CNN - INTELLIGENCE FOR THE MASSES 

News, like time, is a river. Like a river the flow of news is subject to increases and decreases. Time now appears to flow at a faster pace than in the past. Perhaps the increasing volume of information causes time to compress or at least to appear to.

Two years ago I wrote a column on the origin and growth of the Cable News Network created by "Captain Outrageous", Atlanta's Ted Turner. No one in the world today asks "CNN who?" That network has been working towards the goal of No. 1 network slot for years, but the War in the Gulf moved their checker well out into the lead during the first 48 hours of conflict. They now supply radio and television news to more than 100 countries. The meaning, collection and disemination of news will never be the same again. CNN has become the first global "video wire service". They know how to use technology. This is not a "lucky break". CNN knows the advantage of staying on the cutting edge with the lastest communications equipment. Turner's vision, like the universe, is unfolding as planned. Here is a gung-ho organization able to broadcast direct to "their" satellite from an attache case containing their own VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) satellite dish within the heart of Baghdad, while more senior news networks are still looking for phone booths that work. The Globe & Mail headline early in the war, quoting the managing director of news programming for CTV (Canadian Television), said "CNN owned Baghdad".

This is the first war to be covered, at least initially from inside opposing areas involved in the conflict. It is also the first war, (undeclared by any nation) in modern times, in which one side is using very sophisticated technology for this "high-tech" war with logistical back-up pipelines constantly feeding replacement supplies for the massive aerial campaign underway. Meanwhile, the other side appears unable to utilize fully and effectively technology acquired from foreign sources.

In this age of transparency nothing can be hidden for long. In the past only major powers and some very large companies had the power and ability to collect and keep information confidential. That day has ended. Now such commercial companies, as S.P.O.T. (Satellite Pour Observation de la Terre), a French company, will now sell you satellite, photos of any spot on earth. In effect, a stringer (reporter) in-the-sky. With information available from wide and varied sources all over the world, with rapid translation flowing via satellites and fibre-optic cables that carry not only hundreds of channels of television words and pictures, but thousands of radio channels, electronic newspapers and magazines a new species homo electronus may be created.

In all this river of information CNN has now taken over the Flagship of television news leadership, with Ted Turner the undeniable Captain of its collection, distribution and focus.

More information: Shelley Charles, Public Relations, Director, Special Projects, TBS - 1 CNN Centre, Box 105366, Atlanta, Georgia 30348-5366. Phone: 404/827-1500.

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