June 1, 1980
: Ted Tuner’s Cable News Network begins broadcasting as the world’s first 24-hour, all-news cable TV channel. The network’s “always there” quality allowed it to get out in front of many big, ongoing news events?reaching a peak in 1991 when its reporters in CNN’s Baghdad bureau reported the start of the first Persian Gulf War accompanied by rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air. But it’s been downhill ever since, despite the sale of parent Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner Inc. in 1996. The network’s attempt at a financial news channel, CNNfn, was shuttered in 2004 after failing to attract even one viewer. And while Lou Dobbs’ xenophobia and Wolf Blitzer’s beard are now available in about 100 million U.S. households, CNN is struggling to retain viewers against such competitors as the Fox News Channel and “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. But the pioneering network can still recapture its wartime glory days when a big story breaks. For example, CNN was all over Wednesday’s top news event, bringing all of Time Warner’s resources to bear and thoroughly routing Fox in covering Katie Couric’s farewell.—
Jeffrey Kanige
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