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CNN News
Cable News Network, almost always referred to by its initial's CNN, is a U.S. cable news network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner.
Upon its launch, CNN News was the first network to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States.
While the news network has numerous affiliates, CNN News 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 News 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.
As of June 2008, CNN News is available in over 93 million U.S. households. Broadcast coverage extends to over 890,000 American hotel rooms, and the U.S broadcast is also shown in Canada.
Globally, CNN News programming airs through CNN International, which can be seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories. In terms of regular viewers (Nielsen ratings), CNN rates as the United States' number two cable news network and has the most unique viewers (Nielsen Cume Ratings).
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.
Since its debut, CNN News 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.
In 2004, Jonathan Klein took over CNN as president and has maintained the position ever since.
CNN HD was launched September 1, 2007, and was first nationally distributed by DirecTV on September 26, 2007. The network has also faced an increasingly competitive media environment; since CNN's debut, more than 70 television networks have launched with 24-hour news coverage.
On January 28, 1986, CNN News was the only television network to have live coverage of the launch and explosion of Space Shuttle Challenger.
The shuttle exploded after lift-off killing seven crew members including Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher from Concord, New Hampshire to be the first teacher in space. Then-President Ronald Reagan postponed his State of the Union Address that evening. He addressed the nation from the Oval Office.
On October 14, 1987, an 18-month-old toddler named Jessica McClure fell down a well in Midland, Texas. CNN News 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.
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 News 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 Gulf War experience brought CNN News 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.
Time Warner later produced a television movie, Live from Baghdad, about the network's coverage of the first Gulf War, which aired on HBO.
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.
CNN News was the first network to break the news of the September 11 attacks. Anchor Carol Lin was on the air to deliver the first public report of the event.
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 News correspondent David Ensor, reported the news that U.S. officials determined "that this is a terrorist act."
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.
Sean Murtagh, CNN vice-president for finance and administration, was the first network employee on the air in New York.
Coincidentally, September 11, 2001 was Paula Zahn's first day as a CNN reporter.
Leading up to the 2008 U.S. presidential election, CNN News 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 News teamed up with Saint Anselm College to sponsor the New Hampshire Republican and Democratic Debates.
Later in 2007, the network 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.
In 2008, CNN News partnered with The Los Angeles Times to host two primary debates leading up to its coverage of Super Tuesday. 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.
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