CNN Broadcasts Live From Baghdad as Gulf War Air Campaign Begins
Event Reviewed Automatically reviewed for factual accuracy, tone, and neutrality. Review does not check claims against cited sources. Last reviewed 21 October 2026.As the U.S.-led coalition began bombing Baghdad on the evening of January 16, 1991 (U.S. time), CNN correspondents Bernard Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett reported the attack live by telephone from their hotel in the city, before the official U.S. announcement that the war had begun.
Live telephone reports from Baghdad give CNN the first account of the war’s opening.
The air campaign began in the early hours of January 17 in Baghdad, the evening of January 16 in the United States. From the ninth floor of the Al Rashid Hotel, Shaw, Holliman and Arnett described the bombing and anti-aircraft fire over an open telephone line through the night; Shaw reported that “the skies over Baghdad have been illuminated.” According to an EBSCO account of the coverage, CNN reported that the war had begun twenty-seven minutes before the U.S. military’s official announcement.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said that “the best reporting of what I’ve seen from Baghdad has been on CNN.” Iraqi officials ended the live broadcast on January 17, and Iraq later expelled the foreign press except for Arnett and his CNN team, who reported from Baghdad for the rest of the war. The term “CNN effect” came into use to describe the influence of continuous, real-time television news on foreign-policy decisions.
Sources
- 01.
UPI. CNN keeps in touch as bombs hit Baghdad. (1991). Wire report dated January 17, 1991. Source that Bernard Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett reported the opening of the bombing over an open telephone line from the ninth floor of the Al Rashid Hotel through the night; for Shaw's 'this feels like we're in the center of Hell'; that Iraqi officials ended the broadcast on January 17; and for Defense Secretary Dick Cheney's remark that 'the best reporting of what I've seen from Baghdad has been on CNN.'
- 02.
American Social History Project (Who Built America?). CNN Coverage of the First Night of the Gulf War. Dates the broadcast to January 16, 1991, and records anchor David French cutting away from an interview to Bernard Shaw in Baghdad, who reported that 'the skies over Baghdad have been illuminated.'
- 03.
Internet Archive. DVD Transfer 76 (CNN Gulf War Coverage from January 16-17, 1991). Recording of CNN's coverage beginning the evening of January 16, 1991 (Eastern time), including the reports by Shaw, Holliman and Arnett from the Al-Rashid Hotel.
- 04.
EBSCO Research Starters. CNN coverage of the Gulf War. (2022). Source that CNN's reporters in Baghdad were the first to report that the war had begun, ahead of the U.S. military's official announcement by twenty-seven minutes; that Iraq later expelled all foreign media except Peter Arnett and his team; and that the term 'CNN effect' came into use to describe the effect of round-the-clock, real-time news coverage on U.S. foreign policy decisions. The article dates the bombing by Baghdad local time (January 17).
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