CNN Oct. 26, 2004 Press Release

Blitzer, Team of Anchors, Analysts to Lead CNN’s Election Coverage

October 26, 2004

For its Election Night coverage, CNN will draw from the extensive experience of its correspondents, the power of its analytical resources and its commanding presence from the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York City to provide a global audience comprehensive reports of the U.S. presidential race and other Election Day results.

Wall-to-wall election coverage on CNN kicks off as the first polls close on Tuesday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m (ET) with an “America Votes 2004” special, anchored by Wolf Blitzer. CNN’s in-studio team, including Aaron Brown, Anderson Cooper, Jeff Greenfield, Larry King, Bill Schneider and Carlos Watson, will be located in a Times Square studio in front of a state-of-the-art, 96-screen video wall presenting real-time vote information, exit polls and analysis of key state races across the country.

From the Time Warner Center, the network will operate the new CNN Election Analysis Center, anchored by Judy Woodruff and Bill Hemmer. CNN's Political Director Tom Hannon will lead the network’s political unit and an independent team of political analysts, statistical experts and legal specialists, including CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who will examine election legal challenges across the country. The CNN Election Analysis Center will take advantage of real-time voting results to project winners nationally and state-by-state and to graphically display how the nation is voting in the presidential and key elections on a county-by-county basis.

“Thanks to our election team, we will analyze more data. Thanks to our innovate use of technology, viewers will see more data,” said Princell Hair, executive vice president and general manager of CNN/U.S. “Using the network’s immense resources, CNN will blanket the battleground states on Election Day. We fully expect that our coverage on election night will be unlike anything we have produced before.”

For Election Day, CNN will strategically position its correspondents in nearly a dozen battleground states as well as assemble additional “go teams” of correspondents and producers ready to descend at a moment’s notice onto sites of breaking election news and voting irregularities.

Throughout the night, CNN's Paula Zahn and Crossfire co-hosts Paul Begala, Tucker Carlson, James Carville and Robert Novak will hold a town meeting before a live audience from the Time Warner Center Atrium. Senior White House correspondent John King and senior political correspondent Candy Crowley will report live from the Bush-Cheney headquarters and Kerry-Edwards headquarters respectively.

CNN International will simulcast CNN/U.S.’s election coverage beginning at 7 p.m. (ET) to more than 176 million households worldwide.

Besides providing up-to-the-minute results of elections nationwide, CNN.com will offer live video streams, photo galleries, countdown clocks for polls in each state and exit polls throughout the day. Site users, through CNN.com’s “Your Races” feature, can customize their online experience by choosing up to 20 different presidential, federal and gubernatorial races.

For CNN en Español, continuous coverage begins at 6 p.m. (ET) with Paticia Janiot and Daniel Viotto handling anchor duties. Harris Whitbeck will be in Florida, while Juan Carlos López follows the Bush-Cheney campaign and Inés Ferré follows the Kerry-Edwards campaign. Ione Molinares will cover the balance of power in the Senate and House. Miami Herald columnist Andrés Oppenheimer and Iowa State University professor Steffen Schmidt will provide analysis in Atlanta throughout the evening.

CNNRadio will offer continuous anchored live coverage starting at 7 p.m. (ET) on the Network Main Satellite Channel. The anchored coverage will incorporate CNNRadio’s 6-minute TOH and 2-minute BOH newscasts as well as the 1-minute special reports at :15 and :45. CNNRadio’s Stan Case and David Hull will anchor the program.

CNN, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to 15 cable and satellite television networks; two private place-based networks; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; six Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; and CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service.

Contact Info:
Edie Emery
202.898.7657
edie.emery@turner.com

Megan Mahoney
404/827-3693
megan.mahoney@cnn.com

Alison Rudnick
12/275-7960
alison.rudnick@cnn.com