Wolf Blitzer is not a ratings magnet, but nonetheless CNN’s main anchor - his show The Situation Room runs three hours every weekday - and one of its stars. This despite having the charisma of a sandbag.

Blizter had an unusual start-up in journalism. Many journalists get their first job writing for a small local paper, or some obscure magazine or do freelance work. Blizter did start writing for a small publication, but this publication wasn’t some minor journal but the propaganda sheet for the main pro-Israel lobby the far-right AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee).

Blizter’s first career job was with the Near East Report, which is nothing but a series of lies and propaganda meant to prop us Israel’s image and even once extolled its readers to write letters to newspapers which carry Pat Buchanan’s column to desist. This is not to signal out AIPAC, I would not expect anything different from the NRA’s newsletter. But would you expect that someone who wrote for “Gun’s Weekly” to then anchor a program on CNN and even anchor events dealing with guns?

After working for NER, Blizter went to Israel and become a correspondent for The Jerusalem Post. For most of its history, the Jerusalem Post was a paper aligned with Israel’s leftist Labor party. It was critical of the occupation and a proponent of the peace. But in the later 1980s, a British Jewish-born-Catholic-convert become a born again Zionist late in life and wanted to own some establishment in Israel. He bought the Post, fired its editorial board and most of its staff and brought in a new right-wing crew. Literally, almost overnight the Post went from Labor to Likud and while the previous professional staff would never have hired a hack like Blizter given that a real journalist would never work for an advocacy publication, the new right-wing promoters were concerned with Likudnik propaganda rather than serious journalism and Blizter fit in.

Blizter’s gig with the Post gave him unwarranted credibility, not only was the Post a major Israeli daily but its previously image of critical journalism still remained in the eyes of Americans even though its was under new leadership, a fact missed by most U.S. observers. After a brief sprint with the Post, Blizter become CNN’s Jerusalem correspondent after the previous Correspondent was fired after coming under attack by pro-Israel groups for being hostile to the Jewish state (the journalist was accused of even being a “self-hating Jew”). Blizter was a safe choice for the network which did not want to face the wrath of the Israel lobby once more. During the Gulf War, a Saddam Hussein’s missiles rained down on Tel Aviv, Blizter anchored from the city and quickly become a famous-face for Americans. Hell, his name even fit the moment. And so he rose to eventually host his one show. The Situation Room is just his more recent program.

Blizter has proven himself when it comes to U.S. politics, but on questions of Israel-Palestine his clear bias is evident on more than one occasion. The Situation Room has a habit of randomly covering stories that portray Israel in a positive light. Why Israel? Why not seemingly random stories on Brazil or, say, Palestine? Clearly, Blizter is motivated by his pro-Zionist sympathies.

I highlight this because today, Blizter interview Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. Now to be fair, Blizter’s soft-ball nature is nearly universal (more on that below), and Netanyahu was no exception. So I will not go after him for “bias” in not asking tough questions or follow-ups, because that is almost de jure. But Blizter should never even had conducted the interview. If he were professional, his own past should have excused him from such an interview.

And as for asking tough question, Blizter usually reserves that for critics of Israel as when he ambushed Jimmy Carter. That is all well and good, just because I am pro-Palestinian does not mean I believe that pro-Palestinians should have a free ride. Of course not, but Blizter should be an equal-opportunity critical journalist not just to those whom offend his ideology.

And here is Blizter making clear where he stands, nice talking-points, no?:

The Standards of CNN. Stay Tuned.