`Me and Ted Against the World,' by Reese Schonfeld; Cliff Street Books.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Reese Schonfeld fears he's being written out of television history.

Schonfeld, with TV maverick R.E. "Ted" Turner, was one of the founding fathers of CNN, overseeing it from before it went on the air in 1980 until he was fired by Turner in 1982.

"CNN is my invention," he said in his new book "Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN" (Cliff Street Books, $26). "I did not invent twenty-four-hour news; a dozen guys thought of that, but I did create `fluid news,' the style that differentiated CNN."

Fluid news, in Schonfeld's view, anticipated stories, followed stories, showed how stories were being covered _ but constantly found ways to surprise viewers. Schonfeld said that instead of telling people what was coming up next, an anchor should say: "I don't know what's coming next. Let's all find out together."

"I wanted producers to grab shows on the fly, to build their news shows while they're on the air," Schonfeld said in his book. "I wanted constant flow." He has even tried to duplicate the process with his book, adding and updating material online at www.meandted.com.

But, he added sadly, "I never got (fluid news) while I was there (at CNN), and after I left, nobody tried."

"Me and Ted Against the World" has two purposes. The first is to re-establish Schonfeld's place in CNN's history. (At a CNN party last year, his name was misspelled on his ID badge.) Moreover, CNN alumni Ed Turner (no relation to Ted) and Peter Arnett are working on a book about CNN and, Schonfeld said in a recent telephone interview, "Ed Turner is no friend of mine."