CNN

Founded by the dynamic but eccentric entrepreneur Ted Turner, CNN (or Cable News Network) pioneered the concept of 24-hours news programming when it launched in 1980 and was the first cable news network to begin broadcasting in high definition in 2007. CNN came into the spotlight in 1986 during their coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and more prominently in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, because the channel was the only outlet which reported from inside Iraq during the initial hours of the American bombing campaign, with live reports by Bernard Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett. Throughout the 1990s, CNN became very infuential as the only major cable news channel. Today, CNN's television personalities include Wolf Blitzer, Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper. The presidency of Donald Trump has led to many prominent controversies involving CNN. The network was accused of bias during its coverage of the 2016 campaign; current CNN president Jeff Zucker defended its extensive coverage of Trump, noting among the Republican candidates, he was the most willing to give on-air interviews. Likewise, there were accusations by both Trump and supporters of Bernie Sanders, that CNN focused too much on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton; during his speech at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump referred to CNN as the "Clinton News Network". CNN’s work surrounding the 2016 elections has also led some critics to assert that Jeff Zucker is transforming political coverage into the sensational format of sports and entertainment programming.

CBS News

CBS, founded in 1927, first found its footing in news when William S. Paley became President in 1928, marking the beginning of one of the most influential newsman in history. During his tenure, CBS came to be known as the so-called “Tiffany Network", because of its dedication to high-quality programming. CBS News, or CBSN, is the news division of CBS and broadcasts news programs like the CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning, magazine programs like 60 Minutes and political affairs programs like Face the Nation. Over the years CBS News has had iconic anchors like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer at the helm of their flagship evening television news program, CBS Evening News. In recent times however CBS has been the subject of much controversy especially due to the firing of "CBS This Morning" co-host Charlie Rose and Chairman and CEO Les Moonves following allegations of sexual misconduct.

MSNBC

MSNBC (Microsoft News Broadcasting Company) is an American news cable and satellite television network that provides news coverage and political commentary from NBC News on current events. Phil Griffin is the president and director of day-to-day operations at MSNBC. Pat Burkey, Janelle Rodriguez, and Jonathan Wald oversee programming and news operations, with Brian Williams serving as the channel's chief anchor of breaking news coverage. As of February 2015, approximately 94,531,000 households in the United States (81.2 percent of those with television) were receiving MSNBC. Commentators have described MSNBC as having a bias towards left-leaning politics and the Democratic Party. In November 2007, a New York Times article stated that MSNBC's prime-time lineup is tilting more to the left. Washington Post media analyst Howard Kurtz has stated that the channel's evening lineup "has clearly gravitated to the left in recent years and often seems to regard itself as the antithesis of Fox News". In 2011, Salon.com noted that "MSNBC’s prime-time lineup is now awash in progressive politics." MSNBC debuted in 1996, as a partnership between NBC News and Microsoft (Microsoft's stake in the channel was gradually bought out by NBC until the latter's parent NBCUniversal bought out the remaining minority stake held by Microsoft in 2011). When the network was launched, its leading hosts included Jodi Applegate, John Gibson, Tim Russert and Brian Williams. For over a decade, the network's ratings were consistently in last place among the cable news channels. After Phil Griffin became president of MSNBC in mid-2008, the channel began shifting towards an increasingly politically liberal ideology in its analysis programming, particularly in its prime-time lineup. MSNBC launched a high definition simulcast feed on June 29, 2009. Notable personalities on the network include Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, daytime anchors Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell, and evening commentators Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow. The network was noted in the mid-2000s for its harsh criticism of then-President George W. Bush, most notably the 'special comment' segment of former anchor Keith Olbermann's show, Countdown. This, combined with accusations of support for then-President Barack Obama, have led to MSNBC being criticized for a liberal bias, a reputation it has increasingly embraced with its "Lean Forward" slogan (which it adopted in 2011) and open promotion of progressive and liberal ideas. The channel had a spin-off called Shift. Established in 2014, it was an online-only channel through its website MSNBC.com. The programming schedule was less focused on politics than the main channel, built to be a divergence from it and is more tailored to a younger audience. The channel ceased operations without notice some time before 2018.

ABC

ABC is the youngest of the “Big Three” commercial television broadcasting networks. Created from a radio spinoff of NBC in 1945, ABC News sought to compete with CBS and NBC through a balance of entertainment programming and news, including early content from the likes of Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, and The Flintstones. ABC was purchased by the Disney Company in 1995. ABC’s Barbara Walters became the first female anchor of a major network in 1976 and would go on to a career of groundbreaking industry achievements, including an unprecedented primetime interview with Fidel Castro. ABC News is the news division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), owned by the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ABC World News Tonight; other programs include morning news-talk show Good Morning America, newsmagazine series Nightline, Primetime and 20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopolous.

NBC News

NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States, founded as a radio network by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1926. Famous NBC Nightly News anchors like John Chancellor, David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw, and Brian Williams dominated primetime ratings for decades, although Williams’ tenure came to an end after revelations of embellishment of first-hand accounts from the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina. Lester Holt took over the top spot at the Nightly News in 2015. In a continuation of the troubling trend regarding network news stars, Matt Lauer, the 20-year co-host of the "Today" show, was fired after multiple allegations of sexual harassment. NBC News is a division of the American broadcast television network NBC, formerly known as the National Broadcasting Company when it was founded on radio. The division operates under NBCUniversal News Group, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, in turn a subsidiary of Comcast. The group's various operations report to the president of NBC News, Noah Oppenheim. NBC News aired the first, regularly scheduled news program in American broadcast television history on February 21, 1940. The group's broadcasts are produced and aired from 30 Rockefeller Center, NBC's headquarters in New York City. The division presides over America's number-one-rated newscast, NBC Nightly News, and the longest-running television series in American history, Meet The Press, the Sunday morning program of newsmakers interviews. NBC News also offers 70 years of rare historic footage from the NBCUniversal Archives online. NBC News operates a 24-hour cable news network known as MSNBC, which includes the organization's flagship daytime news operation, MSNBC Live. The cable network shares staff and editorial control with NBC News.

BBC World News

The British Broadcasting Corporation was created in 1922 under Royal Charter to create programming for the public benefit without the commercial pressures of private news organizations. BBC has grown to be the largest broadcasting organization in the world with over 21,000 employees worldwide across its Public Service Broadcasting and BBC Worldwide divisions. BBC World Service recently announced plans to expand from 28 languages to 40, adding coverage ranging from Punjabi to Nigerian Pidgin, with the goal of reaching an audience of half a billion by 2022. BBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel, with an estimated 99 million viewers weekly in 2015/16, part of the estimated 265 million users of the BBC's four main international news services. Launched on 11 March 1991 as BBC World Service Television outside Europe, its name was changed to BBC World on 16 January 1995 and to BBC World News on 21 April 2008. It broadcasts news bulletins, documentaries, lifestyle programmes and interview shows. Unlike the BBC's domestic channels, BBC World News is owned and operated by BBC Global News Ltd., part of the BBC's commercial group of companies, and is funded by subscription and advertising revenues, and not by the United Kingdom television licence. It is not owned by BBC Worldwide.

AJ+

AJ+ is an online news and current events channel run by Al Jazeera Media Network. The service is available on its mobile app, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with written content on Medium. AJ+ is an online news and current events channel run by Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN). The service is available on its mobile app (iOS and Android), YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with written content on Medium. English, Arabic and Spanish languages versions are currently live. Work on the channel started in December 2012, shortly after Al Jazeera established an office in San Francisco. The first YouTube channel was created on December 17, 2013, after a year of preparation in response to increasing popularity of online news content among young people. The channel then had a soft launch on June 13, 2014. A full launch followed on September 15, 2014.

NPR

Founded a year after the Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio serves as a radio counterpart to PBS, syndicating content to over 900 member stations across the country. Similar to PBS, NPR has faced risk of funding losses due to proposed cuts under Trump’s budget plans. National Public Radio (NPR) is an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization based in Washington DC. It serves as a national syndicator to a network of over 1,000 public radio stations in the United States. NPR produces and distributes news and cultural programming. Individual public radio stations are not required to broadcast all NPR programs; most broadcast a mix of NPR programs, content from rival providers American Public Media, Public Radio International, Public Radio Exchange and WNYC Studios, and locally produced programs. The organisation's flagship shows are two drive-time news broadcasts, Morning Edition and the afternoon All Things Considered; both are carried by most NPR member stations, and are among the most popular radio programs in the country.[3][4] As of October 2017, the drive time programs attract an audience of 14.63 million and 14.6 million respectively. NPR manages the Public Radio Satellite System, which distributes NPR programs and other programming from independent producers and networks such as American Public Media and Public Radio International. Its content is also available on-demand online, on mobile networks, and, in many cases, as podcasts. NPR has been accused of displaying both liberal bias, as alleged in work such as a UCLA and University of Missouri study of Morning Edition, and conservative bias, including criticism of alleged reliance on conservative think-tanks. NPR has also been accused of bias related to specific topics, including support of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and coverage of Israel. The NPR ombudsman has described how NPR's coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict has been simultaneously criticized as biased by both sides. UT Austin journalism professor and author Robert Jensen has criticized NPR as taking a pro-war stance during coverage of Iraq war protests.

Huffington Post

The Huffington Post reinforces the theme of media companies being created in response to other news organizations. The founding team of Arianna Huffington, Andrew Breitbart, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti created HuffPost as a liberal alternative to the Drudge Report, though Breitbart and Peretti would eventually go on to build their own media organizations at Breitbart News Network and BuzzFeed, respectively. Huffington Post employs a combination of in-house editorial and a massive contributor network of over 100,000 unpaid contributors, with the latter receiving a balance of praise for democratizing publishing but criticism as an unpaid editorial model. HuffPost was purchased by AOL in 2013 for $315 million before both were rolled up into Verizon in 2015. HuffPost (formerly The Huffington Post and sometimes abbreviated HuffPo) is a liberal American news and opinion website and blog that has both localized and international editions. It was founded in 2005 by Andrew Breitbart, Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy living, women's interests, and local news. The Huffington Post was launched on May 9, 2005, as a liberal commentary outlet, blog and an alternative to news aggregators such as the Drudge Report, and it continues to maintain a politically liberal stance. On February 7, 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million, making Arianna Huffington editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. In 2012, The Huffington Post became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize. HuffPost is a politically liberal American news and opinion website that has both localized and international editions founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, Jonah Peretti, and Andrew Breitbart, featuring columnists. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy living, women's interests, and local news.

CNBC