By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, originally filed September 6, 2011
Wolf Blitzer, the man with the coolest name in broadcast TV, visited Atlanta from D.C. earlier this week to moderate a special CNN Dialogues forum about the U.S. Census at the Carter Center.
I was unable to attend the forum but did grab him for a few minutes at CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
Six years with The Situation Room: "They had me standing with all these wide video screens. At the time, I thought it was crazy. How could I be standing and walking around and not sit behind a desk like Walter Cronkite? Now everyone does it. I remember my mom being concerned I was standing so much. I told her I do sit down during commercials. And as my father said, there are tougher ways to make a living!"
Busy week: "We had Libya falling to rebels, an earthquake, a hurricane. All in one week. I was supposed to be on vacation. I canceled. I went into journalism to cover the big stories. If I had wanted a 9 to 5 job, I could have gone into advertising or PR. I'm very inquisitive. I like asking a lot of questions and being skeptical. I love the news. And CNN still lets me cover the big stories after 21 years."
Don't even utter the word retirement for a 62-year-old man: "I hope to have many many more years. I love doing this as long as I'm healthy."
His thoughts on Anderson Cooper's new talk show: "He's a young guy. He works hard. Let him enjoy it. He'll do great. He has a good personality for that if you've seen him fill in for Regis. He's got a good style."
His proudest moment (for cool point at least): "I was at the BET Soul Train Awards last year and did the Dougie. I'm friendly with Paxton Baker [President of BET Event Productions.] I grew up in Buffalo watching 'Soul Train.' He invited me to come. I got so much street cred doing that! I had to accept Eminem's award on his behalf. That was a moment!"
Who has better hair: Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blitzer? "Anderson has really good hair. My beard is my signature. I remember during the Republican convention in 1996, my beard was going gray. Tom Johnson, the president, was walking by. I said to him, 'My beard is getting gray. Maybe I should shave it. What do you think? It'll make me look younger!' He said, 'Shave it? I'm thinking you should put an insurance policy out for it! Don't shave it!' "
On Jack Schafer of Slate mocking Blitzer's rather pedestrian answers to CNN about journalism: "I was trying to give people information. If a story is interesting to me, I assume it's interesting to other people. That's news! That happens to be the truth!" [Blitzer had not seen the story.]
Mr. Twitter: "I have about 470,000 followers. I Tweet a half dozen to a dozen times a day. I get tons of replies. It's been a fabulous experience. I was skeptical at first but I've enjoyed it."
Join my Facebook fan page and Twitter.
By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV blog
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