But they also sacrifice intelligence for immediacy -- forcing journalists to speculate and ad-lib on air while they watch the same pictures as the rest of us without the time or resources to digest the raw information.
"In the past the public wasn't part of the process. Journalists used to get all the information and only then publish," said Patricia Dean, the head of broadcast studies at the Annenberg School of Journalism.
"Now the early and erroneous information gets out and the news is distorted," she said.
But these problems have not daunted Turner's enthusiasm and his belief that the organization he founded has been of huge benefit to the world.
"Today, 25 years after CNN first launched, there are more than 70 television channels broadcasting 24-hour news coverage around the world -- a true testament that CNN changed the world of broadcasting and journalism," he crows. "Where would we be today if networks like CNN had not been there to capture `people power' as the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union collapsed?"
Or for that matter, when the bride ran away.
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