After President Donald Trump attacked CNN International as a “major source of (Fake) news,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer responded Monday, “Even the loudest critics can’t silence the facts.”
Over the weekend, Trump tweeted “the outside world does not see the truth” from CNN International and claimed the global network’s role is to represent the United States to the world.
A few minutes later, CNN’s public relations department responded: “It’s not CNN’s job to represent the U.S to the world. That’s yours. Our job is to report the news.”
On Monday, the longtime CNN anchor spoke on his show about how journalists risk their lives to bring their audience the truth.
Here is the full transcript of Blitzer’s remarks:
“For nearly four decades, CNN has been a constant here in the United States and around the world. Our journalists, in front of and behind the camera, risk their lives in the most dangerous of places every day so you know the truth.
“Where disaster hits, where war erupts, we’re there. Where dictators fall, where citizens rise, we’re there. Where fists are raised, blood is shed and where heroes are made, we are there. Because the relentless pursuit of the truth and the outright rejection of any attack against it is something we still hold sacred. Always will.
“So no matter how many insults or blatant assaults on the press and its freedom, this pursuit is something for which we will never bend nor break, and even the loudest critics can’t silence the facts.
“CNN and CNN International are not sponsored by any state, nor any autocrat, or any political organization. Despite the constant criticism from the President, we are unwavering in our mission as free and independent, as the press should be.”
Blitzer played video of CNN journalists reporting from news hot spots all over the world, including Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Niger, Afghanistan and the Philippines.
Another CNN journalist, senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman, had tweeted, “At CNN international we shed blood to bring you the news. Nothing fake about that.”
Wedeman spoke on-air about his tweet and said he didn’t want to be disrespectful to the President, but wanted to give the backstory to his response.
Wedeman says a picture of him accompanying the tweet was taken after he had been hit with a rubber bullet in the summer of 2014 while covering clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces. He also described being shot in the back while reporting from Gaza in 2000 and spending months in the hospital, and four years later being stopped in Gaza City by a gunman who kidnapped a colleague next to him.
“This is a dangerous job. I don’t do it for the money, I do it because I believe in the importance of the work, and I want the President to understand that.”
