25  years ago, CNN began operations. People who witnessed the beginning of it seemed not very optimistic about the channel: news, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Who would watch that, many Americans asked but soon the audience for the newschannel grew rapidly.

CNN's history changed in a dramatic way in 1991 when CNN alone reported live from Baghdad (with Bernard Shaw and Peter Arnett) on the night the war on Iraq began, with a worldwide audience of nearly 1 billion people watching.

CNN's momentum continued: Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called CNN even the 16th member of the security council because of its importance. Larry Eagleburger (former U.S. Secretary of State) acknowledged once that CNN partly was the reason for U.S. troops to be sent to Somalia.

The identity of the channel has changed from time to time - minor in the first 20 years and more in the last 5 years. From the yellow CNN logo to the new color red or from slogans "This is CNN" to  "You can depend on CNN" to "The most trusted name in news". The graphics in the past years have probably changed as much as no other TV network before. Critics today claim CNN shouldn't loose focus on covering real news.

An interview with the founder of CNN
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0505/31/wbr.01.html

BLITZER: Let's bring in a special guest, Ted Turner, the founder of CNN. Tomorrow, Ted, 25 years to the day that you created CNN, this all-news network, 24/7. Before we talk about that a little bit, the fact that today, you're here, the day before the anniversary, we finally learn this historic footnote, who is Deep Throat -- what does that go -- what does that mean to you?

TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER: Well, not a whole lot. To be honest with you, I -- it happened so long ago, that I'm kind of concentrating on things like nuclear weapons and global climate change, things that affect us now. That's where my emphasis -- my emphasis is in world peace and a more equitable world. I -- footnotes to history are interesting, but I don't concentrate on them.

BLITZER: It'll be fascinating for historians and for...

TURNER: Oh, yes.

BLITZER: ...political junkies. You were always curious about the identity of Deep Throat.

TURNER: I was. That was a long time ago, though. BLITZER: Not all news can be, you know global and...

TURNER: I know. News of the Roman Empire would still be good.

BLITZER: All right. Give us a couple thoughts now. Twenty-five years ago to the day, tomorrow, you thought of this idea. Didn't you think of this idea, CNN -- how did you come up with this idea?

TURNER: Well, I started thinking about it about three years before I decided to do it, and I knew someone would do it, and I thought one of the networks would do it. They had all the raw material. They had bureaus. They had affiliates that could get them the footage. They had the footage all sitting there. All they had to do was hire a couple of announcers and set them in front of a table and get a few tape machines and they could go into business.

But they didn't do it because they wanted to fight cable. So, I saw an opening, and even though I didn't have enough money, I could see that cable advertising was going to make it because I had the superstation already, and I said this is going to work. It's going to require a gamble of everything I have, but I didn't really do it to make money. I wanted to make money, and I knew I would -- like Rotary's motto, who profits most who serves the best -- but I just wanted to see if we could do it. It was an adventure more than anything else, like Christopher Columbus.

MULTIMEDIA

CNN25 - Promo 1 (wmv, 0,5 MB)

CNN25 - Promo 2 (wmv, 0,3 MB)

CNN25- Promo (wmv, 1 MB)

Many videos from 'Ol' CNN' at TV-Ark