When Ted Turner launched CNN, he envisioned it as a news network that would run 24-7, until the end of time, literally. There were rumors that the network had actually prepared a pre-recorded video in case Doomsday ever happened in our lifetime and it turns out that they really did make one.
The video surfaced today on Jalopnik and shows a military band playing “Nearer My God, to Thee.” That’s the same tune that a group of musicians were reportedly playing when the Titanic went down. The band also performed the National Anthem for the video.
As Mediate notes, Turner himself mentioned the video in a 1988 New Yorker piece.
Jalopnik’s Michael Ballaban wrote that he was an intern for Wolf Blitzer, but never heard about the doomsday video until a college professor of his - who also worked at CNN - told him about it. Then, he found it during a search of CNN’s Newsource archive. It was labeled “TURNER DOOMSDAY VIDEO” and came attached with an ominous note: “[Hold for release] till end of the world confirmed.”
Of course, as Ballaban notes, who would be around at the end of the world to confirm that it was ending? Who would tell that one final CNN employee that it was finally OK to run the video?
Maybe CNN could get another band together to record REM’s “It’s The End of the World” for an updated doomsday video.
image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com