ABSTRACT

Some people argue that Cable News Network (CNN)-type journalism empowers the viewer to be his or her own editor. In the era of satellite television, all the more so in the era of news management, it is easy to make the case that everybody–no matter where—saw the same Persian Gulf War, the little there was to see of it. Rather than collecting information and trying to make sense of it in time for the evening news broadcast, the CNN ideal is to do simultaneous, almost-live editing, or better yet, no editing at all. The chapter discusses the media that delivered the promises, and their enactment, with particular reference to the unquestioned winner of the war, the CNN. The idea of an all-news channel broadcasting continuously was copied from commercial radio, and translated by CNN into a satellite-delivered service that could be sold to local cable operators.