CNN (Cable News Network) was rated "the most believable" of television news sources in a 1990 Times Mirror poll. By the end of the twentieth century it had established itself as the leading news-gathering organization, not only in the United States, but in the world. Although in its early days CNN was a little-respected, self-described "rough around the edges" long-shot, by the 1990s other television news departments feared its domination so much that NBC and Fox decided to compete directly, on cable. Early CNN critics doubted that television could host a 24 hour news channel, but executives soon agreed that there was enough of a market for a number of them. By the end of the twentieth century, CNN's growth into a family of networks—CNN Headline News, CNN International, CNN en Espanõl, CNNfn (financial news), CNN-SI (sports), CNN Airport Network, CNN Radio, and CNN Interactive (Internet)—has positioned...