This is basically true. CNN invested to build a reputation for being always on, so when something newsworthy happened, people would flip to them right away. To be fair, the reporters usually tried to report soberly and factually when that happened.
Today no TV channel can beat the Internet for being always on. No one runs to their TV and flips it on to see what’s going on; they pick up their phone… a place where CNN does not stand out at all.
LOL. CNN needs tragedies: the Challenger disaster, the Gulf War, baby falling down a well. Those are the kind of things that made CNN popular.