CNN Says It Has First Drone News Video

CNN's bird's-eye view of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. – the scene of a seminal moment in the civil rights struggle – also represents a seminal moment in newsgathering, the news network said.

The video, which aired on CNN's morning news show New Day March 6, was "the first ever FAA-authorized use of UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone] video for news-gathering," a CNN spokesperson said.

TV news operations had been testing drones for news gathering and, last fall, the FAA approved exemptions to drone regulations that allow TV and film production teams to use the small, unmanned aircraft to get killer shots without endangering any humans.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.