CNN Turns 30, Quietly and Without Fanfare

By Marc Schneider Posted Jun 1st 2010 01:16PM

Does anyone enjoy turning 30? For many people, the milestone brings a sense of dread and that sinking feeling that your best days may be behind you. Well, CNN turns 30 today, and it's hard to imagine they don't feel the same way.

Ted Turner's ambitious Cable News Network aired its first broadcast on June 1, 1980, with a report by co-anchors David Walker and Lois Hart. In 2000, the network threw a huge party to celebrate its 20th birthday, but this time the network is passing the day without much fanfare.

Why so low-key? With viewers craving pundits and blowhards telling them exactly what they want to hear, the straight news-minded CNN has stuck to its guns -- you know, the news -- and lost.

Nonpartisan news reporting has gone the way of the Dodo. Ratings have plunged to new lows this year, with CNN's main hosts, Larry King and Anderson Cooper, shedding nearly half their audiences, according the New York Times.

The exodus of viewers has even cost the network one of its rising stars, Campbell Brown, who announced May 18 that "not enough people want to watch my program, and I owe it to myself and to CNN to get out of the way so that they can try something else."

The 24-hour news channel was a first on television, and for 16 years -- until the emergence of FOX News and MSNBC in 1996 -- it had a monopoly on the genre. In its heyday, viewers were glued to CNN for stories like the first Gulf War, major elections, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger and, of course, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The network's ratings are bound to improve, but even if they don't, the network's founder promised its survival.

Speaking just before the network's launch, Turner promised, "We won't be signing off until the world ends. We'll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event ... and when the end of the world comes, we'll play 'Nearer My God to Thee' before we sign off."

Inside the company, CNN president Jim Walton announced today that employees will be giving back with a program called Give 30 for 30. Every eligible staffer will be able to give a company-paid donation of $30 to a charity of his or her choice.

Tags: cnn

Comments

(129)

Tuesday 01 June

By Don Shook

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What's to be expected from a Marxama sycophant? Report what is and not what you want it to be and perhaps viewers will stick. You can't fool all the people all the time...and trying to at the expense of the truth has sent you floundering. That's life.

By dude

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FAIR AND BALANCED ? LIKE McCAIN AND PALIN ?

By DR.LOVE

I HEARD YOU MENTION THE END OF THE WORLD ,,IS THAT WHERE YOU PLAN TO FOLLOW OBUMMA TO ,BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE HE IS LEADING US

By Larry

Several managers at Fox now regret their switch from news reporting to news making. They recognize that they have subverted the news for some time and that their talk shows are entertainment and not news. Look for a change from Fox before too long. Even they have the potential to feel shame for what they have done. If they were an over the air broadcast station their license would have been revoked long ago.

By Ellen

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Larry, no matter how pathtic your statement, you tried

By sw

CNN is sinking just like all of the other news stations that support Obama and his socialist agenda.....sinking like all of the liberal rags that helped elect Obama...I won't miss any of them....they are nothing more than a mouth piece for Obama and his talking points.....ABC, NBC, CBS and MSNBC also helped elect Obama.....FOX NEWS is the only station that is fair and balanced other than Morning Joe on MSNBC...

By Bob Hartman

You have to be a blind ignoramus to call CNN "non partisan". The news reporting is slanted so far to the left as to sometimes be repugnant. It especially angers me when a supposedly "non partisan" news agency ignores major news stories...because it doesn't suit their agenda...such as the biggest re-up in our military's history. That's right...so many troops felt so good about what they were doing in Iraq they they signed up for another tour...breaking all records. CNN decided to basically ignore it. That is real news...not the president's cute little daughters!

By Dr. Matt

I thought CNN was celebrity news network.

By oscar schapiro

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GIVE THE NETWORK BACK TO TED TURNER. HE'LL SHOW THEM HOW TO RUN A NETWORK THAT PEOPLE WATCH...

Thursday 24 June

By flounder

They did not report negative aspects on B. Obama, Air America, Gore's recount, Kerry, John Edwards, etc. People can't count on them to find out what is going on.

By dlee

JUST ANOTHER NEWS? STATION WITH OBOZO GOOD, FOX BAD. WHO NEEDS TO LISTEN TO THE ONE'S BS FROM A STATION THAT SHOULD REPORT LEGITIMATE NEWS....

Friday 04 June

By surfsup joe

I like it, you are about right. But I do lean towards FOX, if I have to watch the news, which is about 3 times a year. DAN the AS.SHOLE RATHER, COST me my college education with his famous story about VIET-NAM vets. ALL OF WHOM never service in NAM. I became the crazy VET.

By William

In the long run CNN will prevail, if they have and exhibit the GUTS to stand up to the extreme right wingnuts out there! And Lord knows there are a lot of stupid ignorant uneducated people out there, simply saying what they are told to say and falling for the lies, believing everything they'll told. ......
Fox.....fair and balance ?? Don't make me bust a gut laughing!!!! Fox and this AOL Internet service is so right wing it's pathetic!!! Only a Fool or a moron would deny what is right in front of your face!
Here's the reason Why! Because MSNBC & CNN news support what they report with video and event manuscripts plus tell you can order manuscripts from any service to double check what these guys report. That's why FOX hates MSNBC, I catch FOX in out right LIES all the time... How the hell is that Fair or balanced?
You guys hate Keith Oberman, and Rachel Maddow, because he catches the right wing in all the lies!

After careful consideration, this affirmative action extending to the White House, has proved to be another failed stylish, social experiment. The Buckwheat and Bozo show has proven to be a disater of nightmare proportions. Would the last person at CNN please turn off the lights.

By Hank

CNN sold out its credibility to be Sadaam Hussein's mouthpiece. They got caught in the act; can't blame that on Fox News.

By Bob

They are not celebrating because CNN is dying. Fox News is kicking their butt with fair and balanced news, not liberal biased cr@p!

By Moot

I signed up for these CNN email alerts - I laugh at some of the things they send - truly dumbing me down....

Good luck for the next 30 years

By James

"With viewers craving pundits and blowhards telling them exactly what they want to hear, the straight news-minded CNN has stuck to its guns -- you know, the news -- and lost."
This statement shows a mindset that CNN, as well as many other news outlets, have; That "left" is the center of American thinking and politics. It is not!!!
Fox news is beating the stuffing out of every news source, not because it has blowhards or pundits, but because it knows what real news is. For years the American people were starved for reporting on what is really happening and the truth behind it. We became increasingly sick of left leaning, radical loving hosts and anchor people from every network.
Your statement appears so removed from the American pulse. You have disinfranchised the majority of America and now they have abandoned you. When you have such a radical, left wing liberal like Ted Turner leading the business, what did you really expect? To change the mind of a country I suspect, rather than just report. Try news without an agenda for a change. Happy 30th.

By alioto

how can you be so far off the mark,,,reporters like you are the reason CNN is tanking...you havent got a clue!

By Bill

Marc Schneider must not watch CNN - "the straight news-minded CNN has stuck to its guns -- you know, the news -- and lost."
That statement is a joke.

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