do you remember the launch of CNN?

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The advent of the 24 hour news cycle damaged our society irreparably.

I also remember when news was taken seriously, and TV was not 24 hours of filling time with opinions instead of paying reporters.

Yes. CNN actually coveted news in those days.

I remember it well...I also rememer when "Baby Jessica" changed TV News forever.

I remember it well. Bernard Shaw, was the first on-screen big name and anchored their evening news. It was much more fact based and more reminiscent of a network news broadcast that what it (and all other 24Hr news channels became), a place where "talking heads" give their opinions on the news. They also landed Daniel Schorr who was more a commentator and had spent a lot of time at CBS news

They also dedicated slots to discuss things like fashion (Elsa Klensch), Sports (Fred Hickman & Nick Charles), Business (Lou Dobbs - Who used to be somewhat sane before moving to Fox), and Space / Science (John Zarrella)

It was like the national network news, but 24 hours a day. It was well done and without bias back then.

I don't remember the launch of CNN, but I do remember when cable news changed to become the 24/7 constant "breaking news" monstrosity that it is now: the first Gulf War.

Up until then news was something you'd maybe check out once a day. When the Gulf War started, TVs became glued to CNN constantly from the very first missile strikes (I still remember my parents waking me up and saying "you have to see this").

After the Gulf War ended this new approach to news never really died. CNN (and other emerging news networks) were constantly fishing for "breaking news" stories to keep their bottom-of-the-screen ticker rolling and to keep people engaged even though only a few events since the Gulf War really warranted 24/7 coverage.

Yes!! I was working at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit when they went on the air for the first time from a political convention -- about a month after their launch. The old school networks had palatial studios and limos ferrying their anchors around while CNN was in the back in a studio held together by chicken wire. Old timers scoffed at the upstart arguing it would be a flash in the pan. Had to work hard to convince spokespersons to wander over there for interviews. After that convention both Ronald Reagan and CNN went on to prove that many of the professional talking heads of the day were wrong.

I actually preferred CNN's sister station, CNN Headline News.... cuz in those dark, dreary pre-Internet Days, it was the best way to get the latest sports updates (especially when your fav team.was out of market, football games didn't have a constant "ticker" giving updates throughout, only 3 or 4 games broadcast each week, etc.

CNN HN had sports updates at EXACTLY the 20 min mark & 50 min mark. So we used to turn to it for sports scores religiously... and kinda keep up with games that way.

I remember wondering how they'd ever find enough to say. 😂

We thought it was ridiculous, even though we thought well of Jane Fonda's husband, Ted Turner. Who would have the time or interest to watch hours of news? And it was in Atlanta, for Pete sake, instead of NYC or DC where the serious news operations were based.

Lynne Russell.

I was still in Germany in 1980. The first time I saw CNN was when I returned to the States and saw it in the airport announcing that the Iran hostages would be released.

It was awesome in its early days before it became entertainment and politically motivated. I would get up for my babies middle of the night feedings and watch while they had their fill. Now, I wouldn't watch it ever. Inflamatory crap.

I remember Bernard Shaw’s breaking coverage when Air Florida flight 90 went down into the frozen Potomac River in early 1982. My dad and I watched all of the reports come in and then live coverage of the helicopter rescue mission. Although I’d seen CNN here and there in its infancy prior to that afternoon (like the Reagan assassination attempt coverage), the coverage of the Air Florida crash was when I felt like they really became a serious news source. At the time of the launch I just thought Ted Turner was crazy for doing it.

I do remember it, but I didn’t live in an area that had cable TV at the time. I didn’t get cable until April 1981, and the first event I remember watching on CNN was coverage of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in May,1981.

Yeah just barely. I was a teenager so I didn't really care much. It wasn't until as others are saying big news stories that followed that I really noticed. They had a huge advantage over other news outlets.

No b/c I got cable the summer before I started med school in 1995. The OJ Simpson trial was on Court TV. I watched that every single day, gavel to gavel coverage. It was great.

In those pre-internet days, I remember how valuable it was to have a channel that kept repeating the news every 20 minutes or so. You could easily catch up on current events if you were on the road, or couldn’t get home in time to catch the 7:00 p.m. news.

nope... I had to look to see when was the first broadcast date (1980). I was barely aware there was a thing called cable in 1980. it also wasn't available in my next of the woods during those early years (unless you lived in Manhattan). I'm also one of those rare creatures that has never subscribed to cable in my lifetime.

Yes. Living in a small town in Alaska with very limited tv availability. Had it on all the time whenever I was not working. I kinda miss the weird stuff like fashion shows and those crazy gymnastic or yoga or whatever that was. I’m a big news fan, was better than nothing.

Yes, and I hate that all these news channels will ignore 1000 people dying in a tragedy but will non stop play the political bullshit .

I threw away my TV.

I remember when it became free to cover the Gulf War Then the 24-hour news cycle, recycling infotainment to outrage the masses

The Iranian hostage crisis. I had a friend who had to flee the country because her father worked closely for the Shah. Poor girl had to do high school in a private school in Switzerland near Lake Cuomo. I think it was a school for relatives of deposed leaders, she had classmates named Duvalier and Perez.

But I digress, that was the start of the 24 hour news cycle. And when the rescue mission tanked, they tasted the blood of controversy, and the sharks have been swarming ever since.

I remember it being called "Chicken Noodle News". Not sure what that meant, but I guess that it was popular, but not very substantial. I liked "Headline News" (as it was in the beginning) because it was basically a network news program every 30 minutes all day long. Of course, if it was on at the airport and you had a long layover it would get pretty old seeing the same stories six times in three hours.

There are those who say it "came of age" during Desert Storm (remember "The Scud Stud"?), and really gave birth to the "24-hour news cycle."

Yes.

CNN launched in 1980, far before most people had cable TV. My house in the 'burbs wasn't even wired for cable until maybe 1985-1986?

So I think it's not such an easy question to answer, since by the time a lot of people had cable, or could even subscribe, CNN was already well into its early life.

I _will_ say that CNN first came into real prominence during the Gulf war in 1991. Everyone was watching those guys in the hotel room in Iraq at the launch of the war. That was definitely something new. Watching the start of a war, on an all-news channel.

Yes and we were all glued to CNN while they were pulling baby Jessica out of a well

Wasn't it Baby Jessica?

This is CNN.

The original Headline News was neat.

Yep. I also remember when news wasn’t just headlines and bullet points.

I thought it sound great since one would no longer have to wait to catch the news at X:30 every night (back in those days you had to watch TV when the show aired). Sadly, they seemed to spend a lot of time of local news stories that had no national import.

CNN was a completely different thing back then.

It was kind of neat for a minute, until Ted Turner started to be known for some of his less than friendly policies and comments.

Most people did not really watch CNN, the local news was followed by Star Trek, so lots of people caught at least the end of that for the weather.

I could not imagine that anyone would watch CNN for more then a half hour or during breaking news. Seemed like it would be another version of NewsRadio which was thing back then too.

If my memory serves me correctly it was launched by Ted Turner in the Summer of 1980 but I mostly remember CNN’s coverage of the rescue of Baby Jessica from a well a few years later. 

Yea I remember it. They started out as a news outlet that was fairly reputable. But quickly morphed into a propaganda arm of the DNC.

Nope and cannot watch it at all.