CNN

Cable News Network (CNN) is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner.^[1][2] Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage,^[3] and the first all-news television channel in the United States.^[4] While the news channel 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 channel is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System.^[5]

CNN is sometimes referred to as CNN/U.S. to distinguish the American channel from its international counterpart, CNN International. As of August 2010, CNN is available in over 100 million U.S. households.^[6] Broadcast coverage extends to over 890,000 American hotel rooms,^[6] 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.^[7] Starting late 2010, the domestic version CNN/U.S., is available in high definition to viewers in Japan under the name CNN HD.

History

Early history

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.^[8] Burt Reinhardt, the then executive vice president of CNN, hired most of CNN's first 200 employees, including the network's first news anchor, Bernard Shaw.^[9]

Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to a number of cable and satellite television companies, several web sites, specialized closed-circuit channels (such as CNN Airport Network), and a radio network. The company has 36 bureaus (10 domestic, 26 international), more than 900 affiliated local stations, and several regional and foreign-language networks around the world. The channel'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 channel, CNN2, was launched on January 1, 1982 and featured a continuous 24-hour cycle of 30-minute news broadcasts. A year later, it changed its name to "CNN Headline News", and eventually it was simply called "Headline News". (In 2005, Headline News would break from its original format with the addition of Headline Prime, a prime-time programming block that features news commentary; and in 2008 the channel changed its name again, to "HLN".)

Major events

Challenger disaster

On January 28, 1986, CNN was the only television channel to have live coverage of the launch and subsequent explosion of Space Shuttle Challenger, which killed the seven crew members.

Baby Jessica rescue

On October 14, 1987, an 18-month-old toddler 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."^[10]

The Gulf War

The first Persian Gulf War in 1991 was a watershed event for CNN that catapulted the channel 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 Coalition bombing campaign, with live reports from the al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad by reporters Bernard Shaw, John Holliman, and Peter Arnett.

The moment when bombing began was announced on CNN by Bernard Shaw on January 16, 1991 as follows:^[11]

CNN's coverage of the initial hours of the Gulf War was carried by TV stations and networks around the world, resulting in CNN being watched by over a billion viewers worldwide -- a feat that led to the subsequent creation of CNN International.

The Gulf War experience brought CNN some much sought-after legitimacy and made household names of previously obscure 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 channel'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.

September 11 attacks

CNN was the first channel to break the news of the September 11 attacks.^[12] Anchor Carol Lin was on the air to deliver the first public report of the event. She broke into a commercial at 8:49 a.m. ET and said:

Sean Murtagh, CNN vice-president of finance and administration, was the first network employee on the air. He called into CNN Center from his office at CNN New York bureau and said that a commercial jet hit the Trade Center.^[13]

Daryn Kagan and Leon Harris were live on the air just after 9 a.m. ET as the second plane hit the World Trade Center and through an interview with CNN correspondent David Ensor, reported the news that U.S. officials determined "that this is a terrorist act."^[14] Later, Aaron Brown anchored through the day and night as the attacks unfolded. Brown had just come to CNN from ABC to be the breaking news anchor.

Paula Zahn assisted in the September 11, 2001, coverage on her first day as a CNN reporter, a fact that she mentioned as a guest clue presenter on a 2005 episode of Jeopardy!.

CNN has made archival files of much of the day's broadcast available in five segments plus an overview.

2008 U.S. election

Leading up to the 2008 U.S. presidential election, CNN devoted large amounts of coverage to politics, including hosting candidate debates during the Democratic and Republican primary seasons. On June 3 and June 5, CNN teamed up with Saint Anselm College to sponsor the New Hampshire Republican and Democratic Debates.^[15] Later in 2007, the channel hosted the first CNN-YouTube presidential debates, a non-traditional format where viewers were invited to pre-submit questions over the internet via the YouTube video-sharing service.^[16] In 2008, CNN partnered with The Los Angeles Times to host two primary debates leading up to its coverage of Super Tuesday.^[17] CNN's debate and election night coverage led to its highest ratings of the year, with January 2008 viewership averaging 1.1 million viewers, a 41% increase over the previous year.^[17]

Programming

Current shows

On-air presentation

In December 2008, CNN introduced its new graphics package, a comprehensive redesign replacing the existing style that had been used since 2004.^[22] The design replaced the scrolling ticker that had been in use since 2001. Also, since March 1, 2009, the redundant CNN HD logo has been missing from the bottom left corner of the screen. CNN's new graphic design is similar to its sister channel, CNN International. The CNN logo itself has remained relatively unchanged since the channel's launch, except that it was originally displayed in yellow.

On January 10, 2011, CNN introduced its most recent graphics package, in conjunction with the network-wide switch to a 16:9 letterbox format from 4:3. Both of CNN's standard-definition and high-definition feeds now carry the same 16:9 format; however, video footage broadcast in standard-definition on either feed is not pillarboxed, leaving black bars on the right and left sides of the screen as well as the top and bottom of the screen. World Business Today and World One, which both began to be simulcast from CNN International on January 17, 2011, are however both broadcast in the 4:3 picture format on the CNN SD feed.

Former programs

Staff

CNN's current president is Ken Jautz. He replaced Jonathan Klein on September 24, 2010.^[27]

Political contributors

Political analysts

• Jack Cafferty, Commentator
• Gloria Borger, Senior Political Analyst
• Candy Crowley, Senior Political Correspondent
• Ali Velshi, Chief Business Correspondent
• Jeffrey Toobin, Senior Legal Analyst
• Bill Schneider, Senior Political Analyst
• David Gergen, Senior Political Analyst
• John King, Chief National Correspondent
• Jill Dougherty, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

High definition

CNN HD is a 1080i high definition simulcast of CNN that launched in September 2007.^[28] All studio shows are aired in HD, as well as special events.

Starting late 2010, the domestic version CNN/U.S., is available in high definition to viewers in Japan under the name CNN HD. If this is a one-off case or the beginning of an international roll-out of CNN HD with more countries to come is unclear.

Formerly during American Morning, CNN HD viewers saw weather forecasts in graphic form on the sides of the screen (American cities on the right, and cities outside of the U.S. on the left). This feature was removed in November 2009.

The documentary Planet in Peril was CNN's first documentary program produced in HD, followed by Black in America (Its sequel Black in America 2 also aired in HD). Its spinoff Latino in America was also in HD. CNN HD also used to display a CNN HD logo (the normal CNN logo with the letters HD in a different, gray colored font next to it) on the bottom left corner of the screen. It was last used on February 28, 2009.

Special events

All special events are aired in full HD. During primary and caucus nights, America Votes 2008 was produced in complete HD with Wolf Blitzer anchoring from CNN's main New York studio which was renamed the CNN Election Center. During this time, CNN HD viewers got additional information on the side of their TV screens such as poll numbers, charts and graphs. This also happened for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the 2008 Republican National Convention, the 2008 United States Presidential Debates, the 2008 United States Vice Presidential Debate and the 2008 Election Day coverage on November 4, all of which were also shot in HD. Other special events such as Presidential speeches and press conferences are aired in HD

CNN's political coverage in HD was given mobility by the introduction of the CNN Election Express bus in October 2007. The Election Express vehicle, capable of five simultaneous HD feeds, was used for the channel's CNN-YouTube presidential debates and for presidential candidate interviews.^[29]

Coverage

Initial carriage of CNN HD on cable and satellite systems was limited. DirecTV was the first provider to carry it, adding it mid-September 2007.^[28] By June 2008, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, AT&T U-verse, Rogers Cable, Midcontinent Communications, Bright House Networks, and Dish Network launched carriage of CNN HD.^[30][31] Verizon is currently in the process of adding CNN HD to its FiOS service on a market by market basis.^[32][33] CNN is also rebroadcast during the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) mid-day and evening news in Barbados.

Online

CNN debuted its news website CNN.com (initially an experiment known as CNN Interactive) on August 30, 1995. The site attracted growing interest over its first decade and is now one of the most popular news websites in the world. The widespread growth of blogs, social media and user-generated content have influenced the site, and blogs in particular have focused CNN's previously scattershot online offerings, most noticeably in the development and launch of CNN Pipeline in late 2005.

In April 2009, CNN.com ranked third place among online global news sites in unique users in the U.S. according to Nielsen/NetRatings; with an increase of 11% over the previous year.^[34]

CNN Pipeline was the name of a paid subscription service, its corresponding website, and a content delivery client that provided streams of live video from up to four sources (or "pipes"), on-demand access to CNN stories and reports, and optional pop-up "news alerts" to computer users. The installable client was available to users of PCs running Microsoft Windows. There was also a browser-based "web client" that did not require installation. In July 2007 the service was discontinued and replaced with a free streaming service.

The now-defunct topical news-program Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics was the first CNN program to feature a round-up of blogs in 2005.^[35] Blog coverage was expanded when Inside Politics was folded into The Situation Room. In 2006 CNN launched CNN Exchange and CNN iReport, initiatives designed to further introduce and centralize the impact of everything from blogging to citizen journalism within the CNN brand. CNN iReport which features user-submitted photos and video, has achieved considerable traction, with increasingly professional-looking reports filed by amateur journalists, many still in high school or college. The iReport gained more prominence when observers of the Virginia Tech Shootings sent-in first hand photos of what was going during the shootings.^[36]

As of early 2008, CNN maintains a free live broadcast.^[37] CNN International is broadcast live, as part of the RealNetworks SuperPass subscription outside US. CNN also offers several RSS feeds and podcasts.

On April 18, 2008 CNN.com was targeted by Chinese hackers in retaliation for the channel's coverage on the 2008 Tibetan unrest. CNN reported that they took preventative measures after news broke of the impending attack.^[38][39]

The company was honored at the 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for development and implementation of an integrated and portable IP-based live, edit and store-and-forward digital news gathering (DNG) system.^[40] The first use of what would later win CNN this award was in April 2001 when CNN correspondent Lisa Rose Weaver^[41] covered, and were detained,^[42] for the release of the U.S. Navy crew of a damaged electronic surveillance plane after the Hainan Island incident. The technology consisted of a videophone produced by 7E Communications Ltd of London, UK.^[43] This DNG workflow is used today by the network to receive material world wide using an Apple MacBook Pro, various prosumer and professional digital cameras, software from Streambox Inc., and BGAN terminals from Hughes Network Systems.

On October 24, 2009 CNN launched a new version of their CNN.com website, revamping it adding a new "sign up" option where users may create their own user name, a new "CNN Pulse" (beta) feature along with a new red color theme.^[44] However, most of the news archived on the website has been deleted.

CNN also has a channel in the popular video-sharing site YouTube, but its videos can only be viewed in the United States, a source of criticism among YouTube users worldwide.

In April 2010, CNN announced via Twitter its upcoming food blog called "Eatocracy," in which it will "cover all news related to food – from recalls to health issues to culture."^[45]

CNN had an internet relay chat (IRC) network at chat.cnn.com. CNN placed a live chat with Benjamin Netanyahu on the network in 1998.^[46] Also an News Network run by Anonymous members Similar to CNN but Uncensored named LNN has arisen ^[47]

Specialized channels

• CNN Airport Network
• CNN Chile A Chilean news channel launched on December 4, 2008.
• CNN en Español
• CNN International
• CNN TÜRK A Turkish media outlet.
• CNN-IBN An Indian news channel.
• CNNj A Japanese news outlet.
• HLN

• n-tv German 24 hour news channel in German language. In 2009, on air graphic (DOG position and news ticker) is like CNN. Owned by RTL Group

Former channels

• CNN Checkout Channel (Out-of-home place-based custom channel for grocery stores started in 1991 and shuttered in 1993)
• CNN Italia^[48] (an Italian news website launched in partnership with the publishing company Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, and after with the financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, launched on November 15, 1999^[49][50] and closed on September 12, 2003.)
• CNN Pipeline (24-hour multi-channel broadband online news service, replaced with CNN.com Live)
• CNN Sports Illustrated (also known as CNNSI), CNN's all-sports channel, closed in 2002.
• CNN+ (a partner channel in Spain, launched in 1999 with Sogecable)
• CNN.com Live
• CNNfn (financial channel, closed in December 2004)

Experiments

CNN launched two specialty news channels for the American market which would later close amid competitive pressure: CNNSI shut down in 2002, and CNNfn shut down after nine years on the air in December 2004. CNN and Sports Illustrated's partnership continues today online at CNNSI.com. CNN's former website now redirects to money.cnn.com, a product of CNN's strategic partnership with Money magazine. Money and SI are both properties of Time Warner, along with CNN.

Bureaus

Note: Boldface indicates that they are CNN's original bureaus, meaning they have been in operation since CNN's founding.

United States

Worldwide

Many of the following bureaus have been closed or—due to the financial crisis—their budget cut:

• Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Middle East regional headquarters)
• Baghdad, Iraq
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Beijing, China
• Beirut, Lebanon
• Berlin, Germany
• Bogotá, Colombia
• Cairo, Egypt
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Havana, Cuba
• Hong Kong (Asia/Pacific regional headquarters)
• Islamabad, Pakistan
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Jakarta, Indonesia
• Iran, Tehran (until the 2009 election when foreign media were expelled from the country)
• Jerusalem, Israel
• Johannesburg, South Africa
• Lagos, Nigeria
• London, United Kingdom (European regional headquarters)
• Madrid, Spain
• Mexico City, Mexico
• Moscow, Russia
• Nairobi, Kenya
• New Delhi, India
• Paris, France
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Santiago of Chile, Chile
• São Paulo, Brazil
• Seoul, South Korea
• Sydney, Australia
• Tokyo, Japan

Controversy

In a joint study by the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University and the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the authors found disparate treatment by the three major cable channels of Republican and Democratic candidates during the earliest five months of presidential primaries in 2007: "The CNN programming studied tended to cast a negative light on Republican candidates—by a margin of three-to-one. Four-in-ten stories (41%) were clearly negative while just 14% were positive and 46% were neutral. The network provided negative coverage of all three main candidates with McCain fairing the worst (63% negative) and Romney fairing a little better than the others only because a majority of his coverage was neutral. It's not that Democrats, other than Obama, fared well on CNN either. Nearly half of the Illinois Senator's stories were positive (46%), vs. just 8% that were negative. But both Clinton and Edwards ended up with more negative than positive coverage overall. So while coverage for Democrats overall was a bit more positive than negative, that was almost all due to extremely favorable coverage for Obama."^[51]

CNN has been accused of perpetrating media bias for allegedly promoting both a conservative and a liberal agenda based on previous incidents. Accuracy in Media and the Media Research Center have claimed that CNN's reporting contains liberal editorializing within news stories.^[52][53]

CNN is one of the world's largest news organizations, and its international channel, CNN International is the leading international new channel in terms of viewer reach.^[54][55] Unlike the BBC and its network of reporters and bureaus, CNN International makes extensive use of affiliated reporters that are local to, and often directly affected by, the events they are reporting. The effect is a more immediate, less detached style of on-the-ground coverage. This has done little to stem criticism, largely from Middle Eastern nations, that CNN International reports news from a pro-American perspective. This is a marked contrast to domestic criticisms that often portray CNN as having a "liberal" or "anti-American" bias. In 2002, Honest Reporting spearheaded a campaign to expose CNN for pro-Palestinian bias, citing public remarks in which Ted Turner equated Palestinian suicide bombing with Israeli military strikes.^[56]

Chicago Sun-Times. June 5, 2007. As said by Ted Turner, founder of CNN, "There really isn't much of a point getting some Tom, Dick or Harry off the streets to report on when we can snag a big name whom everyone identifies with. After all, it's all part of the business." However, in April 2008, Turner criticized the direction CNN has taken.^[57] Others have echoed that criticism, especially in light of CNN's drop in the ratings.

A Chinese website, anti-cnn.com,^[58] has accused CNN and western media in general of biased reporting against China, with the catch-phrase "Don't be so CNN" catching on in the Chinese mainstream as jokingly meaning "Don't be so biased". Pictures used by CNN are allegedly edited to have completely different meanings from the original ones. In addition, the channel was accused of largely ignoring pro-China voices during the Olympic Torch Relay in San Francisco.

On April 24, 2008 beautician Liang Shubing and teacher Li Lilan sued commentator Jack Cafferty and CNN $1.3 billion damages ($1 per person in China), in New York, for "violating the dignity and reputation of the Chinese people". This was in response to an incident during CNN's "The Situation Room" on April 9, where Cafferty stated his opinion that "[the USA] continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food" despite his view that "[the Chinese leaders were] basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years". Further, amid China's Foreign Ministry demand for an apology, 14 lawyers filed a similar suit in Beijing.^[59][60]

In June 2009, musician M.I.A. stated she did an hour-long interview with CNN condemning the mass bombing and Tamil civilian fatalities at the hands of Government forces in Sri Lanka in 16 weeks the same year, "and they cut it down to one minute and made it about my single “Paper Planes.” When I went to the Grammys, I saw the same reporter from CNN, and I was like, “Why did you do that?” And she said, “Because you used the G-word.” "Genocide. I guess you’re not allowed to say that on CNN," raising questions concerning CNN's coverage and commitment to free speech.^[61][62]

On November 11, 2009, longtime CNN anchor Lou Dobbs resigned on air. He didn't explain why in his exit speech but it has been reported that he was bothered by a memo that ordered anchors to stop allowing Obama birthers airtime.^[63]

On July 7, 2010, Octavia Nasr, senior Middle East editor and a CNN journalist for 20 years, was fired after she expressed on her Twitter account admiration for a liberal-minded Muslim cleric who had recently died, casting doubts on the company's commitment to freedom of speech.^[64]

On October 1, 2010, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez was fired after remarks he made during an interview with comedian Pete Dominick at a radio show the previous day about prejudices he faced during his television career, at CNN and jokes about him by comedian Jon Stewart. Calling him a "bigot" before retracting this and describing him instead as "prejudiced" and "uninformed", the interviewer invoked Stewart's faith as an example of how Stewart was "a minority as much as you are". Sanchez stated his view that Jewish people were not an oppressed minority in America, and his view that "everybody that runs CNN is a lot like Stewart" before stating "And a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart."^[65]

See also

• Broadcasting
• Corporate media
• Mass media
• News media
• News media (United States)
• Objectivity (journalism)
• Television studio

References

External links

• Official website (Mobile)
• CNN International
• CNN's channel on YouTube
• CNN on Twitter
• CNN on Facebook