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Among the most avid watchers of CNN, although they don't always like to admit it, are other journalists. In almost every major U.S. newsroom and in many elsewhere in the world, the channel is perpetually on and someone is watching, or at least glancing over frequently. Once upon a time, newspapers broke the news to the public. Then TV took over that role, and ever since, newspapers have tried to redefine themselves by becoming more analytical. Now, even most TV reporters try to pride themselves on doing a story analytically and in depth; it is a foregone conclusion that CNN will do the story first.
At many events it covers, from summits to celebrated trials, CNN itself becomes a major news source. During the Arab-Israeli peace conference in Madrid last November, where access was severely limited, nearly all of the 4,600 journalists had to follow the proceedings on CNN. A common temptation is to skip other reporting and just rehash what shows up on the screen. Sometimes even the most serious reporters are forced to rely on CNN's better access. As retired Air Force General Michael Dugan quipped about his work as military analyst for CBS, "What CBS did during the gulf war was watch CNN." The same might be said of most other broadcast and print news teams.
The appeal of CNN has inspired would-be imitators. Japan's NHK network explored creating a global channel but gave up when it projected the costs at $800 million a year. The British Broadcasting Corp. plunged ahead into the Asian market in a joint venture with Hong Kong's richest businessman, Li Kashing. Their satellite channel of news and soft features, one of five on the nascent STAR-TV system, is reaching 38 Asian nations that number half the world's population. But only about half a million households actually own satellites, while an indeterminate number of others get some part of the service through broadcast channels. The programming is already popular in India and other regions formerly a part of the British Empire, and it is scheduled to be offered later in Africa and even on CNN's home turf in North America; it already competes with CNN on a small scale in Europe. BBC officials say their new entry into the global-village sweepstakes offers more analysis, more authoritative opinion and a broader world view. CNN counters that it too has an international outlook, that its reporting resources are more extensive and that world audiences are keenly interested in the U.S., in every aspect from politics to popular culture. Another potential competitor is the still-evolving European Broadcast Union's news channel, taking programs from 10 member nations -- albeit without the advantages of a shared style or even a common language.
Within the U.S., so far the Big Three networks have struggled to keep up with CNN's newsgathering. But former anchor Cronkite is fretful: "What I fear is that in their straitened economic conditions, the networks will find CNN an excuse to shuck some of their own responsibilities. I can conceive that as the situation grows worse, the networks may say, 'The public is being served by CNN. We don't have to be there.' " That may already be true. For the 1992 presidential nominating conventions, only CNN has committed to gavel-to-gavel coverage.