mouth. He can’t help it. He was born with it! After that
it’s about how Pat’s mouth keeps shooting off on CNN.
First back in April of 2001 he went on CNN with Wolf Blitzer
and encouraged the U.S. government to continue to build up its
$70 billion trade deficit with China (while
he had personal business with China) and he also seemed to
endorse China’s crack-down on how many babies should be
allowed to be born, which set off a hue and a
cry from the anti-abortion troops in the US. Then let’s
skip to the big whammy on August 22, 2005. That’s when Pat called
for the assassination of Venezuela President, Hugo Chavez.
Pat said:
“You know, I don't know about
this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying
to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead
and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war.
And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is
a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of
influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have
announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to
our south, controlling a huge pool of oil,
that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take
him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that
ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of
one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to
have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it
over with.” (Media
Matters)
After that there was a
whole bunch of media denials, and wishy washy, mealy mouth stuff.
But just two days later, Wolf Blitzer, did a show on Robertson’s
remark. He had James Carville on one side and Greg Mueller on
the other. Wolf Blitzer told his audience that James Carville
worked as an opponent to the recall movement of Chavez, but failed
to disclose that Greg Mueller’s public relations firm directly
worked for Robertson’s Christian Coalition in the past.
Media Matters called it, “Blitzer's not-so-full
disclosure on guest's ties to Robertson.” Media Matters lists several
doozies from Pat’s mouth to our ears:
"Islam, at
least at its core, teaches violence. It's there in the Quran
in clear, bold statements." [7/14/05]
God "will
remove judges from the Supreme Court quickly." [1/3/05]
Gays and lesbians
are "self-absorbed hedonists ... that want to impose their
particular sexuality on the rest of America."
[11/30/04]
Gays and lesbians
are "self-absorbed narcissists who are willing to destroy
any institution so long as they can have affirmation of their
lifestyle." [8/16/05]
David Corn’s
Lament
Anyway, I’ve got to straighten out
the record on this hullabaloo about Pat and his mouth. It’s
actually two people’s record: Pat Robertson’s and Wolf
Blitzer’s. And I’ve got to help out David Corn, the
distinguished Editor of The Nation magazine’s Washington
Bureau, who sort of lost his cool and wailed over public channels
on the web, bemoaning and asking why with such sadness
in his voice. “Why
Does CNN Invite Robertson on to Talk?” Why in the name
of decency and common sense and a shared sense of values would
Wolf Blitzer do such a thing? It’s even worse, who in their
right mind would give poor snoggy old
Pat the opportunity to say the kinds of things he’s always
said—it’s his favorite thing to do: He loves to pop
off! He especially loves to talk about assassinating folks!
I know Pat’s getting up there in age.
He’s got the Bible and Christianity all twisted in knots
and ass backwards! But the truth is, dear ole Pat Robertson has
called for assassinations all through his TV career! It’s
sort of standard patter for the old guy! I mean come on
now Pat, you’ve been wishing and praying and calling for
assassinations for everyone from the Supreme Court Justices to
heads of states for the last twenty-five years or so, give or
take a few wobbly moans now and then. Did Wolf really have to
let you sound so contrite and sensible? It really bothered David
when you
replied to one final question:
BLITZER: One final
question on an unrelated matter, Hugo Chavez.
You caused a big uproar a few weeks ago when you suggested the
U.S.
should just simply take him out, should simply kill him. You
later said you misspoke a little bit. You apologized.
But clarify briefly for our viewers what you meant and where
you stand now.
ROBERTSON: Well, I want to say August is a slow news month, Wolf,
and they were looking for a big story and I happened to be it.
But the truth is, this man is setting
up a Marxist-type dictatorship in Venezuela.
He's trying to spread Marxism throughout South America.
He is negotiating with the Iranians to get nuclear material.
And he also sent $1.2 million in cash to Osama bin Laden right
after 9/11.
He is -- I mean, I've written him. I apologized and I said I'm
going to be praying for him. But one day we're going to be staring
at nuclear weapons and it won't be Katrina facing New
Orleans, it's going to be a Venezuelan
nuke.
So my suggestion was: Isn't it a lot cheaper sometimes to deal
with these problems before you have to have a big war?
Pat Robertson’s
History
Folks just have to listen to Pat to get
the true flavor and intensity of his feelings: In a quote that
was picked up by the Associated Press and CNN News, Pat
told his audience on April 11, 1986, just how he would deal
with Libya’s Colonel Kaddafi.
Smiling and in a friendly sort of chit chat, he laid out his
plot to murder Kaddafi:
“The problem with kicking a mad dog
is that the mad dog will bite you. Specially
if he’s got rabies. He might hurt you and he might infect
you badly. So you don’t go out and kick a mad dog. If you
have a mad dog with rabies you take a gun and shoot him. I mean
that’s the only thing you can do, mercifully to keep yourself—[laughs
and audience gives big applause].”
Danuta Soderman:
“Wait, now let’s wait now. Back up just a step or two
[audience laughs]. Are you saying that we should go in there
and—”
Robertson: “Danuta,
there’s an old old saying, that
you don’t strike the king unless you kill him. You don’t
strike a king’’ just hit him in the face and walk away
from him, because he’ll turn around and do something terrible
to you.... And the only way to get rid of him is to do the thing
that the old maxim says, if you’re gonna
strike him, you need to kill him.”
But this statement of Pat’s was consistent
with the attitude he had expressed all along. Power is something
that ought to be used. He said on June 19, 1985:
“Kaddafi’s
a crazy man...We’ve already caught him in certain murder
plots....I’m hesitant to think of international assassination
or anything, but something has to be done, and uh, and right
now the one that is enemy number one of the whole world is Ayatollah
Khomeini. He is a crazy man...We could probably foment some kind
of an overthrow of Khomeini and get that country back to normal
again....We can’t just sit back and be held hostage again
by those crazy people. We’re too big and powerful a nation.
It can’t happen.”
The ease with which Pat Robertson spoke
of things that could embroil our nation in war was amazing. He
told his audience on June 26, 1985:
“We could make a
selective strike right at the Ayatollah’s headquarters
or something. We could also consider freeing Lebanon from the
Syrians...We could join with the Israelis in some kind of activity.
We could cut off Syria, which doesn’t have a very strong
country, and bring economic sanctions against Syria. We could
conceivably bring it down.”
You see Pat believes that an important part
of American foreign policy should be the overthrow of repressive
governments around the world and that young Christians should
be willing to fight and die in military actions. In fact, he
believes that young men have been called by God to do so. Herb
Titus, then Dean of the School of Public Policy at CBN University
told Robertson on the show on May 27, 1985: “I believe
that those who believe in God will ultimately bring justice in
all circumstances.” Should they die in the process, Titus
said, they need only remember, “They still have eternal
life in Jesus Christ.”
But what if God judges these pre-emptive
strikes to be criminal in nature—then what happens to those
sweet young men who killed and tortured others in the name of
Christ when they arrive at the Pearly Gates? They might hear
the words, “I never knew you!”
Wolf Blitzer’s
Secret
Still, one does
get the impression that Wolf Blitzer just feeds Pat lines like
this from the October
9, 2005 broadcast of CNN Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer:
BLITZER: ... thanks very much for joining
us.
I want to get to Harriet Miers in a moment but you're a minister.
You see what's going on in the world today in Pakistan, in India,
Afghanistan, an earthquake, maybe 20,000 people dead, maybe twice
that number; we don't have a count. Hurricanes in the United
States and around the world, a tsunami a little bit less than
a year or so ago in Southeast Asia. What's happening?
ROBERTSON: Wolf, I might say you're very perceptive to pick up
the key in this.
It’s scary to hear someone carry-on
like Pat. But it’s sort of strange to realize that Pat and
Wolf Blitzer go way back together. Yep! Wolf used to work for
Pat Robertson's CBN
way back when Pat was setting up his news bureau and Wolf was
the 700 Club’s reporter from the Middle East. He
was a lot younger in those days, but in those beginning days
Pat exposed Wolf Blitzer to a viewing audience that topped the
Nielsen ratings at 28.7 million monthly viewers! That’s
a great way to launch one’s career. But Wolf Blitzer likes
to keep that part of his career kind of quiet. He doesn’t
list the 700 Club’s news bureau in his biography.
He doesn’t tell CNN’s audience that Pat was like an
angel to him when he was just an independent reporter starting
out. But those of us who watched Pat’s show could never
forget Wolf Blitzer’s reports. He was presented to us as
such an expert—we were just so proud of him! And look how
high he’s gone. You’d think he’d give Pat a little
credit. No doubt he says “Thanks” by inviting him on
CNN!
After all, Pat started a J-School
(Journalism School) and Bob Slosser,
who had worked for the New York Times became the President of
CBN University and Bob Slosser shared
Pat’s vision of a new America. Slosser
was at the graduation of the first graduate from the Institute
of Journalism, it was a young lady named Eliza Wright. And the
Governor of Missouri, a fellow named John Ashcroft gave the graduation
speech on May 20, 1985! (My how these folks go way back together—and
it shows what loyalty can do!) Bob Slosser
told the 700 Club audience that
day:
“We’re
going to change the way the country thinks, we’ve bought
into this secularism thing and that’s taken us right down
the wrong path. I believe that this institution and those like
this…will change the way this country thinks!”
I guess Wolf Blitzer is doing his best to
help Americans change the way we think—even about assassination!
Shame on you Wolf! I can see why you would be reluctant to give
credit to Pat for helping to launch your career. And it does
explain why you don’t mention it, but really—don’t
you think murdering people is immoral—or is that part of
how you always wanted to change America too?
Katherine Yurica is a writer and a news
intelligence analyst. She is also the publisher of the Yurica
Report.
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