There are many 24-hour cable news networks, but CNN was the first. It's fitting, then, that the network marked its 40th anniversary this week at a time when news was coming from every which way.
Well-resourced networks are an asset to society in such circumstances. Covering breaking and rapidly evolving developments is something TV news typically does very well (with occasional examples of having to walk back a story). In quieter times, though, the value of having all that airtime to fill becomes more of a question. To keep the audiences' attention, CNN and its subsequent competitors have turned some of that time over to provocative content, and audiences themselves have become self-selecting.
At the time of CNN's launch, however, the question was whether an audience even existed. Cable television then had been a solution mainly for areas where broadcast signals were inhibited by geography. But the vision for its ubiquity was in place, and the network's founder, Ted Turner, intended to capitalize.
Turner himself wasn't thought to be a natural proponent of journalism. His existing channel — the WTBS "superstation" — barely took it seriously. Government regulations required 30 minutes of news a day, but Turner's station delivered it at 3 a.m., and the broadcast sometimes included co-anchor Rex, a German shepherd in suit and tie. But for CNN, Turner made a point of assembling serious journalists and production crews, who began work in the network's first home, cobbled together in a former social-club mansion.
The network went live at 5 p.m. Eastern time on June 1, 1980. Turner gave a brief introduction that sounded all the right notes, and the national anthem was played. From off camera came a verbal collage of national and international place names, giving an aura of intended omnipresence. Then the scene turned to anchors David Walker and Lois Hart, a husband-and-wife team sporting 1980 hairstyles and delivery. There was no chitchat. They gave their names, and Hart straightaway declared: "Now here's the news."
First story? The aftermath of the attempted killing of civil-rights leader Vernon Jordan.
