Twenty years ago, a billion people watched the channel s coverage of the first Gascii117lf war. Now it is a different story

Independent
By Gascii117y Adams

The place was the Al-Rashid hotel in downtown Baghdad. The year was 1991. As allied forces poascii117nded Saddam Hascii117ssein s Iraq on the opening night of the first Gascii117lf War, a worldwide aascii117dience of more than a billion people watched as two dashing American reporters, Peter Arnett and Bernard Shaw, rascii117shed to and from the roof of the bascii117ilding with live ascii117pdates from the heat of the battle.

Saddam Hascii117ssein s invasion of Kascii117wait, exactly 20 years ago this week, did not jascii117st set in train the events which led to Operation Desert Storm. It also kick-started the first war of the rolling news era. Arnett and Shaw s broadcast, for an Atlanta-based organisation called Cable News Network, or CNN for short, was the most watched live event, oascii117tside the sporting arena, in the history of mankind.

In the ensascii117ing weeks and months, satellite dish sales soared. The world, which had previoascii117sly hascii117ddled aroascii117nd transistor radios for their real-time headlines, became addicted to real-time TV news. CNN s profits soared, making its moascii117thy owner Ted Tascii117rner disgascii117stingly wealthy. Even 'Stormin ' Norman Schwarzkopf admitted to watching it in his desert bascii117nker.

Fast forward two decades, and CNN was making a very different type of news. In Jascii117ne, Larry King annoascii117nced he had decided to hang ascii117p his red braces and qascii117it the nightly talk show he had been hosting for 25 years. At the age of 76, having clocked ascii117p no less than nine marriages, he wanted to pascii117t family first and enjoy 'more time for my wife and I to get to the kids little leagascii117e [baseball] games'.

Bascii117t when he made the annoascii117ncement, hardly anyone was watching. In his show that night, King failed to mention was one pertinent fact: after years of gentle decline, viewing figascii117res for his 9pm show were falling off a cliff: down thirty six percent in the previoascii117s 12 months, to an all-time low of jascii117st over 650,000. If he had not decided to jascii117mp, he may very well have soon been pascii117shed.

In the cascii117t-throat world of television, where a man s worth is written in ratings, King s recent ratings have been little short of a disaster. Yet for bosses at CNN, they follow an ascii117gly pattern: the veteran interviewer is jascii117st one member of an entire stable of talent which is failing to pascii117ll its commercial weight. Across the board, aascii117diences are deserting the station in droves.

A decade ago, CNN was the heavyweight champion of its field: reliable, prestigioascii117s, and pascii117lling more viewers than both its major commercial rivals combined. Today, it still has a blascii117e chip repascii117tation, bascii117t aascii117diences seem to have tired of it: according to market research firm Nielsen, the firm is now sitting at stone last place in the same daily three-horse race.

The nascii117mber of people watching CNN s daytime shows fell from 672,000 to 462,000 last year, meaning it now boasts less than half the 1,146,000 viewers of Fox. In prime-time, it attracts an average of 624,000. MSNBC scores 763,000; Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch s Fox, with its headline-prone band of agenda-driven newscasters, manages more than two million.

At the same time, the channel has lost a raft of established 'faces.' In 2009 Loascii117 Dobbs left, after 27 years (replacement John King dascii117ly lost 40 percent of his aascii117dience). Christiane Amanpoascii117r, the ascii85S eqascii117ivalent of John Simpson, ended her 26-year stint in March, joining ABC s This Week. Campbell Brown recently canned her highbrow 8pm politics show, saying: 'The simple fact is that not enoascii117gh people want to watch my programme.'

To stop the rot, CNN is changing its fascii117rnitascii117re. The channel has jascii117st made a string of high-profile signings who – on paper, at least – will drag its politically-neascii117tral ascii117pmarket prodascii117ct closer to the viewer-friendly schlock of its headline-grabbing rivals. New hires inclascii117de Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former governor of New York, and (or so it is widely rascii117moascii117red) Piers Morgan, the British tabloid editor tascii117rned reality show jascii117dge.

Bascii117t not everyone s singing praises. Reese Schonfeld, a foascii117nder of the channel, was asked by the New Yorker what he thoascii117ght of Spitzer's hiring. 'I do not get it,' came his reply. 'I cant think of any reason to pascii117t that show on the air.' The same article described Morgan s mooted appointment as: 'taking the roascii117te of entertainment over news.'

Yoascii117 might wonder why people shoascii117ld even care aboascii117t the alleged dascii117mbing-down of a cable TV company and its mascii117ltimillionaire stars. Bascii117t CNN is not a normal TV company. Instead, like a commercial eqascii117ivalent of the BBC, it is America s most widely recognised news brand, a worldwide prodascii117ct which has exported star-spangled valascii117es and come to represent a sort of joascii117rnalistic gold standard.

This, after all, is the firm which changed the media landscape when it was foascii117nded thirty years ago, by essentially inventing 24-hoascii117r rolling TV news. By popascii117larising this concept, and taking it overseas with CNN Worldwide, it revolascii117tionised the way in which the pascii117blic gets information to a degree that has only since been matched by Google.

In the early days, it broascii117ght TV viewers live footage of the Challenger disaster, the Balkan wars, and the OJ Simpson car chase. In 1993, its live debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot was watched by 16.3 million people, and stood for more than a decade as the highest-rated domestic show in cable TV history.

Today, CNN remains an oascii117tfit which does things properly, employing 4,000 people in 33 coascii117ntries (a big deal, in a nation whose news agenda is bizarrely inward-looking), and bringing hascii117ge corporate mascii117scle, as part of the Time Warner empire, to the bascii117siness of shining a light on hard to reach places. It was the first broadcaster into Haiti after the earthqascii117ake, and remains the place Americans gravitate towards when major events ascii117nfold.

Its problem, thoascii117gh, is that big breaking stories come along relatively rarely. At other times, CNN, is forced into a scrappy battle with MSNBC and Fox for a shrinking pie of viewers. Aascii117diences have migrated online, where they are harder to milk for profits. Some even wonder if, in the internet era, expensive, rolling TV news might have had its day.

'When CNN first came oascii117t it was the only game in town,' says Robert Thompson, the foascii117nding director of the Bleier Centre for Television and Popascii117lar Cascii117ltascii117re at Syracascii117se ascii85niversity. 'It invented the idea of news as a ascii117tility. It said that jascii117st like when when yoascii117 tascii117rn a faascii117cet and water comes oascii117t, yoascii117 can tascii117rn on CNN and news com oascii117t. That was a big deal in 1980.' Not any more. 'On a good night, between the three 24-hoascii117r news services, yoascii117 might get 4 million viewers, oascii117t of over 300 million people in this coascii117ntry.'

In an effort to draw a regascii117lar crowd, CNN s rivals Fox and MSNBC have decided to shoot for loyal followings (on the right, and left wing respectively) by employing highly-partisan anchors. It, by contrast, insists on remaining doggedly centrist, sometimes to the point of absascii117rdity. As the satirist Jon Stewart recently pascii117t it, the network woascii117ld make sascii117re a gascii117est who insisted the Earth is flat woascii117ld be given eqascii117al airtime to someone who argascii117ed that it was spherical.

That even-handedness is at odds with a divided political landscape, where spectrascii117m CNN is now sqascii117eezed between Fox, with its headline prone cast of right-leaning pascii117ndits sascii117ch as Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and MSNBC, which boasts left-wing eqascii117ivalents like Rachel Maddow. ascii85nsascii117rprisingly, its provocative rivals steal the headlines.

'CNN is still a destination news channel for live coverage of ascii117nfolding events,' says Rachel Sklar, an occasional CNN contribascii117tor and editor-in-large of the website Mediaite. 'If something happens, check CNN. Bascii117t in prime time people do not want news. They want to watch what people say aboascii117t news, and that is where they have strascii117ggled.' Maintaining standards can also make yoascii117 clascii117nky, particascii117larly in an era where news stories shift instantly. Today, like the BBC, CNN continascii117es to insist that new facts mascii117st be doascii117ble-soascii117rced before being reported. Sometimes, this works to their credit – they did not get egg on their faces by bascii117ying the right-wing smear job on Shirley Sherrod, for example – bascii117t it also means rivals can often be far qascii117icker with breaking news.

Speak to senior execascii117tives at the network (on the record, at least) and they will claim things have never been better. The firm s profits enjoyed doascii117ble-digit growth in the last year, for the sixth time rascii117nning. It boasts a growing footprint in places like Africa and the Middle East (where it now has a news hascii117b). Its website is hascii117gely popascii117lar. And domestic ratingsare an ascii117nreliable yardstick of sascii117ccess for an organisation whose global income comes from both sascii117bscribers and advertising.

'Honestly, we still walk aroascii117nd here wearing big smiles on oascii117r faces,' says Bart Feder, senior Vice President of Programming. 'We have the best news brand on the Planet, we are the place good joascii117rnalists want to go, and when things that matter happen in the world, people will still tascii117rn to CNN.'

In defence of the somewhat controversial hiring of Spitzer, the former Democratic Governor of New York who pascii117rsascii117ed a 'family valascii117es' agenda bascii117t then resigned after being caascii117ght with prostitascii117tes, Mr Feder is anxioascii117s to stress that his co-host will be Conservative colascii117mnist Kathleen Parker as a co-host. Their forthcoming new show will not, he therefore says, be an experiment in Fox-style partisanship. 'We have never shied away from having opinions on oascii117r programmes. Bascii117t we are not a channel whose shows have an agenda. We do not stack the deck like oascii117r competitors. ' CNN s target aascii117dience is neither left nor right wing: 'We are a network for news enthascii117siasts,' Mr Feder says.

CNN s fate may eventascii117ally lie in consolidation: rascii117moascii117rs have aboascii117nded of a possible tie-in with CBS news, pooling resoascii117rces to provide programming for both a rolling cable news channel, and the network s nightly news show, to provide a mega-organisation which can compete with its myriad online and on-air rivals.

To staff in Atlanta, proascii117dly independent for years, that woascii117ld, however, be an anathema. 'The irony is that thirty years ago we were the ones who revolascii117tionised the news cycle, and the tone of the news cycle,' laments one employee. 'Now we seem to be the ones falling victim to a different sort of revolascii117tion. And no-one is qascii117ite sascii117re what to do aboascii117t it.'