The chief nuclear negotiator for North Korea said it with a straight face:
‘Mr. Wolf,’ he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, ‘I know you are equally powerful as President Obama.’
How’s that? Blitzer asked.
‘Well, only the two of you have your own ‘Situation Rooms,” the negotiator told the cable-news anchor, Blitzer recalled Saturday at Penn State.
‘My ‘Situation Room’ is very powerful,’ Blitzer said, addressing the audience at the College of Communications graduation ceremony in the Bryce Jordan Center. ‘And it’s not just my ‘Situation Room.’ It’s all of our ‘Situation Rooms’ — all of us who are journalists. …
‘We send out powerful words and images that have a profound impact around the world,’ he went on. But as important as that news coverage, he said, is that ‘people are willing to stand up and fight for their freedom, fight for their liberty. …
‘When they have the ability, the strength, the courage to do that, change happens,’ said Blitzer, who anchors ‘The Situation Room.’
As keynote speaker for the college’s commencement proceedings, the Emmy- and Peabody-winning journalist addressed more than 600 new communications graduates and thousands of their relatives and friends.
His 15-minute talk at midday was among the most high-profile graduation speeches this spring at Penn State, which is graduating nearly 12,000 students system-wide this weekend. A dozen commencement ceremonies are being held at the University Park campus alone.
The weekend also marks the awarding of the 700,000th Penn State degree, university President Graham Spanier told the PSU trustees on Friday.
One degree went to Blitzer, who was awarded an honorary Penn State doctorate of human letters.
Introducing Blitzer in the Jordan Center, communications dean Doug Anderson called the 20-year CNN newsman ‘a global journalist (who) hasn’t forgotten his roots’ in Buffalo, N.Y.
Blitzer opened with references to the 2011 terrorist attacks on the U.S., saying that most new Penn State graduates grew up as the world changed around them.
He spoke of the death of Osama bin Laden, arguing that Americans should ‘not be under any illusions’ that terrorism’s threat has disappeared.
Then Blitzer pivoted, touching on the history of CNN and all-the-time television news coverage. He also talked about reporting trips to Asia — including to North Korea, where he had no free-press rights.
‘No one appreciates freedom of the press more than journalists,’ Blitzer said at one point. ‘ … All of us who are journalists — we protect the First Amendment automatically, even if we don’t realize what we’re doing. It’s in our nature. It’s in our job.’
As for advice, Blitzer offered this to the graduates:
Grab lucky breaks and make the most of them. You already have what it takes to build great careers; you wouldn’t be ‘graduating from this great university if you didn’t have what it takes.’
And no matter what you pursue, ‘continue doing your best every single day. The competition, I can testify, is intense.’
Plus, given the current economic environment, ‘you have no luxury of slacking or going on cruise control.’
In an earlier conversation with local reporters, Blitzer said he wanted to impress on the graduates: ‘Don’t just settle for a job.’
They may, at some point, need to settle for something less than ideal in order to pay the bills. Right now, ‘they should just go for their real excitement … and their passion,’ he said. (For more from his conversation with local reporters, read this StateCollege.com blog post.)
But Blitzer, whose anchoring habits were parodied later Saturday on NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live,’ did not do ‘the Dougie’ at commencement. Some Penn Staters, writing via Twitter, had encouraged Blitzer to do that popular dance in the Jordan Center — much as he did at the 2010 Soul Train Awards.
He did please the university crowd, though, in leading a traditional ‘We are … Penn State’ cheer to cap his address.
‘You’re way too young right now to settle,’ Blitzer said, soon adding: ‘You should live it up’ for graduation. ‘You should party.’
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