CNN

CNN was the brainchild of media entrepreneur Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld. Turner had already beamed his superstation TBS nationwide by satellite and believed an all-news channel could reach audiences through the expanding cable and satellite networks. In 1979 Turner hired former CBSCBSCBS is an American commercial broadcast television network. It was founded in 1927 as United Independent Broadcasters, renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928, and grew from a radio network into a television network under William S. Paley. With ABC and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it has been owned in turn by Westinghouse, Viacom, ViacomCBS and Paramount Global, has been owned by Paramount Skydance Corporation since 2025, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry reporter Daniel Schorr as CNN’s marquee correspondent. On June 1, 1980, CNN went on the air from Atlanta as the world’s first 24-hour all-news television network; at the launch ceremony Turner said CNN would stay on until the end of the world, which it would cover before playing “Nearer, My God, to Thee” and signing off. The first newscast was anchored by the husband-and-wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart.⁠[1][2][3][3][2][4][4][5]

At launch CNN reached fewer than two million cable homes, and critics, citing its technical flaws, nicknamed it the “Chicken Noodle Network.” It broadcast from Atlanta rather than from the traditional television news center of New York, and in addition to news it carried the financial program Moneyline and the political debate program Crossfire.⁠[1][1][4][4]

In October 1980 the League of Women Voters invited only Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJimmy Carter (1924–2024) was an American politician and Democrat who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. His administration brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, signed the Panama Canal treaties and established relations with the People’s Republic of China, but he lost his reelection bid amid the energy crisis, inflation and the Iran hostage crisis; after leaving office he founded The Carter Center to work on mediation, election observation and disease control, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.Open the full entry and Ronald Reagan to a presidential debate. CNN, then received in about 3 million homes, rented Constitution Hall in Washington so that independent candidate John Anderson could answer the same questions as Carter and Reagan, posed by Daniel Schorr, and inserted his answers into the debate on a tape delay. CNN president Reese Schonfeld said this was the only way undecided voters would hear all three leading candidates debate the issues and that the FCC might eventually have to rule on whether it complied with the equal-time rule.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6]

In 1981 CNN sued the Reagan administration and ABCABCABC (American Broadcasting Company) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It grew out of NBC’s Blue radio network, took its name after becoming independent in 1943, developed into a national television network after merging with United Paramount Theatres in 1953, was acquired by Capital Cities in 1985, and has been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 1996. With CBS and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks, and it is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry, CBS and NBCNBCNBC (National Broadcasting Company) is an American national commercial broadcast television network. It was founded by RCA in 1926, began as a radio network and later developed television. With ABC and CBS it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it passed to General Electric with RCA in 1986, merged with Universal to form NBCUniversal in 2004, has been controlled by Comcast since 2011, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry, and thereafter secured a seat in the White House television pool, which later expanded to include Fox News. In December that year CNN launched the sister channel Headline News, which offered concise, constantly updated half-hour newscasts and drew on CNN’s newsgathering operations.⁠[7][8][8]

The interview program Larry King Live began in 1985 and remained one of CNN’s most popular programs until 2010. In 1986 CNN was the first with live coverage of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. In the first Gulf War in 1991, CNN sent reporters to cover both sides live, making correspondents such as Bernard Shaw, Peter Arnett, Wolf Blitzer and Christiane Amanpour familiar faces.⁠[1][1][1][1]

At the end of 1995 Turner Broadcasting System’s news segment consisted of three domestic networks, CNN, Headline News and CNNfn, and CNN International; CNN had 30 bureaus in the United States and abroad, CNN International was available in more than 200 countries and territories, and CNN was a member of the White House pool. On September 22, 1995, Turner Broadcasting System and Time Warner signed a merger agreement under which each would become a wholly owned subsidiary of a new holding company, with TBS shareholders receiving 0.75 of a share of the new Time Warner for each share; the deal was completed in 1996, and in October of that year Turner Broadcasting System filed to terminate its securities registration.⁠[8][8][8][8][8][8][8][1][9]

CNN had the cable news field to itself for 16 years, until MSNBCMS NOWMS NOW (My Source for News, Opinion and the World) is an American cable channel for political news and commentary. It was formerly MSNBC, launched in July 1996 as a joint venture of NBC and Microsoft, adopted its current name on November 15, 2025, as its business was spun off from Comcast, and since January 2026 has belonged to the independent public company Versant Media Group. It is known for its liberal-leaning commentary programs.Open the full entry launched in July 1996 and Fox News ChannelFOX NewsFOX News is a U.S. television and digital news media brand centered on FOX News Channel and owned by Fox Corporation, with operations spanning news reporting, political commentary and digital content.Open the full entry in October.⁠[10]

On January 11, 2001, America Online and Time Warner completed their merger, becoming wholly owned subsidiaries of AOL Time Warner, and CNN became part of the new group along with Time Warner.⁠[11][11]

At 8:48 a.m. Eastern on September 11, 2001, CNN anchor Carol Lin interrupted programming with live pictures and unconfirmed reports that a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center, and the network went into continuous breaking news coverage.⁠[12][12][12]

In October 2016 AT&T announced its acquisition of Time Warner. Then-candidate Trump opposed the deal, saying it put too much concentration of power in too few hands. In July 2017 four Democratic senators wrote to Trump asking whether the White House was trying to use the Justice Department’s antitrust review as leverage over CNN. The Justice Department reviewed the deal for 18 months and asked AT&T to divest either CNN’s parent Turner Broadcasting or DirecTV; when AT&T refused, it filed an antitrust suit. In June 2018 federal district judge Richard Leon rejected the Justice Department’s arguments, and AT&T then completed its $85 billion acquisition.⁠[13][14][14][14][13][13][13][13]

In November 2018, after CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta had a contentious exchange with Trump at a press conference, the White House revoked his press credentials. CNN sued, and Trump-appointed federal judge Timothy J. Kelly issued a temporary restraining order restoring his access, finding that the White House had violated his due process rights; the White House then reinstated Acosta’s credentials permanently and CNN dropped the suit, which never reached a ruling on the merits.⁠[15][15][15][16][16]

In May 2021 AT&T and Discovery announced a $43 billion merger combining AT&T’s WarnerMedia, including CNN, with Discovery, with AT&T shareholders owning 71% and Discovery chief executive David Zaslav running the company. The deal closed on April 8, 2022, creating Warner Bros. Discovery.⁠[17][17][17][18]

The new management halted the streaming subscription service CNN+ and shut it down on April 30, 2022, just one month after its launch, with subscribers receiving prorated refunds; the new management saw a stand-alone CNN+ as conflicting with Zaslav’s plan to bring all of the company’s brands into a single streaming service.⁠[19][19][19]

On May 10, 2023, CNN hosted a town hall with Trump, during which he repeated false claims about the 2020 election and called moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person”; the program drew criticism, and CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour publicly disagreed with the format. Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive Zaslav responded that CNN should present “both sides” of every issue rather than be an “advocacy network.”⁠[20][20][20]

On August 30, 2023, CNN announced that Mark Thompson, former director-general of the BBCBBCThe BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is the United Kingdom’s public broadcaster. Its predecessor was the British Broadcasting Company, formed in 1922, and since 1927 it has been established under a Royal Charter. It provides television, radio, and online services in the UK, is funded mainly by the television licence fee, and broadcasts worldwide in multiple languages through BBC World Service.Open the full entry and former chief executive of The New York Times Company, would become chairman and chief executive as well as editor in chief, starting on October 9. In the preceding 20 months or so CNN had seen its longtime chief Jeff Zucker ousted, CNN+ shut down, anchors Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon fired, mass layoffs, and a short and unpopular tenure for Zucker’s successor Chris Licht. CNN then had about 4,000 employees.⁠[21][21][21][21][21]

In July 2024 Thompson announced 100 job cuts and an accelerated push into digital subscription products, saying CNN had to find new sources of revenue to offset structural pressures on its legacy income. On October 1 that year CNN.com launched a paywall in the United States, starting at $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year; about 150 million users visited CNN.com each month at the time.⁠[22][22][23][23][23]

In January 2025 CNN cut about 200 jobs, about 6% of its workforce, mainly in traditional television, while Warner Bros. Discovery invested $70 million in digital operations and a planned streaming subscription service. That month Jim Acosta, a former White House correspondent turned anchor, refused a move to a midnight time slot and announced he was leaving CNN; Trump then posted that it was “good news.” In October 2025 CNN launched the subscription service CNN All Access.⁠[24][24][25][25][18]

On February 27, 2026, Warner Bros. Discovery signed a merger agreement to sell itself to Paramount for $31 a share in cash, a deal worth about $110 billion, after Netflix declined to raise its bid; the equity was provided by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital PartnersRedBird Capital PartnersRedBird Capital Partners is a New York private investment firm founded by Gerry Cardinale in 2014. It focuses on sports, media and entertainment, and financial services.Open the full entry. The news prompted widespread anxiety among CNN staff about the new owner’s politics and possible layoffs, and Thompson urged employees in a memo not to jump to conclusions. On March 5 Paramount chief executive David Ellison said the independence of CNN’s journalists must be maintained and that the company would invest in news.⁠[26][26][26][27][27][28][28]

On October 6, 2026, Skydance Corporation (formerly Paramount Skydance Corporation) completed the acquisition, making Warner Bros. Discovery a wholly owned subsidiary and putting CNN and CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news organization of the U.S. CBS system, part of Paramount, providing news coverage through television, the web and streaming. Its history extends from radio newsgathering to television and digital platforms; its signature programs include CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes and Face the Nation, and CBS News 24/7 is its streaming news service.Open the full entry in the same group. Before the deal closed, Ellison said he wanted Thompson to remain at CNN; a financial filing that year projected CNN revenue of $1.8 billion and profit of $600 million for fiscal 2026.⁠[29][29][30][30]

On September 18, 2026, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was “banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House because of their constant “reporting” of fake news, and said the ban could be lifted if the outlets could “straighten themselves out.” CNN said it stood fully behind its White House team’s fair and accurate reporting and that the ban, if carried out, would be an illegal assault on a fundamental, constitutionally protected right. On September 19 CNN reporter Betsy Klein and reporters from MS NOW and Politico were denied entry to the White House by the Secret Service, which seized their press passes.⁠[15][15][15][15][15][16]

CNN was scheduled to serve as the TV pool on September 21 and to accompany Trump to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, but the White House schedule that day listed no network as the primary TV pool. ABC, CBS, FOX News and NBC joined CNN in a joint statement and declined to replace it, and the TV pool was suspended for about four days, coinciding with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House, so there was much less video coverage of the related ceremonies. Trump later complained that CNN and MS NOW had not covered Xi’s visit, without mentioning his ban on the two outlets.⁠[31][7][7][7][32][33][33]

On September 21 CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the Trump administration in federal district court in Washington, D.C., alleging that the ban violated the First Amendment and due process; they were represented by Ted Boutrous, who had represented CNN in the 2018 Acosta case, and the case was assigned to Judge Timothy Kelly, who had also presided over the Acosta case. That day Trump posted that the White House was not assaulting the free press but the “fake news,” which he said threatened national security. On September 22 the White House press office sent the outlets letters explaining its reasons, which the judge later noted came four days after the ban took effect. On September 24 Judge Kelly issued a temporary restraining order, and the White House restored the three outlets’ credentials that day.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][34][35][36]

On September 25 CNN returned to pool duty and aired live coverage of Trump and Xi touring the National Archives, its first live video of Trump in several days. The White House nevertheless repeatedly removed CNN from Air Force One travel pool assignments; a White House official called the president “the most accessible President in history,” while the plaintiffs’ lawyer said the White House was still enforcing the ban unpredictably. In court the Justice Department argued that the three outlets did not meet “minimum requirements of professionalism” and that the White House had a “compelling interest,” grounded in national security, in restricting their access; the plaintiffs countered that Trump’s own statements showed the ban was meant to coerce more favorable coverage.⁠[37][37][38][39][39][39][40][40][40]

Late on October 13, about 90 minutes before the restraining order was set to expire, Judge Kelly issued a preliminary injunction, finding that the outlets were likely to succeed on their due process claim and both First Amendment claims; in his 26-page opinion he wrote that Trump likely banned them because he believes their reporting is generally inaccurate and biased against him, and that the national security rationale came after the fact. The judge also said the decision should not be read to suggest that Trump’s concerns about accuracy and fairness were unfounded. The ban had affected 78 hard-pass holders at the three outlets; the injunction does not address whether the president may exclude outlets from the Oval Office and Air Force One pool. CNN chairman Thompson called the ruling a vote of confidence in free speech and vowed to “fight this one to the end”; a White House official called the ruling “misguided,” and on October 14 the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit on Trump’s behalf.⁠[41][34][34][35][34][35][34][34][34][41][41]

In October 2026 the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division opened an investigation into whether ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News violated antitrust law by suspending the White House television pool. Justice Department spokesperson Emily Covington said group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act and that the Antitrust Division was simply investigating whether these news organizations had broken the law; a Justice Department official said civil investigative demands had been sent on October 9. A CNN spokesperson declined to comment, while Boutrous, the lawyer for the three outlets, said the matter was a First Amendment issue, not an antitrust issue. As of October 14, 2026, the Justice Department had announced no findings.⁠[36][33][42][33][43]

CNN is headquartered in Atlanta and has bureaus around the world. As of 2026, CNN International is distributed in more than 200 countries and territories; CNN.com reaches more than 120 million people a month; CNN Newsource, which supplies local and international news organizations, partners with more than 1,000 organizations; and CNN’s digital services are provided by CNN Interactive Group in Atlanta.⁠[2][44][44][44][44]

CNN: Official website: https://www.cnn.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[45]

X: Public account: https://x.com/CNN (opens in a new window)⁠[45]