Has CNN ever been good?

[zanne]

I was watching a ridiculous segment just now that was so heavily slanted to the right, it was ridiculous. I know that six years is not a long time, but for the life of me, I just don't remember what CNN was like before Bush took the White House and the mainstream media was compromised. I know I used to watch it sometimes, and I think I trusted it, but my recollection is hazy. Does anybody remember if CNN was once a decent place to get news?

[depakid]

1. Maybe 15 years ago

They were semi-objective.

Today, they're utterly worthless as a source. At best, people who watch them are misinformed....

[Octafish]

2. Yeah. When Ted Turner owned it.

He even had people like Tom Braden on Crossfire.

[karlrschneider]

12. Yep, you're exactly right. Around 1990 they were actually good.

Aside from Jack Cafferty, they're all a bunch of craven empty-head asswipes.

[Crabby Appleton]

16. I agree, they were good back then. nt

[sleepyhead]

18. I used to watch Crossfire religiously.

It went seriously downhill after Michael Kinsley left and I couldn't bear to watch it any more. Toward the end it was just pathetic.

[Katherine Brengle]

3. I seem to recall it once being very serious and not like this...

I watched today bc I was waiting for the Senate vote and it was shameful - like a morning show on a network station... except it was supposed to be the real news.

[Spazito]

4. When Ted Turner started it and until he was forced out...

it was good, imo. It actually covered.....gasp.....news. Breaking news was actually news that was breaking and CNN usually had it first.

When Time/Warner acquired it, infotainment was born.

[EST]

5. Back when Novak still had a couple of brain cells to

rub together and cnn was not only the big dog, but the only dog in town in the cable news business, they were, comparatively speaking, sort of acceptable.
With the all hate, all the time advent and its concomittant rejection and pasture-ization of its liberal founder, its goal has been to out pox Pox Noise channel.

[Selatius]

6. You're asking the wrong question.

CNN is a for-profit entity. When we talk about money, divorce yourself from notions of good or evil. Instead, talk about it in terms of profit margins.

Does it make more sense financially to cover a boring topic like a corporation smashing labor unions as opposed to Anna Nicole Smith? If it doesn't, then we will cover Anna. If you can't get the ratings, then forget about it. In this business, ratings translate into profits. Let somebody else cover the environment. "We're simply in it for the money."

That is what for-profit means in terms of the news.

The question you should be asking is if this is acceptable.

[Warpy]

7. CNN was the gold standard for 24 hour news

while Ted Turner owned it. As soon as Turner sold out to AOL/Disney et al, the whole thing started to go to hell. They started to get competition from Pox, which did have snazzier graphics and sound effects, and bad management decided Pox was winning through content and CNN lurched sharply to the right while eliminating a lot of expensive overseas bureau jobs.

Turner has said many times he wishes he could afford to buy CNN back. I join him in that wish.

[SoCalDem]

8. I watched the FIRST broadcast of it..and yes it USED to be good

They originally broadcast out of a converted HOUSE in Atlanta.

The "news readers" were pretty anonymous and not Barbie & Ken wannabees..

They did not do "shows".. It was a continuum of news..with mostly filed pieces run without commentary.. You just WATCHED WHAT HAPPENED and got to decide what YOU thought about it..

[SoCalDem]

10. Link to the first broadcast here

CNN goes on air -- June 1, 1980

Cable News Network goes on the air for the first time June 1, 1980, at 6 p.m. Based in Atlanta, CNN is conceived by media and sports magnate Ted Turner as the world's first around-the-clock news network. At its launch, the operation has 300 employees in bureaus in nine cities, including London and Rome, and is available to more than 2 million viewers through cable outlets in 30 states.

CNN
The network is launched:

http://www.cnn.com/resources/video.almanac/1980/index2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNN

[mvd]

9. ABC's just now must be even worse

Said Reid "dragged" the Senate in for a Saturday session.

And yes, CNN had a shread of integrity under Turner.

[northofdenali]

11. When Ted Turner owned it, it was pretty good.

Especially during Gulf War I.

I haven't watched it since then.

[spanone]

13. It's gone the way of Most news channels. Infotainment. News that entertains.

Cheaper and doesn't bum people out. I'm sure that's their motivation.

Corporate America is all about money and television is all about corporate America.

[Straight Shooter]

14. It was quite good. I was addicted to watching the news. It was the only news station I watched.

However, I noticed the quality of reporting slowly eroding. (Wolf was always asinine, though.)

I don't even subscribe to cable anymore, and my TV reception here in the boonies is so bad that I can't get local news stations anyway.

Thank gawd for the internets tubes-thingies or I would be as "stoopid" as a bushbot. :)

[Bobbie Jo]

15. CNN thrives during wartime...

The Gulf War put them on the map, if I remember correctly. Is it any wonder they continue to bang the war drum for all it's worth?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. Once, yes.

CNN has declined badly in the last 10 years or so. But they used to be good -- they had more international staff; first-rate people like Christiane Amanpour were on all the time; they got into the middle of things and reported on the serious stuff. They weren't so much into celebrity crap, and their Headline News program was actually a useful synopsis of major news stories. I used to watch CNN almost compulsively. Now I hardly ever turn it on.

It's a TV version of People Magazine.

[Crunchy Frog]

19. I was addicted to CNN during the time when communism was collapsing

in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Yes, it used to be a decent news channel, long ago, before Ted Turner lost control of it. They used to cover actual news in those days.

[MonkeyFunk]

20. Yes

there was a time when they actually had NEWS on all the time - not pundit shows, not celebrity gossip... actual news. From around the world!

[snowbear]

21. The very BEST person on CNN these days is Michael Ware...

CNN Baghdad Correspondent - Michael Ware

Other than him... and maybe Jack Cafferty... .. the rest of 'em suck.

[KharmaTrain]

22. Then They Did News...Now It's All Personality

I started watching CNN around 1981...it was like watching a small town newscast, but it was news and live at all hours. I still have a video of the day the Challenger exploded in '86 of nothing but CNN live coverage...all top notch. In those days, Turner invested in journalists, not "personalities". That changed when Time came in...they had to "glam it up"...thus came the Paul Zahns and Anderson Coopers and out went the Bernie Shaws and Peter Arnetts. CNN hit its stride with the Tien Amien Massacre in '89 and then Gulf Oil I in '91.

IMHO, what destroyed CNN was competition. When they were the only news channel, they didn't worry about the ratings and demographics. Turner used money he was making off his other channels to expand CNN and turn it into a truly global network. Time went and tried to exploit what Turner did. While Faux Noises' overall viewership is minimal in the overall TV world, it was enough to erode CNN's ratings and then spook them into playing Faux's game. They've never recovered.

[JackRiddler]

23. Not really but it used to play a good news network on TV. n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

24. CNN was THE network to watch when Ted Turner owned it. I still haven't forgiven him

for selling it.:grr: He must CRINGE when he tunes in these days. The network is nothing like it use to be.