CNN

CNN

Country United States
Language English
Broadcast area United States
Canada
Headquarters CNN Center
Atlanta, Georgia
Sister channel(s) CNN Airport Network
CNN
CNN International
Cable News Network, almost always referred to by its initialism CNN, is a major U.S. cable news network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner.[1][2] Upon its launch, CNN was the first station to provide 24-hour television news coverage,[3] and the first all-news television network in the United States.[4] While the news network has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta, the Time Warner Center in New York City, and studios in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. CNN is owned by parent company Time Warner, and the U.S. news network is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System.

CNN is sometimes referred to as CNN/U.S. to distinguish the North American channel from its international counterpart, CNN International. Its news gathering resources are second only to Britain's BBC News in the number of employed news journalists and worldwide news bureaus.[6][7] As of June 2008, CNN is available in over 93 million U.S. households.[8] Broadcast coverage extends to over 890,000 American hotel rooms,[8] and the U.S broadcast is also shown in Canada. Globally, CNN programming airs through CNN International, which can be seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories.[9]

The first CNN broadcast went live on June 1, 1980.[4] By providing around-the-clock news reports and updates, the network became an alternative to the traditional morning and evening news cycle that had dominated television news since its inception.[4] CNN gained further prominence with its exclusive live coverage of the Gulf War in 1991, which brought global attention to the network.[4][8] A sister channel, Headline News (originally called CNN2), launched in 1982, and CNN International debuted in 1985. Since CNN's debut, more than 70 television networks have launched with 24-hour news coverage.[3]

In terms of unique viewers (Nielsen Cume Ratings), CNN rates as America's number two cable news network,[10] and is ranked number two behind Fox News in total audience Nielsen ratings.[11] Among cable viewers, the Pew Center believes that CNN has a centrist audience.[12]

CNN's main slogan is "The Most Trusted Name in News."[13]

History

CNN's first broadcast with David Walker and Lois Hart on June 1, 1980.‎

The Cable News Network was launched at 5:00 p.m. EST on Sunday June 1, 1980. After an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the first newscast.[14] Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to a number of cable and satellite television networks, several web sites, specialized closed-circuit networks (such as CNN Airport Network), and a radio network. The network has 36 bureaus (10 domestic, 26 international), more than 900 affiliated local stations, and several regional and foreign-language networks around the world. The network's success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for the Time Warner conglomerate's eventual acquisition of Turner Broadcasting.

A companion network, Headline News (originally called CNN2) was launched on January 1, 1982 and featured a continuous 24-hour cycle of 30-minute news broadcasts. Headline News broke from its original format in 2005 with the addition of Headline Prime. The added Headline Prime programs featured confrontational personalities like radio talk-show host Glenn Beck and former Fulton County, Georgia prosecutor Nancy Grace.

CNN HD was launched September 1, 2007, and was first nationally distributed by DirecTV on September 26, 2007.


The rescue of Baby Jessica
On October 14, 1987, an eighteen-month-old todler named Jessica McClure fell down a well in Midland, Texas. CNN was quickly on the spot, and the event helped make their name. The New York Times ran a retrospective article in 1995 on the impact of live video news. "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a moving picture is worth many times that, and a live moving picture makes an emotional connection that goes deeper than logic and lasts well beyond the actual event. This was before correspondents reported live from the enemy capital while American bombs were falling. Before Saddam Hussein held a surreal press conference with a few of the hundreds of Americans he was holding hostage. Before the nation watched, riveted but powerless, as Los Angeles was looted and burned. Before O. J. Simpson took a slow ride in a white Bronco, and before everyone close to his case had an agent and a book contract. This was uncharted territory just a short time ago."[15]


The Gulf War
The first Persian Gulf War in 1991 was a watershed event for CNN that catapulted the network past the "big three" American networks for the first time in its history, largely due to an unprecedented, historical scoop: CNN was the only news outlet with the ability to communicate from inside Iraq during the initial hours of the American bombing campaign, with live reports from the al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad by reporters Bernard Shaw, John Holliman, and Peter Arnett.


Operation Desert Storm as captured live on a CNN night vision camera with reporters narrating.‎

The moment when bombing began was announced on CNN by Bernard Shaw on January 16, 1991 as follows:[16]

“ This is Bernie Shaw. Something is happening outside...Peter Arnett, join me here. Let’s describe to our viewers what we’re seeing...The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated...We’re seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky. ”

The Gulf War experience brought CNN some much sought-after legitimacy and made household names of previously obscure (and infamously low-paid) reporters. Many of these reporters now comprise CNN's "old guard." Bernard Shaw became CNN's chief anchor until his retirement in 2001. Others include then-Pentagon correspondent Wolf Blitzer (now host of The Situation Room) and international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. Amanpour's presence in Iraq was caricatured by actress Nora Dunn as the ruthless reporter "Adriana Cruz" in the film Three Kings (1999). Time Warner later produced a television movie, Live from Baghdad, about the network's coverage of the first Gulf War, which aired on HBO.


The CNN effect
Coverage of the first Gulf War and other crises of the early 1990s (particularly the infamous Battle of Mogadishu) led officials at the Pentagon to coin the term "the CNN effect" to describe the perceived impact of real time, 24-hour news coverage on the decision-making processes of the American government.