Special Event

CNN 20: Remembering 20 Years of CNN Covering the World

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Allied air forces began an attack on military targets.

BOB FURNAD, FMR. CNN V.P./SR. EXEC. PRODUCER: This clearly was a huge story, the biggest story we've ever had.

GREG LAMOTTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Our whole city was built across the street from the courthouse that we called "Camp O.J."

BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: Amazement is not strong enough to describe the feeling of seeing this building, which had imploded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for 20 years, this is CNN.

LARRY KING, HOST: Welcome to the 20th anniversary of CNN. I'm Larry King.

Tonight, the 1990s, what it was like for CNN correspondents, producers and crews to cover the big events of this decade. And with us live, Colin Powell, Ken Starr, Anita Hill, Barbara Walters, plus Johnnie Cochran and Chris Darden, on television together for the first time since the O.J. trial.

By early 1991, CNN was a global operation, so as tension mounted in the Persian Gulf, the staff was poised to cover a war. The stage was set for the "Boys of Baghdad."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE, JANUARY 16, 1991)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: This is -- something is happening outside. Peter Arnett joins me here. Let's describe to our viewers what we're seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: Profundity was not necessary. Simply report what you know, and I said what I knew at the time, something is happening, and something was happening -- a war was beginning. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: We're seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky -- Peter.

PETER ARNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's antiaircraft gunfire going off in the sky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: We had no idea what was going to happen, really, because this was a unique time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: We hear the sound of planes. They're coming over our hotel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: No time in modern history had a group of reporters waiting at a hotel for a major war to begin in the enemy capital, just hadn't happened before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FURNAD: We are now seeing some type of bombs landing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FURNAD: This clearly was a huge story, the biggest story we'd ever covered, and I started asking for live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FURNAD: I need Amman. I need Saudi Arabia. I need the White House. I need the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FURNAD: I wanted to hear from the rest of the world outside Baghdad when I had no more Baghdad to hear from. I didn't know how long we were going to have them on the air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: All the street fights in downtown Baghdad are still on, but as you look, you see trails of flashes of light growing up into the air, obviously antiaircraft fire. We're getting seeming starbursts in the black sky. We have not heard any jet planes yet -- Peter.

ARNETT: No planes. Now the sirens are sounding for the first time. The Iraqis have informed us...

(END VIDEO CLIP) LIZ MERCURE, FMR. CNN PRODUCER: We lost contact with them briefly. I mean, the thing just went dead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just cut the line! Get the French on the air.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MERCURE: And we didn't know whether they'd been hit by a bomb.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID FRENCH, CNN ANCHOR: When we heard Peter Arnett saying "The Iraqis have informed us," and we didn't hear any more, this is probably just a technical glitch. They have four wires.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MERCURE: It got very quiet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Find out where you're going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FURNAD: Everybody became very serious. There was the strangest atmosphere in the control room I've ever witnessed, because the control room can be chaotic. It's controlled chaos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FURNAD: John, do you hear me? It's Bob Furnad.

FRENCH: Please come in to us from Baghdad. This is David French in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FURNAD: Then all of a sudden, John Holliman comes on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN HOLLIMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Atlanta. Atlanta, this is Holliman. I don't know whether you're able to hear me now or not, but I'm going to continue to talk to you as long as I can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MERCURE: I've never been so glad to hear John Holliman's voice in my life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOLLIMAN: You can perhaps hear the sound of bombs in the background. I'll put our microphone out the window. I think you'll be able to hear the sound.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere!

CHARLES BIERBAUER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We all listened to the reports that we were getting from Bernie and John. Mr. Fitzwater was inside his office, the door closed, watching the same reports.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Open your mics, the CNN crew is all right, OK?

FRENCH: Is everything all right with you, aside from what's going on outside?

HOLLIMAN: We're a little excited, David, as I'm sure is obvious. But yes, we've checked in with virtually all the CNN crew. We've done a head count. Virtually all of our people are here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREE GROGAN, CNN DIRECTOR: CNN was very fortunate in that they had set up this four-wire on audio signal that could come out of Iraq no matter what.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: We can only presume because they have started up again with considerable rapidity that there is another attack coming in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: All other phones went out within an hour or so of the bombing, and yet we could maintain very clear communications over this four-wire system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLLIMAN: It is due west of our position, and we just heard -- whoa, holy cow, that was a large air burst we saw. It was filling the sky.

ARNETT: And I think, John, that airburst took out the telecommunications. If you're still us with, you can hear the bombs now. They are hitting the center of this city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Center of the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FURNAD: Obviously now the adrenaline is really pumping, and it's radio on television, because there's no pictures.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: We're crouched behind a window here. We're about three miles from where the center of action at this point seems to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: It was clear we were concerned about our own safety. On the other hand, there was the thrill of being able to communicate this live event, the live event to beat all live events.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARLIN FITZWATER, FMR. WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The liberation of Kuwait has begun.

CHARLES JACO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Air raid sirens just know going off near these U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia. We're being told to get off this platform and get inside into the air raid shelter immediately. But right now, everybody has been training for this, and it looks like we may have to...

FRENCH: All right, Charles Jaco, that doesn't mean that he is in any imminent danger. Of course we can't know that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GROGAN: It was probably, you know, the most heavy time that all of us had worked. You would hear, you know, the sirens going off here, there, say where is that? Is that Saudi Arabia? Are our coworkers in danger?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Map's great, map's great. Use the map.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Pentagon officials say it should have come as no surprise this attack started tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was not going to be a normal news time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you copy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were going to be for 24 hours a live-news, what's-appening, one-story-primarily network.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The person assigned this hour is here, get out. I need you rested for tomorrow.

RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The radio here is broadcasting CNN live. The foreign ministry also is watching CNN. A lot of people now are getting their news from CNN. FITZWATER: The best reporting that I've seen on what transpired in Baghdad was on CNN.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY PATRICK, FMR. CNN DIRECTOR OF NEWS PRODUCTIONS: I remember running down the stares to the newsroom, and I looked up at the bank of monitors that were above the control room at that time, and every one of them had CNN live on it. Those were our competitors' monitors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CBS is taking us?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK: We had that story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can they do that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw the bomb come down, we saw the flash, the explosion. And it was a big blast, a bomb blast that came through the window.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: These bombs were very big, there were shock waves. It was noisy, terrifying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: Whoa, that was a bright light. Everybody get down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: I was concerned that we would be hit bay stray missile or that there was nothing to stop the anti-aircraft gunners, Iraqis on the rooftops across the way, from just leveling the barrels of their guns and aiming at us on the ninth floor, because people knew that CNN was reporting what was going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: Clearly I've never been there, but this feels like we're in the center of hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: We were not given specific approval to broadcast. We had just gone ahead and done it. And in the confusion, we had escaped detection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: There are a series of bomb shelters in the basement, and virtually everybody except us is down there in those shelters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: Within three hours, though, for one reason or another, Iraqi security came looking for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: Security people made a sweep, they got very upset that there were three mortals on this floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: We devised the system that one would open the door when people would bang on the door, and that happened a couple times. The other two would hide under edit tables. I was under an edit table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: I scampered to hide to make sure that if they pulled Arnett and Holliman out, took them downstairs into custody, there would be one CNN person on the air.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: That's why Bernie Shaw was under a table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLLIMAN: I did the same thing you did, Bernie, only I hid under a bed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: And it was actually not until the evening that Iraqi officials finally came up and confronted us, and said you will stop broadcasting, you will sign off. And we did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: John Holliman, and Bernie Shaw and myself, Peter Arnett, signing off from Baghdad for CNN, and I hope we can resume our communication with you in the very near future.

HOLLIMAN: Up and down the network, we'll try to get back in touch with you as soon as we can. Obviously this is something that is just abhorrent to all of us. We'll talk to you as soon as we can.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN ANCHOR: And you heard it then, with correspondent Peter Arnett's explanation that he, John Holliman, Bernard Shaw and the rest of the CNN crew have just been ordered to stop transmitting live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: Many people have said to me they saw it all on the television, what we were describing, and they saw Bernie Shaw in his pajamas crawling across the floor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: I'd came back from the other side, and I'm really wearing out trousers here, crawling on my knees and hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: And Holliman peaking out the window.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLLIMAN: I will go back to the window, because I see some bright lights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: And they saw me, you know, moving around in their minds, vivid images. Of course, it was all broadcast radio, really a radio report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNETT: A remarkable experience to be here tonight, ladies and gentlemen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: In the public mind and in the mind of critic, I suppose, people say, well, the Gulf War really made CNN, and I say fooey to that, because if CNN had not been responsible and covered the stories it covered in the previous 10 years, there's no way we would have been able to cover the Gulf War the way we did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: One of the Boys of Baghdad, CNN's John Holliman, died in an automobile accident in 1998. We all miss him a lot. In a moment, we'll talk to America's top military man during the gulf war, General Colin Powell, and from ABC News, Barbara Walters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We just took a look at how CNN covered the first night of the Gulf War, as the bombs fell on Baghdad. Joining me now is the man who was in charge of America's armed forces that night. From Leesburg, Virginia, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Colin Powell, and in New York, ABC's Barbara Walters.

General Powell, what does television now mean to coverage of war?

GEN. COLIN POWELL, FORMER JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CHAIRMAN: Well, first of all, Larry, it was an exciting night for me. I've never been through anything like it. At 6:35, as your segment showed, when you all started to break the story and report, I started to get calls saying, what happened? Nothing was supposed to happen until 7:00. I said, what they're covering are the Iraqis responding to something they know is coming but hasn't arrived yet. And so it was a heck of a night for me. Hundreds of brave young Americans were flying in, Army, Apache pilots had dashed in to take out the early-warning radars. Cruise missiles were streaking in. It was quite a night.

And television really did change it all, because you can see a war, or hear about a war, in the first few hours in real time. And not just America, but the whole world, the whole world that night, everybody that had access in any way to CNN was watching a war in real time. And it fundamentally changes the way you manage the war, if not actually conduct it, but the way you present the war to the people who are watching and the people who have the greatest interest in it, the people whose kids are in that war.

KING: From a military standpoint, for the better or the worse?

POWELL: I think it's a mix. That night, I was very delighted to get some reporting out of Baghdad from your guys, and so I watched it all night long. It was a useful source of intelligence. Sometimes I grit my teeth when I saw Saddam Hussein using television as a propaganda tool, and when I sometimes saw reporting that, frankly, gave me a little bit of pause with respect to what it was saying about things we were doing and some of our troop movements. But on balance, I think it is something that we have to live with, and it has its good sides and bad sides.

KING: Barbara, what's your read now on the impact of the mass media on affairs international?

BARBARA WALTERS, ABC: Well, let me, just because you're talking about the Gulf War, first of all, I feel rather humbled, Larry, to be on talking about the Gulf War in the company of General Powell, because it was not just his guidance, but his composure I think that made all of us feel a lot calmer than we might have when the war was on.

But how I heard about it through CNN. I was in Russia doing an interview with Boris Yeltsin. I thought that was a big coup, and I had a bad back. We had done the interview, gone to my hotel room and I was lying on the floor sleeping, because the bed was too soft. When there was a knock to door from my assistant, Brian Renthrow (ph), he said, turn on the television! And I said, I'm on the floor. Why am I going to turn on the television? He said CNN had just announced the Gulf War has begun. I got up off the floor. We flew home. We aired that interview with Boris Yeltsin. I don't think anybody cared. If ever there was an interview that no one was interested in. And then as soon as the war was over, I guess one week after the war was over, I went to Saudi Arabia to interview General Norman Schwarzkopf. And if there were two of the most famous generals in the world, it was General Colin Powell and General Norman Schwarzkopf.

My back, by the way, is much better since that day. KING: As a news person, that has changed the whole world of coverage, has it not? What do you think the impact will be, is from now on?

WALTERS: Well, first of all, as the general was saying, there are no secret wars. There are no secrets anymore because CNN is everywhere. For those of us reporting on other networks, when we were overseas and our own network is not on in all of the cities. I mean, that's where we are, that's where we get our news. So it has impact everywhere. There are no great secrets. And what the general was talking about when he learns things, sources sometimes on CNN, this is something that at times I would think, general, could be very difficult, that you can't keep things secret.

POWELL: Yes. You know, if I may, Larry, we finally got into a pattern of how to handle the 24-hour-a-day coverage. And whenever we stood up before the press and had to give an interview, whether it was me, or General Schwarzkopf or the regular briefers, we realized that because of the new medium, or the news way of dealing with this medium, we had to realize we were talking to many audiences. There were the reporters asking us the questions. The American people were watching, and it was their kids who were fighting the war. One- hundred and seventy capitals around the world were all watching in real time, every foreign minister, every prime minister, every president, every minister of defense, all the people in those countries are watching, and also your enemy is watching. And it's a way to communicate with your enemy, but also to keep secrets from your enemy.

And then finally, because of the power of the information and technology revelations, the troops are actually going to do the fighting are also watching. The pilots aboard the ships can see CNN. Armed Forces radio and television service broadcast to our troops. And so any of us who were out there briefing had to realize that we were talking to multiple audiences all at once, and you mentally had to get your message straight, so that you could touch all of those audiences without saying anything you didn't want to say to your enemy, but you did want to say to your allies and friends. It fundamentally changes the way that you manage a conflict.

KING: And, Barbara, we have less than 30 seconds. Are we being managed?

WALTERS: Well, that is the big question, and that was a question during the Gulf War. How much can we find out? How much should we know? Now that we can go everywhere, now that we can see everything, is there anything that our own government should keep from us for our own safety?

KING: We'll be examining that in many nights ahead. Thank you both very much, Barbara Walters and General Colin Powell.

Still ahead, Anita Hill. Nine years ago, for a few incredible days, she was the most famous woman in America.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: Here's something we've learned at CNN: Sometimes the highest-rated dramas on TV are news stories. One of them had millions of Americans glued to their sets in the fall of 1991. That's when a woman named Anita Hill accused her former boss of sexual harassment. The man accused? Judge Clarence Thomas, just days away from being confirmed or denied as the next United States Supreme Court Justice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE, 1991)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: Professor, do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

PROF. ANITA HILL: I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING (voice-over): On October 11, 1991, law professor Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas, for whom she'd worked almost a decade earlier, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: I have no personal vendetta against Clarence Thomas.

CLARENCE THOMAS, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: I deny each and every single allegation against me today.

HILL: After a brief discussion of work, he would turn the conversation to a discussion of sexual matters. His conversations were very vivid.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: Did you ever refer to your private parts in conversations with professor Hill?

THOMAS: Absolutely not, senator.

HATCH: Did you ever brag to professor Hill about your sexual prowess?

THOMAS: No, senator.

SEN. ALAN SIMPSON (D), WYOMING: Why in God's name would you ever speak to a man like that the rest of your life?

HILL: I was afraid of retaliation. I was afraid of damage to my professional life.

THOMAS: This is a circus. It is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Passions ran high on both sides, out on the street and inside the U.S. Senate. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under our system, the person being accused gets the benefit of the doubt.

SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D), MARYLAND: I call upon the men of the United States of America now to speak out on the issue of sexual harassment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Professor Hill's story just does not add up.

SEN. TED KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: If we make a mistake today, the Supreme Court will be living with it and the nation will be living with it for the next 30 or 40 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: On October 15, the Senate finally voted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN QUAYLE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The nomination of Clarence Thomas of Georgia to be associate justice of the United States Supreme Court is hereby confirmed.

WILLIAM REHNQUIST, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Clarence Thomas.

THOMAS: I, Clarence Thomas.

REHNQUIST: Do solemnly swear.

THOMAS: Do solemnly swear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Days later, Clarence Thomas was sworn in to serve on the highest court in the land.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: I'm going to teach my class now, excuse me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And Anita Hill was back at the University of Oklahoma teaching law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: And Anita Hill is still teaching law, currently at Brandeis University. She's also a contributor to Court TV. We welcome you.

What was that like, I mean, as you look back now at this? HILL: You know, the thing that I am reminded of is how sad and disturbing it all was, and that a lot of people were very saddened and troubled by the times. It was hard for me to know, being in the middle of it. But looking back, you can really read it on the faces of even the people observing.

KING: In retrospect, sorry you did it?

HILL: No.

KING: Not at all?

HILL: No.

KING: Would do it again?

HILL: I would do it again. I really don't know what else I could have done when confronted with the question of the behavior and whether it happened. I had to answer truthfully then, and I would do it all over again, yes.

KING: Would you change anything about the way it was handled? Come forward sooner?

HILL: Well, I think what I was really afraid of at the time that I did come forward, that was that it would be -- become a political fiasco.

KING: You were right.

HILL: And I was right. And I'm not sure coming forward sooner would have helped that at all. And you know, having taken another course of action, I think that that was probably beyond my control.

KING: We've just discussed the media impact on war. What about on courts, on trials? We've got the Simpson to discuss later tonight. You, you're on Court TV now. What do you make of all of this?

HILL: Well, you know, I think one of the amazing things about this whole episode was that in fact it had an opposite reaction and lot of people predicted in terms of women and their rights to go forward with complaints about sexual harassment. The common wisdom at the time was that women, having seen the hearings, would never come forward, never pursue claims. And in fact what they did was just the opposite. In record numbers, women started to complain about sexual harassment. So I think, in effect, what the TV did was to -- TV coverage did was to inform women about their rights and really encourage them to participate in the process of ensuring that their rights were guaranteed.

KING: So it turned into, in that regard, a plus?

HILL: I think it did. It turned into a plus, very much so. And one of the things that I have to say about CNN coverage in particular was that when I travel now abroad sometimes, and very often I encounter women abroad who say, yes, I saw you, and they saw me on CNN. The coverage globally helped women identify with this issue, whether or not they have laws to protect against it or not.

KING: How did you handle fame?

HILL: Wow. Not so well at times, I'm sure. And at times, hopefully I did it in a way that was dignified and helped promote the issue of rights, among women's rights particular, the issue of sexual harassment, getting it on the public agenda and getting people to talk about it intelligently and moving us forward to doing something about the problem in the work place.

KING: Do you like cameras in the court?

HILL: I think that cameras in the court can play a positive role. I think that an informed public really is the best contribution that we can make to our legal system.

KING: Should they also be in the Supreme Court?

HILL: Well, I'm not sure about that.

KING: Why?

HILL: I'm not sure, because I'm not quite sure that we understand the difference between a trial proceeding and an appellate argument. I think that it would be helpful for us to know what's going on with the Supreme Court. And in fact, it might, as I think about it, it might help people to really better participate in the whole nomination process and to understand that better. But I think it's something that we have to give clear thought to, and it probably -- there are probably experts who know better than I do about that.

KING: Some in the Senate came down very hard on you. Do you bear them some anger still?

HILL: Well, you know, I try to get beyond my anger. I tried to turn my anger at the time into something positive. And I still try to do that. I think that there are those people in the Senate who really don't think that they did anything wrong. For them, this was a political battle, and what they don't understand was that there were real lives involved.

KING: Do your classes at Brandeis ask you about it?

HILL: They do, but, you know, we move on. I'm there to teach them some subjects, and they're there to learn...

KING: Life goes on.

HILL: ... and life goes on. And I'm happy to have...

KING: Thanks, Anita, always good seeing you.

HILL: Very good to see you.

KING: From Oklahoma to Brandeis.

HILL: Long way, isn't it?

KING: Still ahead, two more lawyers. The last time you saw Johnnie Cochran and Chris Darden on television together, they were arguing the trial of the century.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back.

In 1983 -- three years after CNN began, a young woman joined the network. Born in Iran, educated in England and America, she grew up hoping to become an international correspondent. Well she has, and her work has taken her to just about every global hotspot you can imagine.

And let me caution you, she's also witnessed some of the most graphic scenes of the last 10 years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chrisiane Amanpour, CNN, Sarajevo.

... Kyvay (ph), Rwanda...

... Saudi Arabia...

... Calcutta...

... Baghdad...

... Naples...

... in Naples...

... on the Kosovo-Albanian border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: For me, this is my professional dream come true. I can't imagine a better job. I've had some of the best experiences of my life with my colleagues at CNN in the field -- not always the same people, but always top-notch people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Let me tell you what's going on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: When I had finished my university in the summer of 1983, I did the regular rounds and sent my resumes to all the networks and all the local stations and got absolutely no bites whatsoever, was told that, you know, you're too different. You have a foreign accent, you have black hair, you're not the traditional person we're looking for -- and, by the way, you have no experience either.

So I was working at a local station in Providence, Rhode Island, and they happened to mention CNN. They said there's this new kid on the block in the broadcasting world, and, you know, we think we've heard some different accents on there. Maybe you should try applying to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: ... additional suicide hot lines are being provided.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: I didn't skip any levels of the ladder, so to speak, and I was an assistant on the foreign desk, as it was known back then, and then I was a writer. And I went up to New York and I was a field producer and a correspondent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: ... up to 47 years in jail.

It is an experiment that depends entirely on...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And that led to me getting a full-time correspondents job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Although the homeless spend most of their time simply trying to survive...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: I did a lot of stories about homeless in New York, I did some stories about Wrestlemania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: A few weeks ago, the World Wrestling Federation admitted what many skeptics had long believed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Then I moved on to covering some of the United Nations stories.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Christiane Amanpour, CNN, at the United Nations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: The Gulf War was my first major story. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: OK, there's another launch. There's another launch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Certainly when I first started, I was seized by the sense of adventure, by the sense of romance, by the sense of exploration and discovery. But then, when I started to do the stories, when I started to go out and cover places, for instance, Bosnia, I realized that this was now much more than just adventure. This was really serious business going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: The international community estimates that Serbs may have systematically raped as many as 20,000 Muslim women as a weapon of war, though they admit they may never know the real figure because of the code of silence among women who are overwhelmed by feelings of shame and resentment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Well my aim has been to tell the human story. It's not just about the caliber of weapons, the bullets, the amount of bang-bang. It's about what does this mean to the individuals who are under attack?

In Bosnia, I did several stories, for instance, about a little girl who had been killed. And such was the demand at the funeral home that there wasn't even the right letters to put her name on the grave marker,

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: All that remains of Almedina is her name, misspelled on the marker. In a city that's running out ever everything, the letter A has been all used up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: I did stories about individuals who transcended the hate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Vila (ph) won't give into those hatreds. Indeed, he's taken a family of eight Muslim refugees into his own two small rooms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: We tried to focus on children and how the war was affecting them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD (through translator): I remember all my friends who are wounded, and then I feel hate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: We journalists lived a similar life to the rest of the civilians, who were being shelled from the hills around Sarajevo.

We were there day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Bosnia may no longer being front-page news, but the war hasn't stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: I remember very distinctly one of the most shocking images of the whole war for me was in April of 1993, after the Serbs had conducted a fierce artillery onslaught on the town of Srebrenica, and we were waiting outside of Srebrenica as one of these trucks were going to evacuate some of the most desperately wounded. And I remember when the tarpaulin went up and the side of the trunk came down, we all just went, Uhhh!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Here on these faces, these broken bodies, hard evidence of the previous day's Serb onslaught on Srebrenica.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: For some reason we weren't expecting children to fill this truck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: "Come here, come here," this little boy is pleading for his mother.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Sometimes I used to succumb to the bleakness of the whole thing, and you know, I remember doing one story about -- "Who cares anymore?"

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: But who cares anymore? It's just another story. And this kind of horror is going on right under the U.N.'s nose. Perhaps the negotiators in Geneva really believe their peace plan is working.

By the evening, heavy machine guns are pounding an apartment block again. But it's just another story. It's just another day.

(END VIDEO CLIP) AMANPOUR: It's not a journalist's job to go out with an agenda, but it is a journalist's job to go out and tell the story honestly, truthfully and with humanity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: This catastrophe began with a crime, the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: In the space of three months, nearly a million people were slaughtered in Rwanda, the fastest slaughter recorded in modern history. And not in some industrial killing machine, but by knives and clubs, bare hands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They will kill us. They'll scratch our eyes out and rip open our stomachs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And then I remember after the slaughter, when the balance of power changed in Rwanda, and the so-called "bad guys," the people who conducted the slaughter, were now being chased out, and they all came through to Zaire next door. And in some kind of biblical retribution, they started to drop like flies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Two weeks ago, you could barely walk through this camp without stepping all over the corpses. Cholera was at its peak; people were dying too fast to be properly buried.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: We were camped out in this town and we were in tents, and it was revolting, frankly. And every morning we'd wake up and about 20 yards away from us would be a stack of more dead bodies who had died overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Now they've almost all been bulldozed into mass graves. This brutal and ugly work fell mostly to the French.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And I remember these French Foreign Legionnaires, some of the toughest soldiers in the world, crying because their job was to get a bulldozer and pick up these bodies and toss them into holes in the ground that they had dug, and even they couldn't tolerate it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AMANPOUR: "I have no feelings anymore. It's beyond my imagination," he says. "The vocabulary to describe this has not yet been invented."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: It was truly, truly awful. And I remember writing in my diary that this is the blackest I've ever felt.

Many people have asked me how does any human being watch the depths of depravity that we as journalists watch and stay normal. And I think the answer is that you have to let it affect you somewhat, you have to maintain your humanity. If you completely close yourself off, you're no good to anybody or anything. You're not a good journalist. You're not a good human being.

On the other hand, if you allow yourself to be completely swept away on this tide of sadness, then similarly you're no good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Many fear that the price of the earlier inaction will only soar.

I'm Christiane Amanpour, saying goodbye from Zaire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back to our 20th anniversary celebration. This week, by the way, also marks my 15th anniversary at CNN.

One moment I'll never forget on LARRY KING LIVE came when a certain key suspect in a certain highly publicized murder case was missing. I was in the middle of a conversation about that suspect, by the way, with John Mack, president of the L.A. chapter of the Urban League, when our executive producer told me something was coming in on the control room monitor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: OK. I'm going to have to interrupt this call. I understand we're going to go to a live picture in Los Angeles. Is that correct?

OK. This is Interstate 5, and this is courtesy of KCAL, one of our L.A. affiliates.

Police believe that O.J. Simpson is in that car.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WENDY WALKER WHITWORTH, VICE PRESIDENT/SENIOR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "LARRY KING LIVE," 1994: It was amazing. Nobody knew for sure at the beginning if he was in it. But then it -- once there were more radio reports and they could -- they were listening -- he was on a cell phone, he had a gun to his head. The story became bigger and bigger, and we realized, yes, it was O.J. Simpson and A.C. was driving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: They believe that this vehicle is registered to Al Cowlings, one of O.J.'s oldest friends, a teammate at Southern Cal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITWORTH: It was like watching a made-for-television movie. You couldn't take your eyes off of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You do have a man with a gun in that car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITWORTH: We didn't know what was going to happen. Was he going to shoot somebody? Was he going to give himself up? What exactly was going to happen?

LAMOTTE: We went to various locations in anticipation that he may drive by us, but didn't. And ultimately, we're told, get over to the house as quickly as you can.

I remember getting out of the car, and we were about a block away. The police had cordoned off the area. And I remember looking down the street about five minutes before O.J. arrived, and seeing, for instance, a bush running across the street. And in essence it was an undercover police officer dressed like a bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: Simpson's car, after an almost two-hour chase, pulled into his estate providing even more drama. For several minutes, the car sat motionless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: It was the most surreal scene I think I've ever seen personally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: Simpson emerged holding a photo of his family instead of a gun. He was taken into custody. Ironically, what he drank was orange juice.

Now, for O.J., the future, much like the chase, is filled with uncertainty. Greg LaMotte, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE SPURGEON, DEP. L.A. BUREAU CHIEF, 1995: When we realized there was going to be a trial, we started building up the staff. We brought in people from a number of other bureaus. We brought in people from New York, from Atlanta, from San Francisco, and we eventually had a staff of 70 just working on that one story every single day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: Did O.J. Simpson really kill Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It quickly became obvious that this was not going to be your typical murder trial. Why? You have a celebrity, again you have money involved, you have people who can hire high-powered legal teams. Most trials in this country are not anything like the O.J. Simpson trial.

JUDGE LANCE ITO: Mr. Simpson is again present before the court with his counsel, Mr. Shapiro, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Kardashian, Mr. Bailey, Mr. Blazer (ph).

FELDMAN: As it began to unfold and as new sort of subplots came into it, you know, charges that the defense made that evidence was planted by the Los Angeles Police Department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: His testimony is expected to become a legal battle ground and his name a household word.

MARK FUHRMAN, LAPD: Market Fuhrman, M-A-R-K-F-U-H-R-M-A-N.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FELDMAN: Charges that some of the arresting and investigating officers were motivated by racism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FELDMAN: Recent changes in California law will allow, as one lawyer put it, more mud-slinging when it's the defense turn to cross examine detective Fuhrman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FELDMAN: It's as these things got sort of put into the blender that the story takes on a life of its own. And then once you're in it, you're in it for the duration because you just can't get out of it. I mean, you get sort of dragged along much the same way that a wind of a hurricane kind of moves you along. You can try to resist it, but good luck, you can't do it.

JIM MORET, CNN ANCHOR: It was unbelievable. It was a soap opera. It was compelling, it was real.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: I'm Jim Moret in Los Angeles.

A 980 hearing is under way right now in Judge Lance Ito's courtroom in the O.J. Simpson trial to decide whether to pull the plug on television coverage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARY GREGORY, SENIOR PRODUCER, "LARRY KING LIVE," 1996: Our audience's appetite was just insatiable. They could not get enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")

KING: We're pleased to welcome Denise Brown with us from our studios in Los Angeles. Thanks for joining us, Denise.

DENISE BROWN, SISTER OF NICOLE BROWN: How are you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREGORY: As much as people would say enough O.J., every time we produced an O.J. show, our ratings tripled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATO KAELIN, SIMPSON TRIAL WITNESS: I can't explain exactly what's going on and why I'm sitting here with you or whatever is going on in my life. It's coming from a different source, and I can't...

KING: It's been a whirlwind, right?

KAELIN: It has been.

KING: Mixed emotions?

KAELIN: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: It became a cast of characters. These folks became celebrities -- Kato Kaelin, Kato Kaelin became a celebrity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIA CLARK: And now you're changing that testimony. Is that what you're doing, sir?

KAELIN: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MORET: Many people came to know these folks on a first-name basis. People would talk about Marsh, her hair -- oh, gee, she looks better now than she did at the beginning of the trial. What was happening? What was happening to us?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEFEVRE: Prosecutors have said they will decide by the end of the month whether to seek the death penalty in the Simpson case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEFEVRE: Every time I met folks at dinner parties, at weddings, at bar mitzvahs, I would be in the grocery store and somebody would say, you're Greg LeFevre. What that O.J.? Not, is it like to work with Ted Turner? Isn't being on TV interesting? My, haven't you been to some interesting places. No, it's what about that O.J.?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: It's just before 6:00 a.m., and they're already arriving, coming to the sidewalks, scaffolds, temporary tents, trailers and cubicles that have replaced the newsrooms they used to know. Many lived across the country a year ago. Now they call this place home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: A whole city was built across the street from the courthouse that we called "Camp O.J.." where rafters were built, where high-rises were built for other media to do their live shots from.

LEFEVRE: Camp O.J. was nuts. It was just nuts. And you had everybody clamoring for the best camera angle. You had everybody clamoring for the last little tidbit. You would have a lot of reporters writing notes down very carefully in their hands, and then when it was revealed you see it was just a lunch menu but they were just trying to spoof you.

LAMOTTE: And it was and in essence became part of my life, because I would spend 12 hours a day there, and at times wondering why? Why am I involved in all of this? And when will this come to an end? And will it please hurry up and come to an end?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Simpson has two bands, which are certainly...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: You know, sitting in a courtroom all day long listening to DNA evidence for weeks on end was agonizing. And ultimately the circus atmosphere around the courthouse itself was like nothing I've ever seen in my life. ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When the attorneys would come in in the morning, we would have -- sometimes have a separate crew just to shoot the media crush. And it was -- crush is the word. You could hear people cursing and smashing into each other.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: Defense attorney Robert Shapiro is addressing the court right now and paraphrasing his initial statements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: My life was consumed by this case. The challenge primarily was, it was live reporting at its purest form.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: The visual -- or the usually camera person was not present. Pardon me, but I'm reading from a transcript as it's coming from the court. This is as he is speaking right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: Because you simply didn't know what was going to happen. And sure enough, we saw Chris Darden asking Simpson to try the gloves on.

FELDMAN: If nothing else did it, that one visual demonstration, which I think the prosecution to this day admits was probably not a good idea, probably was a turning point for if there were any holdouts in the jury.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNNIE COCHRAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It makes no sense, it doesn't fit. If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: Let's go now to our legal analysts for some perspective on how well Johnnie Cochran did today. Joining us from our Washington bureau, Greta Van Susteren, a trial attorney, and Roger Cossack, a former prosecutor and defense attorney.

Roger, it seems as if we saw a very different Johnnie Cochran after the dinner break.

ROGER COSSACK, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Jim, that was the Johnnie Cochran that I have known for a lot of years and that I have seen perform in court and sat back in the audience and said, wow, I wish I could do that.

MORET: Greta, how would you characterize the style if not the substance of Johnnie Cochran? GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think Johnnie Cochran has essentially clobbered the prosecution this evening. I mean, even if you watched Marcia Clark, you could tell she was extremely uncomfortable with this argument.

GREGORY: The day before the verdict was announced, after such a short time, we were all hearing that they had reached a verdict. and we were all just, no, that can't possibly be true. In fact, I remember telling one of the reporters, go and check that, That can't be right.

FELDMAN: I don't think anybody, myself included, was psychologically geared up for a fast verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: Let's take you now into the courtroom. The jurors are obviously seated.

ITO: Let the record reflect that we have now been rejoined by all the members of our jury panel and the alternates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCDERMOTT: The moment I remember most vividly was when the verdict was read. And I happened to be in CNN's Los Angeles bureau, along with several of my colleagues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FOREPERSON: We, the jury, in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of penal code section...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCDERMOTT: As the verdict not guilty was read, that very first not guilty, the silence was broken by this sharp intake of breath, except it was the sound of about 100 people all at the same time taking this gasp.

GREGORY: The day after the verdict was read, and O.J. was reunited with his children and was out of sight, we had Johnnie Cochran on the air. And at the very end of the show, the phone rang.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")

KING: With us on the phone now is O.J. Simpson.

O.J. SIMPSON: Most of all, I want to thank that man, Johnnie Cochran, for believing from the beginning, listening and putting his heart and soul on the line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREGORY: And everyone sucked in their breath and held their breath to just see what happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")

SIMPSON: Pretty soon I'll have all -- I'll have enough to say to everybody, and hopefully answer everyone's questions. But...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREGORY: And everyone went, oh, and breathed. It was an amazing moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A couple quick things...

SIMPSON: No, I've got to go.

KING: Can you just tell us...

SIMPSON: No, I've really got to go. Thank you.

... what was it like with the kids today?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Welcome back.

On top of everything else, the O.J. Simpson case was a who's who of lawyers. Appearing together here for the first time since the trial, Chris Darden from the Simpson prosecution team and his courtroom adversary, Johnnie Cochran.

Here at CNN, the Simpson trial inspired a whole new show, "BURDEN OF PROOF," hosted by Roger Cossack and Greta Van Susteren. She joins us as well here in Atlanta.

Does it feel funny to sit together, Chris?

DARDEN: Well...

(LAUGHTER)

KING: How does it feel?

DARDEN: I don't feel much of anything, you know.

KING: Did you feel -- did a personal thing develop between the two of you with all that attention and all that adversarial business going on?

COCHRAN: Well, I think we probably had business to do in there, but I think Chris and I were friends before this started. And, you know, I think we can be friends afterwards. I mean, I was glad to see him tonight. We haven't seen each other much. But I was really glad to see him tonight. I have a lot of respect for him.

KING: Were you angry at him, Chris?

DARDEN: No, not at all.

KING: In other words, he was just doing his job?

DARDEN: Well, I think for the most part he was doing his job. I certainly didn't like the way he did it on certain days, but I certainly understand that he was a lawyer in a trial and had a job to do, just as I did.

KING: Do you bring your personal -- were there times you were mad at Chris?

COCHRAN: You know, you try -- you tried not to be. This was a highly emotional case because a lot of issues got into the case. But basically, I knew Chris before, and I respect him as a lawyer. He's a real fine lawyer. I respected the job he did in this case. There's no doubt about it. And I respected him when it was over. And there's no doubt about that.

And so I'm glad we're here tonight. And I want to set the record straight: I have a lot of respect for Chris Darden. OK?

DARDEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

KING: How did it, Chris, get out of hand? And I guess that's a way to put it? Because of the judge? Why did this become what it became?

DARDEN: Well, when I joined the case in November of 1994, it was already out-of-hand, quite frankly. I just hadn't been paying close enough attention to realize that it was. But once the cameras were brought into the courtroom, once the, you know, the defense team was put together, you know, it was just nuts. It was just nuts.

And we as prosecutors, as government lawyers, we were attempting to practice law on a level we never practiced on before, and that is in front of the whole world and with the television cameras in our faces.

KING: And what was it like for you?

COCHRAN: It was difficult. I had never seen any case quite like this before.

There's also something that people really didn't realize: Practicing in Los Angeles, downtown Los Angeles, there was the factor of the LAPD. And history has shown these last five years now, with this scandal that's come about in L.A., has shown that the LAPD was really a wildcard through this whole process. And that made Chris' -- Chris and Marcia's job really, really hard, because anybody who lived in L.A. knew a lot about the LAPD and what they may have been capable of -- at least some elements of it. And I that really played a big role in this. KING: Does a bug prosecutor, Chris, when a defendant who the prosecutor believes did what he was charged gets off?

DARDEN: Well, yes, yes.

KING: Because you have to live with this, right?

DARDEN: Well, you know, I don't have to live with it, you know, the way that the victims have to live with it and their families. But yes, it does bug you a little bit. It bugged me at the time because I felt that the families deserved, you know, a certain degree of justice, and I didn't think they got that justice.

KING: Is it all wining, Johnnie?

COCHRAN: It should (ph) be all winning. I mean, everybody wants to win. Chris wanted to win; I wanted to win. But it really has to be -- we didn't have a vote in the final analysis. It was those jurors who decided this case based upon the fact that we believed it was a case of reasonable doubt, and they agreed with that.

KING: Greta, we're going to bring you in. Everybody believes Chris made a mistake by having him try on the glove. You said no.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely not. Chris had no choice but to put that glove on O.J. Simpson's hand, because I'll tell you what would have happened if he didn't: Johnnie Cochran would have put the glove on O.J. Simpson's hand in the defense care, and then in closing argument, he would have turned, he would have pointed his finger at Chris Darden, would have pointed his fingers at Marcia Clark, and said they were too much of cowards to put it on his hand because they know it didn't fit. Why didn't these prosecutors do that? They're deceiving you then and they're deceiving you now.

And so Johnnie would have hit them right between the eyes with it.

KING: True?

COCHRAN: True. In fact, Bailey had said -- I think he may have told Chris he was going to do it. And we knew those gloves wouldn't fit his hands, because they were -- you know, I was leading the witness at the time, and they were not something that has really large hands.

KING: All things being equal, Chris, was that the key to that trial? That moment?

DARDEN: No, I...

KING: You don't think so?

DARDEN: No, I don't think that was the key to that trial, although it certainly provided some high drama for CNN and CNN ratings. But -- but no, I think that, you know, Fuhrman, some of the failures on the part of the LAPD, some of our failures in the courtroom, which are bound to happen, particularly when you're in trial for almost a complete year, I think it's a combination of things, quite frankly.

KING: How about the judge, Greta?

VAN SUSTEREN: Judge Ito, well, he doesn't run a particularly tight ship, but the one thing I will take issue with Chris Darden on is that this was a case where for one of the first times you had a level playing field. The defense had resources; the defense had a good team. Chris Darden and Marcia Clark had the same resources, and they lost fair and square, and Johnnie Cochran and his team won fair and square. And this was a completely level playing field. You never see that in the practice of law.

KING: Fair and square?

DARDEN: Well, I don't think it was fair and square at all, but I certainly do believe that it was a level playing field.

KING: In other words, Ito treated both sides fairly?

DARDEN: Well, I don't think I was treated particularly fairly.

(LAUGHTER)

VAN SUSTEREN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(CROSSTALK)

DARDEN: However...

KING: You got fined.

COCHRAN: We all got fined. He was an equal opportunity judge.

However, they had $10 million; we didn't have that much. But Ito ruled for them about 73 percent of the time. But it was a fair...

(CROSSTALK)

DARDEN: There were a lot of frivolous motions, a lot of frivolous motions filed by the defense in that case. I think they were padding their bill.

COCHRAN: Oh gosh.

KING: By the way, I will tell our viewers -- I will tell our viewers something, since we have limited time tonight. These gentlemen both will be with us on the night of June 12th. That's the sixth anniversary of this murder, six years, and both Mr. Darden and Mr. Cochran appearing for the first time together tonight will be with us on that night, June 12th.

What has this done, though, to television coverage of trials?

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it depends, if you just look at this one case, you might think it was bizarre. But if you look at CNN's competitor Court TV, they put literally hundreds, maybe thousands of cases on TV, no problems. This was just unusual.

KING: Is it good, cameras in the courtroom?

COCHRAN: I think overall it's good. You know, I worked at Court TV for more than three years. Even the state of New York now wants to go back.

They covered the Diallo trial up in -- up in Albany, and I think that, you know, properly handled -- and Chris will remember this -- that most witnesses after a while, you know...

KING: Forget the camera's there.

COCHRAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) forget it, if it's mounted on the wall. There are some people who come in sometimes and be concerned about it. But by and large, I think we forgot (UNINTELLIGIBLE) finish.

DARDEN: Well, you know, I think that it's a deterrent to getting at the truth. I think it's a deterrent to justice.

One of the things that many, many people said to me after the trial, and even a few people during the trial, who could have been witnesses, who were potential witnesses, who I think could have led to us the Bruno Magli shoes, quite frankly, during our criminal case -- one of the things they said to me was, you know, after watching Cochran and Carl Douglas (ph), you know, crucify witnesses on the witness stand, and drag out their dirty laundry in front of the public, that they just didn't want to do that. They didn't want to be a part of that. And so I think it's a deterrent.

KING: You will agree that all of you had a great effect from this trial and really none of you were the same since?

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes, you know, I'll plead guilty. You know, it was a horrible tragedy, two dead people, but there's no question it's changed my life. And I feel bad about it in some regard because two people died.

COCHRAN: Two people died, and that is horrible. It has changed all of our lives.

KING: Chris?

DARDEN: Yes.

KING: See you on the 12th.

DARDEN: OK.

COCHRAN: It's good seeing you. (CROSSTALK)

KING: Historic day. Thanks, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: I'll see you Monday probably.

KING: Chris Darden and Johnnie Cochran and Greta Van Susteren.

Still ahead, you thought the O.J. Simpson case was long and complicated? We're going to talk to the man who investigated the president. Ken Starr, coming up in just a few minutes. But -- plus, there's more moments, too, from the '90s.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stack, pump, stack, pound and stack some more. Welcome to Crystal City, Missouri.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: The Mississippi floods came in the early summer, and it came because there was just a tremendous amount of water that got dumped over the Mississippi River basin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: All along the Mississippi, water is in the streets and plenty more is coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: It wasn't a flood that was there for a day or two and it was over. This was something that just kept going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: They're using the mowed of transportation that's about the only one you can use here on South Main Street in Hannibal, Missouri.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: There was this one couple, elderly couple.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: Seventy-seven-year-old Raymond Muland (ph), his wife and their cat weather the flood of 1993 on the second floor of one of the water-soaked houses on South Main Street.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: He said he wasn't leaving, his wife was not leaving. They were staying in the house. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: How far up is it in your house downstairs?

RAYMOND MULAND, FLOOD VICTIM: It's about two foot and a half now in the front room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: He said if it comes up to the second floor, then that's God's way of telling me that I need to go meet him. So he was going to stay.

BRUCE FINE, CNN CAMERAMEN: We went inside one home, and it was so sad. Nothing more disastrous than a flood in a home, because everything is ruined. The water is so infested with everything that you salvage nothing.

You want to tell the story, but at the same time you're -- you totally empathize with their loss. And when you stick a camera in front of somebody's face, and they've lost everything, sometimes you've lost it, too, you know? So it's tough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Welcome back.

For the past 20 years, CNN has covered politics up, down and sideways. The network took on its first big assignment in July 1980, when it was only a few weeks old.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: More than $2 million dollars has been spent making this place ready for delegates and television. All the networks are here, including this year's newcomer to the world series of TV journalism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: Our first convention it was Republican convention in Detroit at Joe Louis Arena. And we were so poor in those days that our studio space was up in the rafters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL SCHORR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the Cable News Network sky booth, which is having its inauguration tonight, four stories high over the convention hall, not recommended for those who have fear of heights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHORR: There we were, Bernie Shaw and I, tossing it back and forth between us, except that every once in a while the band would start playing and it would be a big hoopla and would totally drown out what we were trying to do.

KING (voice-over): After the conventions in the summer, the fledgling network tried something unconventional in the fall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The League of Women Voters is pleased to welcome President Jimmy Carter and Governor Ronald Reagan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: On October 28th, 1980, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter met for a debate in Cleveland. But a third candidate, independent John Anderson was not invited. In an unheard of programming move, CNN decided to add Anderson to the mix.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHORR: CNN will carry the start of the Cleveland debate live until Reagan and Carter have replied to the first question. Then Congressman Anderson will reply to that question. And we will then resume the proceedings in Cleveland, but then from tape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REESE SCHONFELD, CNN PRESIDENT, 1980: When the League of Women Voters refused to let John Anderson debate against Reagan and Carter, we inserted him.

SCHORR: The debate opened:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This, I believe, has assured that our interests will be protected...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHORR: First one we put to Carter, same question was put to Reagan. Then CNN cut away to us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHORR: Now we are here in Constitution Hall. And let me try to adapt the question for you, Congressman Anderson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHORR: And I asked the same question of John Anderson. So he answered -- that's fine.

RICK BROWN, DIRECTOR, SATELLITES, 1980: Then we were going to come back for the rebuttals, and each would get a rebuttal. Well that sounds great. In the first, like, 45 seconds it worked fine.

SCHORR: So now we had to go to the debate in Cleveland, joining the tape of what is now three minutes old. And every time we did that, we would fall further and further behind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: ... as a foundation is our plan for the years ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MODERATOR: Mr. Ellis, do you have a follow-up question for Mr. Carter?

QUESTION: Yes. Mr. President, you have...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: At one point, as I understand it, one of the tape guys turned and asked one of his fellow tape workers, a girl, for a date. And that was the first domino. And it went boom, boom, boom and it never came back after that.

SCHONFELD: Total technical screw up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHORR: We're having a little difficulty getting the tape cued up to the right place. Four years from now we'll do this better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHONFELD: It was a great idea. It was a great stunt. But forget good intentions, it was good television -- even if it was bad.

KING: In the years since 1980, CNN has increasingly become a place where politics happens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")

KING: Is there any scenario in which would you run for president?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's devoted an unprecedented amount of time to the players and the process, the roads to victory or defeat, and sometimes total self-destruction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was front-page news in "The Miami Herald," but Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart says it isn't so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: There was the story of Senator Gary Hart, a leading contender for the Democratic nomination. Back in May 1987, he challenged the media to investigate rumors about his womanizing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MINTIER: "Follow me around," Hart said. "I don't care. I'm serious."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: I think he threw down the gauntlet to the press by saying, I'm doing nothing wrong. You can follow me if you want.

KING: The challenge was accepted. His involvement with model Donna Rice was discovered. His race for the presidency was over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY HART (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know I could have been a very good president, particularly for these times. But apparently now we'll never know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: What we have seen since then is everyone goes under a microscope to be a candidate. And so I think it's changed the entire political system, what happened to Gary Hart.

FRANK SESNO, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: What that said was, there's virtually no place that is secure and sacred, that's yours, that's your zone of privacy.

Clearly that exploded with Bill Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Mr. Clinton, what's your relationship with Gennifer Flowers?

GOV. WILLIAM J. CLINTON (D-AR), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There really isn't one, obviously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When the Gennifer Flowers story first broke, it was when he was in New Hampshire. And most of us thought that the man is toast.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He's toast. He will never survive this. This guy is out of here -- which first of all goes to show you why you should never listen to reporters on predictions, but second of all gave us our first indication of what a survivor Bill Clinton is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: My fellow Americans, on this day, with high hopes and brave hearts and massive numbers, the American people have voted to make a new beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FRANKEN: I remember that it started about 2:30 in the morning when I was called and told that in fact the rumors that we heard were now being reported.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Why is Kenneth Starr, appointed to investigate an obscure Arkansas land deal, now looking into the president's alleged sexual affair with a White House intern?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS GUARINO, SENIOR PRODUCER: The first thing, you know, we asked was, does anybody know who Monica Lewinsky is?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONICA LEWINSKY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN: Excuse me, please.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES BIERBAUER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Like so many people you reacted with incredulity on a very personal level. My gosh, a 24- year-old intern? What was the man possibly thinking?

And then you started to think about the political consequences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I want to say one thing to the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I'll never forget that moment when he uttered those words. It was CNN's turn that day to be the network pool representative. I was the senior White House correspondent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: When he was shaking his hand and uttering those carefully scripted words, he knew I was the TV pool representative, and he was looking right at me, right at my eyes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: And I need to go back to work for the American people.

Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESNO: Monica Lewinsky was the first real-time scandal of epic proportion. Every tidbit and rumor and piece of speculation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: There is a late-breaking development. Let's go to Bob Franken again on Capitol Hill -- Bob.

FRANKEN: Bernie, we've just gotten word from sources that...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: My typical day on that story I would literally get up at 3:00 in the morning, every day virtually, so I could be in at 6:00.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Yes, I just want to make sure you know that both Starr and Ginsburg have left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And would work until 10, 11, 12 o'clock every night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: That's how it was for 13 months.

BIERBAUER: You couldn't escape it in Washington. If you drove past the Watergate Hotel, there were the cameras staking out the place where Monica Lewinsky was living.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH STARR, WHITEWATER INDEPENDENT COUNSEL: You have to be here every day. Don't they give you a day off?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BIERBAUER: If you drove past Judge Starr's house, there were the cameras. If you drove past the White House, there was the gaggle of reporters standing out on the lawn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: ... although sources telling CNN that top advisers to the president...

(END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: CNN has learned that Monica Lewinsky's testimony before the grand jury is expected tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JAY MCMICHAEL, CAMERAMAN: It was a hard story to cover. It took its toll on a lot of people. I think it strained a lot of marriages within the media, because people were putting in so many hours.

CROWLEY: Even if you're exhausted, you want to be there when it happened. You don't want to be at home when the key comes to what you've been wondering about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Republicans hope the stellar reputation of 74-year-old Henry Hyde will...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: You did it, first of all, because you knew it would end one day, and second of all, because that's why you're a reporter. You want to be there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: A defining moment for President Clinton. Ken Starr and the country awaiting the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And sources say that he did in fact during his testimony acknowledge an inappropriate physical relationship with the former White House intern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The job of explaining all this to the American people falls to the president himself. A little less than two hours from now, the public's reaction in the days ahead could prove the true test of whether the president can survive politically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Good evening. This afternoon in this room, from this chair, I testified before the office of independent counsel...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Wolf Blitzer, what was your reaction? BLITZER: The president did what a lot of his advisers wanted to him do, apologize and give the bear minimum amount of detail about his relationship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It was a painful ordeal for all of us, but remember, there was a criminal investigation of the president of the United States by the independent counsel, Ken Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SESNO: It all comes down to this, a report of several hundred pages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: On Capitol Hill, nervous Democrats are pouring through the Starr report.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Attorneys reviewing the Starr report for congressional Democrats tell CNN tonight they are impressed with its thoroughness and its detailed documentation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Independent counsel's report to Congress has been made public.

SHAW: Portions that document are sexually explicit, and we caution you now...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESNO: You have to explain to people things that I never would have thought we would have put on television, ever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SESNO: In the president's view, states this report, any person, reasonable person would recognize that oral sex performed on the deponent falls outside the definition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'CONNOR: It was ridiculous. It was also unfit for children's ears. And so I had to start a standup on the White House lawn about this, and say, you know, if you have children in the room, you really need to take them out of the room. And I actually paused and waited a few seconds for people to get the kids out of the room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: On 10 to 15 occasions -- and let's warn our viewers that some of this material is quite graphic and lurid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: For 13 months, the country, the world was engrossed in this story. But this was a story that we had to pay attention to because the presidency was on the line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SESNO: A picture of the United States Capitol on this day, December 19th, 1998.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Impeachment is our only course of action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: May God have mercy on this Congress?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: At 2:18, when that number comes up...

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: There it is.

WOODRUFF: There it is. President William Jefferson Clinton is now the second president in the history of the United States to be impeached.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. All persons are commanded to keep silent on pain of imprisonment while the Senate of the United States is sitting for the trial of the articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives against William Jefferson Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUARINO: You actually saw the light at the end of the tunnel with the Senate trial. You knew, OK, well, if it didn't end in January, it was going to end in February. And then they finally actually, you know, picked a day, and so you finally saw it winding down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Levin?

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: Not guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Levin, not guilty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: We witnessed almost day after day remarkable history that they will write about for a long time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REHNQUIST: It is therefore and adjudged that the said William Jefferson Clinton be and he hereby is acquitted of the charges in the said articles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: When the trial ended, that was a fixed point. Now, whatever you may think of whatever Bill Clinton had done, it's time to move on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: This can be and this must be a time of reconciliation and renewal for America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESNO: It was a fascinating story. It was an awful lifestyle.

FRANKEN: It was like, oh, my god. What am I going to do now? I have free time.

CROWLEY: I think at the end, honestly, I was grateful I was there to cover it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The presidency under fire: It kept the country talking for 13 months. There's still plenty to talk about.

We're pleased to welcome former independent counsel Ken Starr, plus CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, and in New York CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield.

As you looked at that piece, Judge Starr, what did you think? STARR: Well, it was long built up, beginning in 1980, in the coverage of the presidency, and we've now reached the stage where the media is, of course...

KING: The message.

STARR: It is so omnipresent. And it's very difficult, therefore, as we saw in some of the prior segments for law to be carried on in that context.

KING: You told me in an interview the mistake you made was you should have gone public more during this.

STARR: I think it would have helped. I think it would have been helpful to tell the American people some of the basic facts about the investigation, that the attorney general authorized it and the like. And I chose not do that. I followed the traditional rules, and we live in a new age.

KING: Do you feel you lost?

STARR: No.

KING: You don't?

STARR: I don't, I really don't, because we did our job. We gave our report to Congress, and then Congress did its duty and came to the judgment that it came to.

KING: Impact of the non-stop media coverage. Do you think -- as you said coming out of the house, here again?

STARR: Well, they were there all the time, and especially for a grand jury investigation it is extremely difficult to carry that on, and especially when allegations are going to be made. Oh, gee, there's leaking of grand jury information under way and like. There are all kind of complications, especially in a grand jury setting. And when the president of the United States is involved, it's a far better system for the Congress to step in at a much earlier stage and to say, this is our show.

KING: Wolf, does media have to do what it has to do? Because it has to go round the clock, right?

BLITZER: In a story like this, we had no choice. This was a huge story. And, of course, the presidency was on the line. And we had to cover it, every little detail. Not only that, everybody was watching. Let's not kid ourselves. The whole world was fascinated. As much as we like to say, you know, this was so unpleasant -- and the fact was it was unpleasant. And we were ignoring all sorts of other stories. And who knows if there would have been a war in Kosovo, let's say, if we would have been paying attention to what was going on in the Balkans. But that's -- you know, future historians can debate that. But we had to cover this as thoroughly as we did. We really had no choice.

KING: Jeff, are we better off because of this? Are we better now informed because of things like this?

GREENFIELD: We're more informed. And I do think the record will show that by and large the press got most of the stories right. A lot of the controversy in the early days were about stories that turned out to be true. But if you contrast the rhythm of the press in this story from Watergate, it's astonishing -- without trying to draw any parallels. When the evening news ended in 1973, the next you heard about Watergate was your morning paper. There was no "LARRY KING," no "Nightline," no CNN, no "Lehrer-McNeil News Hour."

And I'm not -- I don't think we can really say that we're better because of the sheer volume of what we have, but the fact is that it's sort of like arguing about rain in San Francisco on an autumn morning. It's a fact. There's no going back.

KING: What's the effect on the job you do, Ken?

STARR: Well, I think it calls on the law officers to do the very best they can to say. look, our audience really is the judges, the jurors and the like. And especially if you have a judge who is in control, who controls the courtroom, who supervises the grand jury, then the system can work. But it's very hard. It's very hard on everyone involved in the system with that kind of -- as Jeff was saying -- that kind of intense after-hours coverage so that it becomes an echo chamber.

KING: Do you ever think -- do you ever say to yourself, maybe we went too far here or we led with a rumor?

BLITZER: All the time.

KING: You deal with it every day, right?

BLITZER: I thought about it every single day for 13 months. I was saying to myself, you know, I don't know what I'm -- I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm on the North Lawn of the White House, and I'm talking about the definition of sexual relations as President Clinton understood that term and what does it mean, what doesn't it mean. I never thought I'd be doing that.

KING: Jeff, why didn't the public react the way the media reacted? The public retained their -- they liked him?

GREENFIELD: I'm going to give you my theory, and people may not like it. I think it shows the disconnection between the public and politics. I think many people, particularly journalists, who I know a lot of people think are hopelessly liberal, thought -- and let's forget for a minute perjury and all the legal stuff. What the president did, the behavior, was seen by a lot of people inside Washington as a fall from a standard. I think a lot of the folks in America by 1998 had decided there was no standard from which a politician could fall, that -- I'm quite serious -- that they were so irredeemably bad that for the president to engage in conduct which a generation ago would have gotten him out of office in about 12 hours, it was like, well, you know, I've seen it on "Oprah," I've seen it on "Springer," I've seen it on the soaps. What's the big deal? KING: Interesting.

GREENFIELD: And I really think that was one of the big protections the president had, apart from his job approval rating. And I must say the miscalculation of the independent counsel's office and the Republicans was that they thought, so what? It's a kind of sad commentary.

KING: Any regrets over doing it?

STARR: No, it had to be done.

KING: Do it again?

STARR: Well, I would not want to do it, but yes, yes.

KING: You'd take the job again if it came up again?

STARR: Well you tempt me to say no, but, yes, I've always said yes to public service.

KING: Thanks, Ken.

STARR: Thank you, Larry.

KING: Wolf and Jeff will be back with us before the end of the show.

Don't go away. We have more talk and more unforgettable memories.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ANCHOR: We are just learning now, just in to CNN, apparently Princess Diana has been in a serious road accident in Paris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That was a summer night. About 10 minutes to 1:00, I got a call from the assignment desk in Atlanta saying that there had been an accident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ANCHOR: It is now 2:00 in the morning local time in Paris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: When it was finally confirmed, I was on my way to Paris at that point. And they asked me to stop alongside the road and immediately start talking, get on the air on my cell phone and talk to the anchors in Atlanta. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: Well, the reports are still sketchy at this time, but what we're hearing is that Princess Diana was severely injured in that crash.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: Immediately lips were sealed all over town. Trying to get any information was very difficult.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: We're at the scene now. Police have sealed off both ends of the tunnel. We can see the emergency vehicles down in the tunnel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: We knew she was in the back of the car. It was difficult to know how bad her injuries were, because, in fact, the back part of the car didn't look that badly damaged. We were to discover later that she had been thrown around inside the car and the impact had done severe bodily damage to her inside the car.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: Here in Paris, we were originally told that Princess Diana is in grave condition. Now the police have stopped telling us -- stopped giving us reports on her condition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ANCHOR: We have some very sad news to bring you. We are just getting word that the French government has informed all of us that Princess Diana has died.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: Her coffin draped in the house of Windsor's royal standard, the body of Princess Diana was removed from the hospital where she died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: To have seen this happen right there, right in the heart of Paris, here is a person sort of well-protected and young, vital, well-known, and she's suddenly dead. It was something that I think shocked us all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back.

The 1990s, a decade in which terrorism really struck home here in the United States. Just recently we commemorated the fifth anniversary of the worst such attack, an attack that was almost incomprehensible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. Holy cow. About a third -- about a third of -- about a third of the building has been blown away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: Amazement is not strong enough to describe the feeling of seeing this building, which had imploded from the force of the bomb.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the heck happened?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: Seeing the floors pointing downward and knowing that in this crater with hundreds of tons of concrete topping it there were human beings still in that. There's not a word in the English language that I can think of that describes the feeling. There's a phrase. You had to be there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Information just now coming in to the CNN Center, and we have learned that there has been a large explosion at the federal courthouse bulling in Oklahoma City.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: This is live from KFOR.

TARA BLUME: ... running around, trying to find friends and co- workers. The streets are filled with people, and the streets are just filled with debris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you can see it's the Alfred Murrah Federal Building. And you can see the smoke obviously everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see everyone here is running around trying to find out exactly what's happening.

There, if you take a look, you can see where the explosion happened, you can see the huge cloud of black smoke covering...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREG LEFEVRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The first thing you do when you get to a story like this is you try to cover what's right in front of you, and what's right in front of you is a big burned-out building. Then you start to realize there were a lot of people in that building and they start to bring out bodies. And it begins to strike you that there are dead people there, and then there are more bodies that come out, and the count starts to go up.

There's an announcement of the 51st body. There's an announcement of the 53rd body.

You notice that there are a lot of small bodies being brought out, and as the body count became official, you began to realize that someone walked down that street in Oklahoma City and murdered 168 people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And as you can see right there, it looks like unfortunately and very sadly, it looks like a war zone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: It was devastating to see this happen in our own country in a town like Oklahoma City -- that children either in diapers or just barely out of them were killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: Searchers are just now getting close to the area they dread the most, the day-care center. Heavy rain slowed the search for more victims. Consequently, so too the families searching for miracles, praying that pockets in the rubble could provide a shelter for life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: On a personal level, which has never happened to me ever, I cried over the Oklahoma City bombing. The country had lost its innocence that day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY CLARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The bombing took lives and blew apart buildings, but it also brought people here together as never before. I know. I grew up in Oklahoma City.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLARK: Having been born and raised in Oklahoma City, it was something that was impossible to believe. Not my home town.

I went through the list of the victims and did not recognize immediately any names, because I wanted to see if I knew any of the 168 victims. And then one day I was in the CNN work space, and a man that I had worked with 20 years before -- Bud Welch, that I had known and been very close to for a short period of time -- walked in, and I found out that his daughter was one of the people who was killed.

BONNIE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, 1995: I'd heard about a young mother who had lost two children, Chase and Colton, and I wrote Edye Smith a letter and left it in her mailbox. And I told her, if she wanted to speak we would be there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDYE SMITH, MOTHER OF BOMBING VICTIMS: What do you when people ask you, do you have children? What do you say? Well, I did have children?

My children are dead. What do you say? You don't know what to say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: We're all supposed to be very tough journalists, but I'll tell you, in the middle of that interview I turned around to look at my camera crew, and all of us had tears in our eyes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: The pain is so terribly real, but, like in all disasters, the hurt will eventually subside. Unfortunately for so many, however, it will never completely go away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAMOTTE: You know, we as reporters are told from day one, you keep your own opinion to yourself and out of your story. I grew up with a father who was a journalist who preached it day in and day out. Just tell the truth. And I've live by that.

Oklahoma City pushed the envelope for me in terms of trying to keep a clear perspective about just the facts and keep my own emotion away from the story, because really anybody who was there had to have been emotionally impacted by it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie.

SHAW: Thank you, Joe. The fire rescue people once again are walking, crawling on their hands and knees, sometimes on their stomachs, to continue this very depressing operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: The worst thing about covering the Oklahoma City bombing at the federal office building was that day in and day out I went to this scene to cover -- whether it was during the day, afternoon or night -- watching rescuers try to reach people, knowing that there were people dead and some still alive floors below in all that rubble. And as a fellow human being, there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. BILLY GRAHAM: My prayer for you today is that you will feel the loving arms of God wrapped around you and will know in your heart that he will never forsake you as you trust him.

God bless Oklahoma.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Welcome back to the 20th anniversary of CNN. Wolf Blitzer is with us here in Atlanta, Jeff Greenfield in New York.

Both of you discussed this during the discussion with Ken Starr. Let's start with Jeff. How has 24-hour news now changed all of this and what's it going to mean tomorrow?

GREENFIELD: I think what it has done is to give all of us a sense is that there's less time for reflection. And I'm not just talking about viewers and journalists, but decision-makers.

Whether they ought to be responding as quickly as they do, there's no question that there is a feeling that they've got to get out to meet this ever-increasing cycle.

And because -- the other thing, I think, is because television, as these clips have made so incredibly clear, is so much better at communicating visceral emotional information than analytically information, 24-hour news is just another step down that road where the information we get, unlike the years we got it through print, is much more powerful in the gut and much dicier up here.

KING: And how fierce, Wolf, the competition to get it on first and therefore likelihood at times of error?

BLITZER: The competition is always intense. Whether with other TV networks or wire services or newspapers there's always competition, and the important thing is, of course, not only to get it first, but much more important, to make sure you get it right. And sometimes you make mistakes, but hopefully you don't make too many of those kinds of mistakes.

The competition is always intense. Right now, there are three 24-hour cable news networks.

I would argue that as much as the information we're now providing, as much as is out there, it's only just beginning, because once you marry TV news with the PC, with the Internet, there's going to be just an explosion of news out there. You're going to see shows like this that there's a lot of stuff you would want that didn't appear -- you know, you can go to the Web site and get a lot more highlights of CNN's 20-year history.

KING: Jeff, we only have a minute left: Do you it's harder to be in journalism today?

GREENFIELD: I think it's harder to keep a level head. I think -- I think I made a career on your show during impeachment of saying, I don't know.

KING: Yes.

GREENFIELD: And I was struck by the fact that people like that. I could make a career for the rest of my life given what I don't know.

But I think that the need to pull back sometimes and not be tempted to dump something into the atmosphere because the camera's pointed on you is one of the greatest temptations that journalists in this era have to resist.

KING: Wolf?

BLITZER: It's hard to say you don't know, when -- because the temptation, you're on camera, you're on the air, to say something. But the smart thing to say oftentimes is, you know, I just don't know the answer.

I remember the first night that the Iraqis invaded Kuwait, August 1st, 1990. I was at the Pentagon. And one of the anchors said, well, what's George Bush going to do about this? And I felt like saying, beats me, but I couldn't say that.

KING: Thank you, both. Jeff Greenfield and Wolf Blitzer, you'll be seeing lots of them in the months and years ahead.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Thanks to all of you for watching, and special thanks to all the men and women at CNN who have contributed so much over the past 20 years.

From Atlanta, I'm Larry King.

We end by taking you back to the beginning when everyone thought the idea of a 24-hour news channel was crazy, everyone but Ted Turner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TED TURNER, FOUNDER OF CNN: We intend to cover all the news all the time, and since we're going to be on for such a long period continuously -- we sign on, on June, and barring satellite problems in the future we won't be signing off until the world ends.

(LAUGHTER)

We'll be on. We will cover it live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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