CBN News

About CBN News

CBN News is the news division of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the journalistic arm of one of the largest Christian television ministries in the world. It provides news from a Christian perspective through television broadcasts, a 24-hour news channel, and a digital operation, with bureaus in Washington, D.C., Jerusalem and the network's Virginia Beach headquarters. Its reporters have held White House credentials since the 1980s, and its staff of about 80 full-time journalists covers American politics, Middle East affairs and global Christian life. The division produces the daily CBN Newswatch, the political talk show Faith Nation, the international program Christian World News, and Jerusalem Dateline from its Middle East bureau. CBN itself was founded by televangelist Pat Robertson in 1960, and its news operation grew into a recognized presence in the Washington press corps. The network's main site is cbn.com.

Founding of the Christian Broadcasting Network

CBN was founded by Pat Robertson in 1960 in Portsmouth, Virginia, where Robertson — newly ordained as a Southern Baptist minister — purchased the license of a defunct UHF station. The station, WYAH-TV, first broadcast on October 1, 1961. Incorporated on January 11, 1960, the network began with nightly half-hour programs funded largely by small donations from individuals and local churches. Robertson's flagship program, The 700 Club, began as a telethon in 1963, when he asked 700 viewers to give $10 a month to support the ministry; it began airing daily in 1966 in a newsmagazine format. On April 29, 1977, CBN launched the CBN Satellite Service, the first satellite television channel in America to connect to cable systems nationwide; it was later renamed the CBN Cable Network and then The Family Channel, which was spun off and sold to News Corporation for $1.9 billion in 1997. In 1980 the company moved its headquarters from Portsmouth to Virginia Beach, where it now sits on a 700-acre campus.

Birth of the News Operation

CBN's news operation took shape in the early 1980s, after President Ronald Reagan's election brought evangelical voters — and the journalists who covered them — into national focus. The division became known as CBN News in 1982, and its reporters secured White House credentials in the 1980s, a standing they have maintained ever since. From the start, the operation was built around Washington coverage: the capital bureau became the nerve center for reporting on Congress, the White House and national politics through an evangelical lens. The 700 Club itself grew increasingly news-oriented, with its first 30 minutes devoted to news and commentary — a format that gave CBN News a daily national platform. Rob Allman serves as the division's news director, overseeing bureaus and programs that reach viewers through broadcast, cable and streaming.

Bureaus in Washington, Jerusalem and Virginia Beach

CBN News is staffed from three principal bureaus: the Washington, D.C. office, the Jerusalem bureau and the Virginia Beach headquarters. The Washington bureau, with its studio, green room and control room, anchors political coverage and produces the network's daily political programming. The Jerusalem bureau, led by Middle East bureau chief Chris Mitchell since August 2000, reports on Israel and the surrounding region, connecting Middle East events to the interests of CBN's global Christian audience. The Virginia Beach headquarters houses the main newsroom and the production facilities for the network's flagship programs. Reporters work in dozens of countries through the network's international bureaus and correspondents, and the division's Washington team joins daily editorial meetings by video conference with the other bureaus — meetings that open with prayer, a reflection of the newsroom's openly Christian identity.

Signature Programs

CBN News produces a lineup of programs that air across its broadcast partners and its own channels. CBN Newswatch is the division's daily newscast, airing weekday mornings with headlines and analysis from the network's bureaus. Christian World News, hosted by George Thomas and Wendy Griffith, reports international stories of importance to the global Christian community, drawing on correspondents from CBN bureaus around the world. Faith Nation is a daily political talk show co-hosted by chief political analyst David Brody and Jenna Browder, with reporting from White House correspondent Ben Kennedy and national security correspondent Erik Rosales. Jerusalem Dateline, hosted by Chris Mitchell, brings news from the Jerusalem bureau. Other programs include Global Lane, international news and commentary from international news director Gary Lane; Studio 5, pop-culture and Christian entertainment news from Efrem Graham; Prayer Link, hosted by Charlene Aaron; On the Homefront, military stories hosted by Erik Rosales; and Healthy Living, hosted by Lori Jonson.

The 700 Club Newswatch Roots

The roots of CBN News run through The 700 Club, whose Newswatch segment became a proving ground for the network's journalists. As early as the mid-1990s, the program's first half hour had the pace and look of the newscasts of the major networks — reporters filing stories on everything from domestic policy to international crises, followed by Robertson's on-camera commentary. The political analyst's role on the program became a platform in its own right, with election-night specials and bold predictions that drew national attention. When Robertson retired as the show's daily host in October 2021, on the sixtieth anniversary of the first telecast, his son Gordon Robertson — who had become CBN's chief executive officer in 2007 — took over the flagship. The Newswatch tradition continues today in both The 700 Club and the standalone CBN Newswatch broadcast.

Launching the CBN News Channel

On October 1, 2018, CBN launched the CBN News Channel, billed as the first 24-hour news channel from a Christian perspective. The channel mixes live and breaking news coverage from the Washington bureau, the Virginia Beach headquarters and bureaus around the world with the network's signature programs: CBN Newswatch in the mornings, Faith Nation, Jerusalem Dateline, Christian World News, Global Lane, Studio 5 and Prayer Link, plus daily episodes of The 700 Club and 700 Club Interactive. The launch positioned CBN News to deliver its reporting in the emerging formats — streaming apps, connected TV and digital platforms — where younger audiences were migrating. The channel is carried on streaming services and through the network's own apps, extending the division's reach beyond its traditional broadcast syndication.

Global Reach and International Reporting

CBN produces programming in more than 70 languages, and its news division draws on bureaus and correspondents in dozens of countries. International editions of The 700 Club — including Club 700 Hoy for Latin America and programs produced by CBN India — carry the network's journalism to audiences across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The Middle East bureau's reporting, led by Mitchell's two decades in Jerusalem, is a particular strength, covering Israeli politics, regional conflicts and the region's Christian communities. CBN's humanitarian arm, Operation Blessing — founded by Robertson in 1978 — also gives the news division access to disaster zones and development projects worldwide, and its correspondents frequently report from the field alongside the relief teams. This combination of ministry infrastructure and journalism makes CBN News one of the most internationally deployed Christian news operations in existence.

Leadership After Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson died on June 8, 2023, at his home in Virginia Beach at the age of 93, ending more than six decades as the public face of the network he founded. Long before his death, he had handed operational leadership to his son Gordon Robertson, who became chief executive officer in 2007 and the daily host of The 700 Club in 2021. The transition was the culmination of a long-planned succession: Gordon had been groomed within the ministry for years, and the network's bureaus, programs and ministries continued without interruption. Robertson's legacy within the news division is the editorial posture he set — reporting from an explicitly Christian worldview on politics, culture and world affairs — and the press infrastructure, including White House credentials and international bureaus, that he built to carry it.

The Broader CBN Ministries

CBN News operates within a ministry empire that extends well beyond broadcasting. Regent University, founded by Robertson in 1977 as CBN University and renamed in 1990, is a private Christian university in Virginia Beach with more than 11,000 students, most of them enrolled online, and a nationally noted influence in law and government. Operation Blessing is an international relief and development organization active in disaster response, clean-water projects and medical missions. The American Center for Law and Justice, based in Washington, D.C., engages in legal advocacy on religious liberty and related issues. Together, these ministries give CBN News a pipeline of stories — from campus life to courtrooms to refugee camps — and a deep bench of expert voices. The network describes itself as reaching 227 nations, making it one of the largest television ministries in the world.

A Distinctive Place in American Media

CBN News occupies a distinctive position in American journalism: a credentialed, bureau-based news operation that is openly and unapologetically Christian. Its reporters cover the same beats as the mainstream press — the White House, Capitol Hill, Jerusalem, breaking news worldwide — but frame their stories for an audience that shares their biblical worldview. Critics have sometimes questioned the line between its journalism and its ministry's advocacy; the division's leaders respond that transparency about perspective is itself a journalistic virtue, and that its reporters apply standard newsgathering practices to their beats. Whatever the debates, the operation's longevity — more than four decades as CBN News — and its expansion into a 24-hour channel testify to a durable audience for faith-framed news. In an era of fragmenting media, it remains one of the most watched Christian news voices in the country.