2005: CNN Wants To Be “Essential”

By Brian on December 31, 2005 5:03 PM

> Dec. 16: Bob Novak leaves CNN after 25 years

> Dec. 5: Pipeline launches in HD; Jim Walton calls it “our first major effort to move our live video assets online”

> Dec. 2: Lou Dobbs receives a Lifetime Achievement Emmy

> Nov. 26: North Korea says a CNN documentary is “full of sheer lies”

> Nov. 21: Drudge gets excited about a CNN “X” glitch

> Nov. 15: Brown says CNN has “lost its way”

> Nov. 8: Cooper premieres at 10pm, thanks Brown

> Nov. 7: The Anderson Cooper/Ashleigh Banfield comparisons begin

> Nov. 3: Klein says “the whole country is talking about Anderson”

> Nov. 2: Klein takes Brown off the air; a “true shame;” fire and?

> Nov. 2: Anderson Cooper 360 moves to 10pm; expands to two hours; The Situation Room moves to 7pm

> Oct. 25: CNN cancels Daybreak, expands American Morning

> Oct. 20: On NewsNight, Brown “treats his co-star like a senior statesman humoring a whippersnapper”

> Oct. 20: Who needs Costas? Ryan Seacrest subs for Larry

> Oct. 14: CNN expands Reliable Sources to a full hour

> Oct. 12: NewsNight is a “work in progress,” and it’s not working, Tim Goodman says

> Oct. 4: Cooper lands a $1 million+ book deal
> Sept. 30: Klein says Aaron and Anderson are “fire and ice”

> Sept. 29: Happy 20th birthday to CNN International — now let us watch it in the U.S.!

> Sept. 17: CNN airs photos of Katrina’s missing children for 40+ hours

> Sept. 17: Jack Cafferty says The Situation Room “is a telethon without a disease”

> Sept. 8: Brown and Cooper begin co-hosting a two-hour edition of NewsNight

> Aug. 16: Jim Walton’s e-mailbox is clogged with 10,000 conservatives

> Aug. 16: Midwest bureau chief Edith Chapin becomes chief in NYC

> Aug. 8: CNN unveils The Situation Room

> Aug. 5: CNN’s stalwart political program, Inside Politics, dissapears

> Aug. 4: Bob Novak says “bullshit” and walks off the set of Inside Politics; He doesn’t appear on CNN again for four months

> July 19: CNN replaces its weekend business shows with general news programs. “We are finding new and better ways to showcase” our biz coverage, Klein says

> July 18: At the press tour, CNN stands by Bob Novak

> July 10: CNN uses Iraq war technology to create “Hurricane One”

> June 23: On the Story is moving to GWU

> June 10: “It’s going to take a couple of years to show meaningful and sustainable ratings growth,” Klein says

> June 8: Bob Costas becomes a sub for Larry King

> June 7: Jon Klein is reshaping the entire network

> June 6: Bill Hemmer leaving CNN; The O’Brien’s to anchor American Morning

> June 3: David Doss becomes EP of 360; Victor Neufeld become EP of Paula Zahn Now; Mark Nelson becomes senior EP of editorial content

> June 3: After 23 years and thousands of debates, Crossfire concludes

> June 3: Judy Woodruff says goodbye to CNN

> June 1: CNN’s 25th birthday. Reflections: 1, 2, 3 and a party

> May 31: Liveblogging from the CNN World Report Conference: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

> May 18: Larry King is called to court as a witness in the Michael Jackson trial, but the judge dismisses the testimony as irrelevant

> May 16: CNN.com announces free video; “premium product” to launch in fall with multiple live video streams

> May 10: A simulcast of CNNI’s Your World Today is coming to the noon time slot

> May 2: NEXT@CNN is cancelled and the Science/Technology Unit is disbanded

> Apr. 28: Judy Woodruff decides to leave CNN; she is offered a new contract, but it would have been a demotion

> Mar. 16: Larry King re-ups through 2009

> Mar. 10: Frank Sesno rejoins CNN

> Mar. 1: Kim Bondy is named the VP of morning programming

> Feb. 22: CNN creates the “America bureau”

> Feb. 11: Executive vice president Eason Jordan resigns; “He’s getting unfairly railroaded,” a CNNer says; He was “aggressive and passionate” about making life safer for journalists

> Feb. 8: The rumblings about “EasonGate” begin

> Jan. 26: Two former CNNfn shows, Dolans Unscripted and Open House, join CNN’s weekend lineup

> Jan. 13: “Okay, the tsunami is over. Now what?”

> Jan. 13: Gail Shister suggests 360 could be expanded to two hours and Anderson Cooper could move to 10pm

> Jan. 7: Carlson’s last day on Crossfire; Also: Klein wants to highlight reporters in primetime

> Jan. 6: Klein tries to mimic HBO’s storytelling abilities with a quickie tsunami doc called “Saving the Children”

> Jan. 5: Tucker Carlson leaves CNN; Jon Klein says Crossfire will probably be folded into the network’s other programming