The Cable News Network, CNN, began broadcasting forty years ago today. Originally, and still technically, based in Atlanta, CNN was the idea of the city’s famous Ted Turner, who had turned a local UHF television station into a national cable channel. CNN aired footage of its first day today and published this article as well.
At the time, the FCC required all television broadcasters to air a minimum amount of news time each day. Rather than use entertainment programming time for news, he developed the audacious idea of a 24 hour news channel, expecting, correctly, that the FCC would change its requirement.
Many critics questioned whether there was enough news to fill 24 hours and how one could be hosted from anywhere other than New York or Washington. Of course, the naysayers were not only wrong but wrong many times over, as Fox News (if you call what they air news), CNBC, MNBC, CNN Headline News, CNN International and many others have proven. In fact, there was an audience for a channel devoted to weather, and another where you can watch paint dry (HGTV).
CNN has become as respected in broadcasting as the New York Times is in print, among all but those that prefer to be pandered to. Sure, it could do better at times, but when you are live 24 hour a day and have to report as fairly as possible on someone as unhinged, erratic and other less kind terms, as whom Garrison Keillor calls the “present occupant” you might occasionally fall short of your best.
In an odd turn of events, CNN ended up now being owned by AT&T, as part of its move into video programming. When radio was in its infancy and it became clear that the medium would primarily be a vehicle for entertainment and not communication, the company started its own programming. The reason you don’t know about that adventure is because it was an utter and abysmal failure.
For the sake of CNN and legitimate reporting, I hope AT&T will honor its promise of CNN’s editorial independence.
