CNN will premiere two new specials this weekend, including Soledad O'Briens latest installment of the 'In America' series. Details and airtimes from CNN are below.


CNN Presents: Inside The Mission: Getting bin Laden

CNN’s Chris Lawrence reports on the inside story of the mission to get bin Laden. With debriefs from an array of CNN's most experienced reporters around the world, the special report examines the complex military and intelligence decision-making process that led to the daring capture and killing of the world's most wanted terrorist inside Pakistan on May 2, 2011. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen, CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry, senior political analyst Gloria Borger, and senior international correspondent Nic Robertson dissect the long hunt for bin Laden from the mountains of Tora Bora to the compound where he met his end. Former CIA director Michael Hayden, military interrogators, and Former CIA officer Gary Berntsen contribute first-hand knowledge from their experiences tracking bin Laden on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.


Education In America: Don't Fail Me

CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien follows a national high school robotics competition called FIRST to answer the questions about the future of education in this country and what IS working. Tracking the progress of three teams from three different states across the country, she learns more about the success areas and the gaps in the nation’s preparation for future competitiveness. Only 31 percent of American college students actually graduate in four years, and the most recent international tests ranked U.S. high school students at 17 in the world in science and 20 in math.



Airtimes (eastern):

Saturday, May 14, 2011

8:00pm – 9:00pm: CNN Presents: Inside The Mission: Getting bin Laden
11:00pm – 12:00am: CNN Presents: Inside The Mission: Getting bin Laden


Sunday, May 15, 2011

2:00am – 3:00am: CNN Presents: Inside The Mission: Getting bin Laden
7:00pm – 8:00pm: CNN Presents: Inside The Mission: Getting bin Laden
8:00pm – 9:00pm: Education in America: Don’t Fail Me
11:00pm – 12:00am: Education in America: Don’t Fail Me


Monday, May 16, 2011

2:00am – 3:00am: Education in America: Don’t Fail Me

CNN has been awarded one of the most prestigious awards in international journalism - a Golden Nymph - for the networks coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Within 24 hours of the devastating January earthquake, CNN had 8 reporting teams, totalling 34 people, on the ground, with more on the way. CNN's first reports were on air before most military and relief organizations arrived in affected regions.

CNN staff who contributed work in CNN's entry include:

Anderson Cooper
Ivan Watson
Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Susan Candiotti
Chris Lawrence
Gary Tuchman
Jonathan Mann
Juan Carlos Lopez
Arthur Brice
Steve Kastenbaum
Neil Hallsworth
Dom Swann
Gil Delarosa
Tawanda Scott
Rick Hall
Phil Littleton
Jerry Simonson
Jonathan Schaer
Leopoldo Massud

Watch video of Deborah Rayner, Managing Editor of CNN Europe and Africa, and Cindy Strand, Director of Coverage - International News, accepting the award.



The award was presented on Thursday as part of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.

CNN Press Release - CNN continues to deliver more newsmakers with a stellar lineup of A-list interviews, including:

Today, Sept. 17: Wolf Blitzer has an exclusive interview with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai about U.S. troop presence in the country, the accusation of fraud in the recent presidential election and other important issues. The interview airs today in The Situation Room beginning at 4 p.m. (ET).

Today, Sept. 17: Chris Lawrence has an exclusive interview with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to Iraq, addressing how ready Iraq is to take over its own security and concerns over Iran's influence in the region. The interview airs today throughout CNN’s programming.

Sunday, Sept. 20: John King’s wide-ranging interview with President Barack Obama will air during the 9 a.m. (ET) hour of State of the Union with John King.

Sunday, Sept. 20: In Fareed Zakaria’s exclusive interview with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian president laid out his problems with the U.S. missile defense shield plans. The interview airs on GPS at 1 p.m. (ET).

Monday, Sept. 21: Christiane Amanpour launches Amanpour. on CNN International with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke discussing the issues underlying the powder keg that is Afghanistan -- the war there, the growing power of the Taliban, the fraud charges surrounding the recent election, and the tough road ahead.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

In the wake of its highly acclaimed coverage of the presidential election campaign, CNN is redeploying some of its Washington-based correspondents in preparation for the new Obama administration and the incoming 111th Congress.

“During the election, CNN’s political reporters established themselves as the class of television news, both cable and broadcast,” said David Bohrman, CNN’s senior vice president and D.C. bureau chief. “Now we’re positioning them in key roles that will ensure the most thorough and informative coverage as President Obama and Congress tackle the thorniest problems America has faced in our lifetimes.”

The changes come on the heels of the announcement that CNN’s lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will remain with the network through the next presidential election cycle and chief national correspondent John King will anchor a four-hour programming block on Sundays starting in January.

The noteworthy changes include:
· Ed Henry, who has provided comprehensive coverage of the Obama transition,becomes senior White House correspondent after coveringthe past two years of the George W. Bush White House and spending two years as CNN’s congressional correspondent. Suzanne Malveaux, who distinguished herself with exceptional coverage of the Obama presidential campaign and reported a two-hour documentary on the president-elect, returns to the White House. She will also serve as a primary substitute anchor for The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.Boston bureau chief and correspondent Dan Lothian, who reported extensively from the campaign trail in both 2004 and 2008, will become a White House correspondent as well.
· Dana Bash, who broke numerous exclusives while covering the Republican primaries and the McCain campaign, is named senior congressional correspondent. Bash has covered Congress for nearly a decade and was honored with the prestigious Dirksen Award in 2002. She will be joined on Capitol Hill by Brianna Keilar, who has served as a general assignment correspondent for the network for nearly three years and covered Capitol Hill and the White House during the election campaign.
· Jessica Yellin, one of the standouts of CNN’s presidential campaign coverage, becomes national political correspondent. In addition to The Situation Room, Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull and John King’s Sunday block, Yellin will file daily reports for CNN’s prime-time programming analyzing the most important stories on politics, policy and culture.
· Jill Dougherty is named foreign affairs correspondent. Dougherty,who covered the Clinton White House for CNN and then served as Moscow bureau chief and correspondent and managing editor for Asia/Pacific based in Hong Kong, will track Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton’s stewardship of American foreign policy.
· Correspondent Chris Lawrence, a veteran of the Navy Reserve who has spent four years as a general assignment correspondent in CNN’s Chicago and Los Angeles bureaus, becomes a Pentagon correspondent.
· Zain Verjee becomes news anchor for The Situation Room and will also file special reports for the program. While serving as CNN’s State Department correspondent for the past two years, Verjee traveled with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to more than a dozen countries, including Israel, Libya, Russia and South Korea. She also covered the violent conflicts in Kenya, her native country.
· Elaine Quijano shifts from the White House to general assignment correspondent to cover other Beltway issues while continuing to cover the White House. She will be joined by Kate Bolduan, who has been reporting for the network for months and officiallymoves from CNN’s Newsource affiliate service.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.