In a message dated Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:58:26 -0500,
BobGoudreau@withheld on request writes:
> When my family first got cable TV in the summer of 1982 (almost 9
> years before the Kuwait war), I remember that it included two separate
> 24-hour news stations. One was CNN, which was already starting to make
> its mark, though not yet as famous as the aforementioned war would
> eventually make it. The other was its new sister station called
> "CNN2", which had been launched at the beginning of that same year,
> and wouldn't be renamed to "CNN Headline News" until the following
> year. It was clear from the start that CNN2's role in life was to be a
> summary-serving companion for its big brother. It's true that there
> was a single anchor at a time, but its content came (as it still does)
> from CNN. Of course, some of that content was (and is) purchased from
> other news sources, including local news teams, but even back then,
> CNN did have correspondents of its own.
Two personal experiences come to mind:
A Continental Airlines flight skidded off the runway leaving the
airport in Denver. My sister had been on the flight of that number on
her way back from Oklahoma City to Denver. She called me to tell me
(a) it skidded off on departure (for Billings, I believe), and not on
arrival, and so she was safe (b) the actual aircraft had been changed
in Denver so even though it was the same flight number it was not the
aircraft she was on.
As soon as she told me about the crash, I reached over to the TV
and turned it on CNN. It had a live feed of the crash scene from some
local station in Denver, just as I expected it would (news events of
that sort are where CNN shines; CNN Headline News rarely runs such
live feeds but included the story in its regular report).
At the time of the Oklahoma City bombing (when I was sitting at the
same computer in the same place as I am writing this) there was
confusion for some time as to what had happened. Within a few minutes
CNN was picking up from all three network affiliates in Oklahoma City
and were switching among them to present as coherent report as could
be provided at those earlier minutes as hours. I finally just watched
CNN where I could see all the local reports with some continuity
rather than trying to switch between local stations.
Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com
wleathus@yahoo.com
Wesrock@aol.com