Ted Turner death: Media icon behind CNN dies at age 87

Turner founded CNN, creating the first 24-hour news channel in 1980
Ted Turner , the media mogul who made billions pioneering modern cable television and later devoted his assets to environmentalism and reviving interest in professional sports, died Wednesday at 87 years old, CNN reported first.

Turner was most well-known for founding CNN, the cable network that altered news forever in 1980 when it established the 24-hour news channel.

But his impact on television extends far beyond CNN – Turner established the concept of “superstation” which allowed local cable television to access a national audience, created the Turner Broadcasting System and launched channels such as TNT, Cartoon Network, TBS and more.

His ambition led him to own the Atlanta Braves and turn it into a national franchise, renewing interest in professional wrestling with the creation of World Championship Wrestling, winning the America’s Cup in yachting and amassing millions of acres of land across several states for preservation.

Married three times, once to actress Jane Fonda, Turner was well-known for making no-filter statements that earned him the nickname “Mouth of the South.” Turner’s outspoken nature sometimes overshadowed his risk-taking business acumen.

He once bragged, “If only I had a little humility, I’d be perfect.”
“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement,” Mark Thompson, the CEO and chairman of CNN, said in a statement.

“He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN.

Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world,” Thompson said.

Turner died after a long battle with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disease, Turner Enterprises said in a statement.

President Donald Trump acknowledged Turner’s death in a statement , claiming the media mogul was “personally devastated” after selling CNN and his other networks to Time Warner in 1996 for $7.5 billion.

“ He founded CNN, sold it, and was personally devastated by the Deal because the new ownership took CNN, his ‘baby,’ and destroyed it,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“It became woke, and everything that he is not all about.

Maybe the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to bring it back to its former credibility and glory.

Regardless, however, one of the Greats of Broadcast History, and a friend of mine.

Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!”
Turner’s signature achievement was creating CNN, the first 24-hour, all-news television network in 1980.

In part, Turner’s own frustration with television news was the instigator.

He often worked past 8 p.m., after the ABC, CBS and NBC nightly newscasts had already gone off the air, and was in bed by the time his local stations did their own newscasts at 11 p.m.

He took a chance by starting the operation sometimes derided as the “chicken noodle network” in the early days of cable television, living in an apartment above its Atlanta office.

“I was going to have to hit hard and move incredibly fast and that’s what we did — move so fast that the (broadcast) networks wouldn’t have the time to respond, because they should have done this, not me,” Turner recalled in a 2016 interview with the Academy of Achievement.

“But they didn’t have the imagination.”
CNN’s breakthrough moment came during the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991.

Most television journalists had fled Baghdad, warned of an imminent American attack.

CNN stayed, capturing arresting images of a war’s outbreak, with anti-aircraft tracers streaking across the sky and correspondents flinching from the concussion of bombs.

Though it created an entirely new standard for cable news, the creation of CNN nearly bankrupted Turner due to its rapid growth and accruing debt.

Eventually, Turner merged his broadcasts with Time Warner in 1996, cementing his status as a giant in the media industry.

"I was gonna go broke if I didn't get things turned around real fast.

But I was able to get it refinanced, without government help, I might add, unlike what's going on today, but we made it.

But by the skin on our chinny chin chin.

And two years later, we made a run at CBS, unsuccessful, but we did take a swing," Turner told CBS News in 2008.

Turner was promised a continued role in CNN after his company’s sale, but was gradually pushed out, much to his regret.

“I made a mistake,” he later said.

“The mistake I made was losing control of the company.”
The same year as the merger, television saw the birth of Fox News Channel and the arrival of a new dominant mogul in cable news, Rupert Murdoch – whom Turner publicly feuded with for years.

Through the years, Turner’s antics occasionally overshadowed his business activities.

Fresh from skippering his boat “Courageous” to the America’s Cup title in 1977, a very inebriated Turner was captured by TV cameras stretched out on the floor at the victory celebration.

Turner managed to insult many with his shoot-from-the-lip style.

An atheist since his only sister died of lupus at age 17, he called Christians “losers” and “Jesus-freaks,” later apologizing for both remarks.

He once suggested in a speech that unemployed Black people be used to haul mobile missiles with ropes “like the Egyptians building the pyramids.” After civil rights leaders demanded an apology, he said he was just joking.

Turner, father of five children, grabbed a leadership role in American philanthropy with his Sept.

18, 1997, pledge to give $1 billion, or $100 million a year for 10 years, to United Nations charities.

Even as Turner’s fortune shrank after the AOL Time Warner merger, he continued giving money to the U.N., calling it the best hope for peace.

Turner is survived by his five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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