Billionaire CNN founder dies aged 87
David Bauder
Updated ,first published
Ted Turner, the outspoken television pioneer who created a media empire and transformed the news industry by founding CNN and ushering in the 24-hour cable news cycle, has died at 87.
The father of five died surrounded by his family on Wednesday, according to Turner Enterprises, the company that oversaw his extensive business interests and investments.
Turner’s empire extended far beyond the media; He owned professional sports teams in Atlanta and much of the American West. He also competed on yachts, defending the America’s Cup in 1977.
The United Nations has donated a stunning US$1 billion ($1.4 billion) to charities, fueling conservation efforts.
Turner married three women, most famously actor Jane Fonda, earning the nicknames “Captain Ugly” and “The Mouth of the South.”
He once boasted: “If only I were a little humble, I would be perfect.”
In later years he slowed down due to Lewy body dementia. Since stepping out of the television business, he has focused on philanthropy.
His chatty personality sometimes overshadowed his driven, risk-taking business acumen. By the time he sold the Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner Inc. in a giant media deal in 1996, Turner had transformed his late father’s billboard company into a global conglomerate that included seven major cable networks, three professional sports teams and a pair of popular movie studios.
US President Donald Trump reacted to Turner’s death, calling him “one of the Greatest of All Time”.
“He was there whenever I needed him and was always ready to fight for a good cause!” Trump shared on social media.
The president also took aim at the network’s current owners, saying they “ruined Turner’s baby” and that he hopes subsequent owners can “bring it back to its former glory and credibility.” CNN will soon change hands again, as Trump supporter David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance agreed to buy CNN parent company Warner Bros. earlier this year.
Christian Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor who has been with CNN since 1983, paid tribute to Turner.
“Do you remember when giants roamed the world? Ted Turner was a giant,” he said.
“He told it like it was, and we were his willing foot soldiers. And I think he changed not only the world, but all of our lives.”
Turner’s signature achievement was creating the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour, all-news television network in 1980.
In part, Turner’s disillusionment with television news was provocative. He often operated after 8 p.m., after ABC, CBS and NBC’s nightly news programs went off the air.
He took a chance, starting the operation in the early days of cable television, living in an apartment above the Atlanta office.
CNN’s breakthrough moment came in 1991 during the Gulf War with Iraq. Most television journalists had fled Baghdad, but CNN remained and captured remarkable footage of the outbreak of war.
Following the sale of his company to Time Warner, Turner was promised to continue working at CNN, but unfortunately this promise was gradually rejected.
“The mistake I made was losing control of the company,” he later said.
Turner’s rise from college dropout to media empire
Robert Edward Turner III was born on November 19, 1938, in Cincinnati. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he grew up. After being expelled from Brown University, Turner came to Atlanta to work for his domineering father’s billboard company, Turner Publishing.
Turner took over the company after his father’s suicide in 1963. In 1970 he purchased an independent UHF station that had a weak signal and did not even cover Atlanta.
On December 17, 1976, it began transmitting the station via satellite to cable systems nationwide. It became TBS SuperStation.
TBS’ motley collection of old movies and sitcom reruns was enriched by Turner’s purchase of the baseball team Atlanta Braves. Perennial doormats, the Braves gradually attracted fans across the country with their exposure to super stations.
In the 1980s, Turner went deeply into debt to purchase MGM; This move was again met with skepticism. But the acquisition gave his company a library of older movies that would eventually be transferred to the TNT and Turner Classic Movies networks.
‘The mistake I made was losing control of the company.’
Ted Turner
In his youth, he explained his ambitions: “I used to tell people that I wanted to be the world’s greatest sailor, businessman and lover all at the same time.”
The slim, mustachioed athlete, who was fond of parties and courted beautiful women for most of his life, was married three times. He was married to Fonda from 1991 to 2001. Although they remained friends, Fonda tired of his womanizing and divorced him.
Perhaps Turner’s greatest love was his passion for the land. He purchased millions of acres of ranch land filled with roaming buffalo and was Nebraska’s largest private landowner. Researchers at Texas A&M University noted that a donation of several bulls in 2005 helped increase the genetic diversity of the last herd of southern Plains bison.
In 2023, his net worth was $2.5 billion but he lost this figure Forbes magazine’s ranking of the 400 richest Americans in 2021.
Turner once said, “Look, my life is more of an adventure than a quest to make money.”
Turner managed to insult many with his lip-smacking style. An atheist since his only sister died of lupus at age 17, he called Christians “losers” and “Jesus freaks” and later apologized for both remarks.
Turner took a leadership role in American philanthropy in 1997, pledging to donate US$1 billion to UN charities. He joined former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn to launch the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the threat of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
