CNN's launch has led to speedy, less accurate information for cable news, author says at Press Club Headliners Book Rap

CNN’s ushering in of the era of 24-hour cable television news and the speed of information spread has resulted in a sacrificing of accuracy, author Lisa Napoli warned at a National Press Club Headliners Virtual Book Rap on Tuesday.

Napoli, whose book, Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN and the Birth of 24-Hour News, described how Ted Turner created CNN as the first rolling news channel in 1980, said the network changed how the news is covered and has had a tremendous impact, but that impact has not been entirely positive.

“It definitely accelerated the speed at which information is transmitted, and with that often comes accuracy, and now you get to 2020,” Napoli said. “You add the internet to it and it’s a volatile and devastating force, and it can be traced back to June 1, 1980.”

When CNN launched in 1980, Napoli said it was a perfect “marriage of technology and timing,” as satellites were making it possible to transmit information quickly, including pictures and sound. Turner was one of the first to use satellites to broadcast, and in doing so broke up the triopoly on broadcast news held by network television.

“Ted came along at the exact moment that satellite was making it possible to circumvent the phone company, this long-held owner of the pipes, so to speak, and now he didn’t need them anymore,” Napoli said. “He could just go right up to the satellite.”

The early days were difficult, Napoli said, as CNN struggled to convince cable providers and advertisers to get on board. At that time, only 18 million homes in the United States had cable, with CNN only in 1.2 million homes and no availability in Washington, D.C. Fidel Castro was able to pirate the signal to Cuba, something Napoli said opened Turner’s eyes to the international possibilities.

The network first gained credibility in 1981 with the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr., when other networks started to imitate CNN’s decision to let the camera focus on events and let the news unfold and evolve in real time.

“It really showed people in the industry how important this service was in the case of breaking news, and how serious CNN was in treating news,” Napoli said.

CNN inspired other cable news channels to follow suit, including Fox News Channel and MSNBC, although it took 16 years for a competitor to come along. Fox News Channel has brought an “all-out assault” on CNN especially with opinion-based programming, and while competition can be good, in some ways 24-hour news has become more focused on entertainment than newsgathering, Napoli said.

“Competition keeps people on their game,” Napoli said. “It makes them change, not necessarily for the better, as many of the CNN originals may say to you.”

The network is now unrecognizable from its 1980 origins. Back then, the news was the most important thing, whereas now, it is more personality driven, Napoli said. “It doesn’t look anything like it used to,” she said.