WikiPortallus: CNN.html

In terms of unique viewers (Nielsen Cume Ratings), CNN rates as America's number one cable news network, and is ranked number two behind Fox News in total audience Nielsen ratings.^[3] 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. As of June 2008, the network is available in 93 million U.S. households and more than 890,000 American hotel rooms.^{citation needed} The U.S version of their broadcast is also shown in Canada. Globally, CNN airs through CNN International and has combined branded networks and services that are available to more than 1.5 billion people in over 212 countries and territories.^{citation needed}

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.^[4] 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 two radio networks. 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.

Despite its domestic standing, CNN remains a distant second in international news coverage, reaching just over half of the audience of the older BBC World News. Unlike the BBC's 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.

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. Current programs feature confrontational personalities like radio talk-show host Glenn Beck and former Fulton County, Georgia prosecutor Nancy Grace.

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.

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 Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer) 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.

September 11

CNN was the first network to have broken news of the September 11 attacks. 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:

Aaron Brown, anchored the rest of the day 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 & administration, was the first network employee on the air in New York.^[5]

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. CNNfn's former website now redirects to money.cnn.com, a product of CNN's strategic partnership with Money magazine.

Online

CNN debuted its news website CNN.com (then known as CNN Interactive) on August 30, 1995. Initially an experiment, interest in CNN.com grew steadily over its first decade and today CNN.com is now one of the most popular news websites in the world. The wide-spread 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.

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 2004.^{citation needed} 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.^{citation needed}

As of early 2008, CNN maintains a free live broadcast ^[6]. CNN International is broadcasted 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 network's coverage on the 2008 Tibetan unrest. CNN reported that they took preventative measures after news broke of the impending attack. ^[7] ^[8]

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 newsgathering system.

Criticism and controversies

CNN has been accused of perpetrating media bias for allegedly promoting both a conservative and a liberal agenda based on previous incidents. Media Matters for America has documented several hundred separate instances of what it sees as conservative editorializing during CNN broadcasts.^[9] Accuracy in Media and MRC have claimed that CNN's reporting contains liberal editorializing within news stories.^[10]^[11]

It was derided as the "Clinton News Network" during the 1990s for its perceived favorable bias towards the Clinton Administration, in particular by Rush Limbaugh.^{citation needed}

The network has also been accused of being slanted toward U.S. interests when reporting on world conflicts and wars.^specify^[12] Critics such as LA Weekly say it is part of an alleged pro-war news media.^{citation needed} CNN denies any 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.^[13]

Several prominent former CNN personalities have come to criticize certain aspects of the news network. Aaron Brown has said that CNN has committed "huge mistakes" and frames CNN as an "organization that is trying to figure out if it can be all things to all people." However, he also praised CNN's journalistic superiority, saying, "[...] CNN's a better journalism organization." ^[14] Bernard Shaw has expressed that he is "very very disappointed with the way the news management" has handled his favorite network. He criticised the effects of Fox News' "commentary [and] personal analysis" on the news reporting of CNN, saying that "CNN continues to ape many of the on-air mannerisms of the Fox News Network, and I don't like that."^[15]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. ^[16]

A Chinese website, anti-cnn.com,^[17] 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". ^[18]

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". At the April 9 CNN's "The Situation Room," regarding the Chinese leaders, Cafferty remarked, "I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years; and the United States imported Chinese-made "junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food." Further, amid China's Foreign Ministry demand for an apology, 14 lawyers filed A similar suit in Beijing.^[19]^[20]

CNN has been accused many times of "media blackout" on important issues, an example was total blackout of the signing of the constitutive treaty effectively creating the South American Union on May 23, 2008.^{citation needed}

CNN has also been accused of pro-georgian coverage of Southossetian conflict. It also has been accused of stealing Russia Al-Yaum records from Tskhinvali and representing them as shots from Gori.^[21]^[22]

CNN in popular culture

Current shows

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