As the attack began, ABC, NBC and CBS, already unable to broadcast TV footage, lost telephone hookups to their Baghdad correspondents. But CNN kept on with its telephone reports through the night, as Shaw, Arnett and Holliman reverted to radio style, a la Edward R. Murrow in World War II London, to describe what Shaw called "the center of hell."
"You could choose to watch some experts pointing at maps on the three networks," said Robert Lichter, director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a watchdog group in Washington, "or you could hear the sounds of bombs going off and CNN reporters telling you what it's like to be there."
Last night, as Iraqi bombs struck Tel Aviv, CNN was reporting that it was the only outside source of information reaching the country.
When CNN cameras revealed open windows in a skyline view of Jerusalem, James Blackwell, a network military analyst, told Israelis to "shut those
windows" immediately - nerve gas could be lethal.
CNN anchor Patrick Emory, the former Channel 3 anchor, put it differently: ''We caught the networks with their pants down. We absolutely swamped them."
U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said he had watched CNN for "the best reporting." Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the allies had "done some considerable damage to (Iraq's communication and command) ability, at least according to what Bernie Shaw tells me."
Between 8 and 11 p.m. Wednesday, CNN was watched in almost 11 million homes. And that didn't include the independent stations and network affiliates that temporarily dumped their network marriages for a one-night stand with CNN. Or the viewers in 103 other countries.
That rating beat CBS in the time period, but fell behind ABC and NBC.
In the 60 percent of U.S. households wired for CNN, the cable network beat the Big Three in the 8-to-11 prime-time ratings.
At 10:59 a.m. yesterday - as people in the Philadelphia area called cable companies to order CNN - Iraqi authorities pulled the plug on the network's private telephone hookup for military-censorship reasons, a CNN spokesman said.
After they were taken off the air, Shaw, Arnett and Holliman remained in Baghdad and were believed to be safe, a CNN spokesman said.
The turning point for CNN in the network battle for prestige came at 9:47 p.m. Wednesday.
In New York, Brokaw was forced to interview rival CNN anchor Shaw.
After Shaw described the scene, then assured Brokaw his correspondent was safe, Brokaw wanted to know:
How'd you do it, Bernie?
How was Shaw able to talk to the world on a mysterious telephone line after the Big Three's telephone lines were bombed and silenced?
Shaw politely passed on that question.
And how did underdog CNN scoop the far richer networks when everybody had five months to get ready?
CNN spokeswoman Beth Comstock said that when CNN and the three networks
applied to the Iraqi government for permission to use a No. 4 wire - a private telephone line - to transmit news, only CNN was granted the OK.
CNN reporters were using satellite transmitters powered by portable generators to beam their reports to the United States from their positions in the Al-Rashid Hotel. The Big Three quickly lost their feeds from their reporters in the Iraqi capital to power blackouts, electronic jamming and heavy bombing of Baghdad's telephone system.
That Iraq granted only CNN the private hookup made sense, said Everette E. Dennis, director of the Gannett Foundation Media Center at Columbia University. CNN, which is viewed by leaders on every continent, has supplanted the networks and Associated Press as the way the world learns of major American news, he said. Iraqi leaders routinely watch and appear on CNN; the other networks aren't broadcast in Iraq.
"CNN has become a major player in tele-diplomacy," media analyst Lichter said. "World leaders send messages to each other and to foreign populations through CNN. Bernard Shaw is probably better known in the Middle East than Peter Jennings and Dan Rather."
While media critics raised the question of an apparent CNN "deal" with Iraq, Lichter said it appeared that the cable network was fulfilling its journalistic duty of providing context and interpretation - not just serving as a propaganda tool for Hussein.
During one bizarre moment, when CNN's phone ties to an Amman, Jordan, satellite "uplink" were severed, CNN reporter Holliman said, "We apologize for the problems we're having with Iraqi television in getting this material to you. I'm sure they're trying to do what they can to get the pictures out."
CNN's Beth Comstock denied that the network had made some sort of deal with Iraq.
Being used for propaganda is "the danger for CNN and they know it," Lichter said. "They are in there because Saddam wants to use them for his speeches and to broadcast casualty reports. He doesn't need four networks; it's easier to control one than four."
In the new high-tech world of computerized, televised war, Hussein probably chose CNN at least in part for the oldest reason of all: He wanted to know what was happening.
