They're much more recent than that, dating to about 2017.[0] CNN's main website in 2001 wouldn't have needed a text-only site because it was already so lightweight.[1]

[0] https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/text-only-news-sites...

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20010912003713/http://www.cnn.co...