CNN celebrates 45 years

It certainly changed the news by covering The Gulf War live.

R1 Remember the 'Scud Stud' on CNN ?: He became an overnight sensation broadcasting on-sitee. Mostly gay men and straight women were in love with him, our new American sex symbol. (I never saw his sex appeal).

I wonder what Larry King thinks of this. Larry?

The blurriness of it all added a lot to his appeal, I think. People could and did project onto him their own Prince Charming.

Arthur Kent (born December 27, 1953) 71, is a Canadian television journalist and author.

He rose to international prominence during the 1991 Persian Gulf War during which he acquired the nickname "The Scud Stud."

Then...

Now...

I remember being impressed with Bernard Shaw, the first chief anchor on June 1, 1980.

Nobody’s gonna remember that tonight!!!

There was a great little movie done by HBO I believe, called "Live From Baghdad " about how CNN's coverage of the Gulf War really established it as serious journalism. Michael Keaton starred along with Helena Bonham Carter and David Suchet. I really enjoyed it.

R10 here. I think you might be able to find it on you Tube.

Here you go, Live From Baghdad free on You Tube.

TV brain cancer that over decades metastasized across the airwaves and finally killed the host

Fake Tapper dying to suck low hanging red nuts.

a squandered opportunity

CNN International is less stupid than the regular US CNN. It feels more like BBC News.

I think the regular US CNN runs out of things to say so they talk in circles and bring on dubious "experts". It's mind-numbing to watch for more than 10 minutes.

Bernard Shaw was great back then. I enjoyed watching him giving the news. I also liked Lynne Russell back then. I was sorry when she decided to leave after so many years.

Arthur Kent reported for NBC, morons. He never worked for CNN.

They owe us. After the Gulf War, we put them on the map.

The tragedy is that some really excellent journalism has come from CNN. Christiane Amanpour being a prime example. And even today, if you back away from the Marquee names, most of them are pretty damned good. And yes, R16, CNN International has historically been the better version of their news productions. Ted Turner would have never allowed Tapper the shill the way he has. In fact I doubt he would have lasted under Turner.

It's been vapid and threadbare for decades. They gave us such leading lights as Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck.

I liked how Lynne Russell always had a sly smirk on her face like she was hiding a secret. Then I found out she was a also licensed private investigator and a reserve deputy sheriff. She was probably packing heat while on camera.

The whole system eventually became rotten.

CNN was reputable journalism when it launched, and had more of a focus on headlines. But eventually, opinion journalism and a focus on conflict became the focus at all news channels. No one covers a story in the even-keeled, fact based way any story deserves now, because two or more talking heads screaming at each other gets ratings.

CNN hs lost it's "news judgement" in terms of what is the important story to cover, and they have allowed the intrusive influence of its corporate board to impose on it's ability to adequately cover a story. There is a huge difference between "reporting " a story and covering it. They can always legitimately claim they are reporting on Trump's bad acts, but they have never adequately covered him.

I struggle with CNN, because they are shit, but individually I like a lot of there reporters. They can have brilliant people like Laura Coates and then shit on the floor with "analysts" like Scott Jennings.

My dad had a big crush on Lynne Stewart back in the day. He thought she was so hot.

OMG, I meant Lynne Russell! Sorry.

Few other brands have fallen so far in the public's esteem in such a short time.

Other than that American brand.

Ted turner turned news into all-day entertainment. He enabled politics to take up too much of the public consciousness

R29: You hit the nail on the head. CNN's defenders are just delusional. Unlike publicly supported news broadcasters like BBC, they relied on crappy filler like Larry King and Lou Dobbs, or bargain basement local "talent" like Nancy Grace. They have a few foreign bureaus but rely on stringers and local operators to a much greater degree than other networks.

It took 30 posts about a cable news network before someone tossed in the worn-out word 'delusional'. You're slacking DLers. It should have been tossed into the conversation within the first five . And no one used the word 'cunt' yet? What happened ? We all grew up ?

Anyone remember David Bloom. He was ABC's "embedded" reporters at the beginning if the Iraq war.. He sat so long on and in tanks that week he had a blood clot in his leg that went to his lung. He was only 39.

R32 Yes, I remember that story and how he died. So sad to re-read this. He was a handsome guy.

r25, it's ok, Lynne Stewart was the most beautiful woman in Puppetland. She was hot too!

Lynne Russell always reminded me of a tamer Peggy Bundy.

CNN was a genuine news gathering organization as Turner envisioned it. The whole politics thing happened after he left. Thank Reagan for deregulation, and thank the bastards who let dark money swamp our politics even before John Roberts wrote the Citizen's United Ruling. International news bureaus were expensive to maintain. They started cutting back on those. But honestly as far as our political scene, the news networks realized that politics was cheap. Politicians would die to get on TV. So the town halls were born. And the debates featuring 12,000 candidates. It was produced in house. Minimum expenditures, and attracted viewers and sponsors. Focusing on Politics was cheap and popular. As ratings plunge and revenue shrinks they will keep playing to the cheap seats. On a slightly related subject, I think Tapper's days are numbered. He costs too much and the rate of return isn't there. With Anderson, they get a return. Anderson is still popular, and he is still watched. Tapper has been sucking up to the bosses for several years. It won't matter. CNN announced a couple of years ago that it wanted to stop focusing on analyzing one single story and to go back to the "old style" of actually covering news more broadly. They also have to get r id of expensive talent that brings nothing to the table and drains the budget. Bye, bye, Jake.

Celebrating by firing Alex Marquardt and he was so cute…

Celebrating by firing Jeffery Toobin and he was such a piece of shit!

Anybody else remember cross-eyed Bobbie Batista (RIP) reading the news?

Watch we’ll see Too bit-Toobin on Fox.

Ted Turner of ‘’ Turner Color’’ ? ‘’Colorized B&W movies but the colors were brown-blue-purple.

Toobin's not gone. They suspended him for masturbating during an interview.....A remote interview from his home, where he was naked from the waist down. But he "got help" and rested from this "terrible breakdown" and he has now returned except not nearly as often as he used to. They have other attorneys like that g uy Elie who is a shit attorney. Laura Coates is a brilliant attorney and she likes Jeffrey. I like Jeffrey too. I think he has balls...... In general I think we need to cut CNN some slack because they have a lot of cute guys. More cute guys than any other network....not counting Manu Raju.

How embarrassing for Jeffrey, I really did feel sorry for him. Every guy jerks off to internet porn but FFS make sure your camera is covered up first! It was a dumb mistake that anyone could've made.

R35: Turner had no background in any aspect of the news business. They had plenty of hackish people like Larry King when Turner was in charge. Really, it always sucked.

Wolf has been there for 35.

You need to read Turners bio. Seriously.

Lynne Russell always reminded me of 'Julia Sugarbaker' when she read the news.

Agree - CNN has the most gorgeous men on their network. John Berman and Boris Sanchez give me erections every time they're on.

C'mon, no love for Elsa Klensch who was there promoting fashion to the unwashed masses on day one? Clearly some of you F.I.T.s got your intro to high fashion from Elsa.

I miss Headline News. It liked being able to flip over to HNN for a quick 30 minute newscast to get caught up on the day's news.

Me too r48

R48 Whatever happened to HLN (I think it was HLN, not HNN) ? I remember when I was in college in the mid-80s, taking a journalism class, my professor said the success of HLN led to the creation of 'USA TODAY' around the same time. She said they were the McDonald's 'drive-thru' of news reporting, and this would be our future.

Boy, was she right - no one has an attention span of more than a two minute read / listen any more.

Yeah it was HLN (or sometimes just HN) and not HNN. I knew as soon as I hit post that it didn't seem correct.

Headline News abandoned news reporting for true crime programming.

I would have gladly lent a hand or mouth to David Bloom or Bob Woodruff.

They need to celebrate big time with a cannon firing Jake Tapper.

Blitzer is as a annoying now as he's ever been. If he was really good, he would have moved elsewhere.

When did Arthur Kent turn into Brian Cranston?

Baby Jessica put CNN on the map.