CNN: Not Much To Celebrate Then. Not Much To Celebrate Now.

Happy 30th CNN!  Let's return to the days of yesteryear:

The Black Shadow June 1, 2005:  It was 25 years ago today that President Jimmy Carter threw the switch that started the Cable News Network. Unfortunately, what began as a maverick cable network owned by Ted Turner, an Atlanta maverick businessman has, outside of the New York Times, now become perhaps the most obvious and odious symbol of mainstream liberal media bias. Once the only cable news game in town, CNN has now been soundly overtaken in the ratings by upstart Fox News Channel. On most days Fox more than doubles the CNN audience. The history of CNN can neatly be divided into two sections with the 1991 Gulf War as the dividing line. And specifically, it was one incident from the first War with Iraq that forever defined CNN as another liberal biased network that could no longer be trusted: the so-called bombing of a Baby Milk Factory! If you remember, in the midst of the extremely successful Gulf War, Saddam Hussein charged that the coalition forces accidentally bombed a baby milk factory, an assertion that was never proven. That night, Larry King, CNN's biggest star, spent a full hour with a somber face interviewing various anti-war spokespeople, rarely asking a probing question, instead soaking in the anti-Americanism. The coverage of that alleged incident would define CNN as a hard liberal network. Before the 1996 launches of MSNBC and Fox News Channel, conservative news junkies were forced to watch the regular lineup of CNN shows such as Crossfire, Capital Gang, Inside Politics, Reliable Sources and the laughable Both Sides With Jesse Jackson that hid under a truly misleading "fair and balanced" label. Or we had to watch CNN pollster/political analyst Bill Schneider joyfully showing voters practically having orgasms watching Bill Clinton during the 1992 Presidential debates. Despite many changes of leadership after Turner sold CNN to Time Warner, Schneider and most of the odious shows and hosts continued into 2005 as ratings continued to decline. To be sure, CNN is not going away and will likely be around for a 50th anniversary. But in truth, there is not much to celebrate today. After a very promising start, CNN sank into an abyss of biased liberal news and as a result, has likely lost much of their audience forever.

H/T  Bob Dacey

Now fast-forward to June 1, 2010 as the LAT's Matea Gold deconstructs CNN's primetime woes.