TV trailblazer Ted Turner has died at 87 after a career spent changing how the world watched breaking news.
Turner, the bold media mogul behind CNN, built the first 24-hour news network and helped turn cable television into a global force.
The Ohio-born businessman, who became a giant in Atlanta, died on Wednesday, according to Turner Enterprises.
Turner, who was married to Jane Fonda in the 1990s, was known as the “Mouth of the South” for his brash style and fearless comments.
He was the maverick behind some of the 20th century’s biggest TV stations including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies, and helped reintroduce bison to the American West.
He also co-created the 90s animated series Captain Planet to teach kids about conservationism.
‘GREATEST ACHIVEMENT’
But his biggest legacy came in 1980, when he launched CNN and bet that viewers would want news around the clock.
Turner’s vision meant viewers no longer had to wait for the evening news to see major events unfold.
By 1991, Time magazine named him Man of the Year for changing how people around the world witnessed history.
Turner called CNN the “greatest achievement” of his life.
But years after selling the network, Turner openly said he was disappointed with CNN’s direction.
“I think they’re sticking with politics a little too much,” Turner told CBS Sunday Morning.
“They’d do better to have a more balanced agenda.”
Turner said that when he ran CNN, he had access to powerful world leaders because they knew his network shaped global coverage.
“I was even friends with Fidel Castro and Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin — I was friends with all of them,” Turner recalled.
He also spoke about his long rivalry with Rupert Murdoch, who launched Fox News in 1996.
Fox News later beat CNN in the ratings for more than two decades.
Turner said he and Murdoch had a friendly rivalry, but respected each other’s business instincts.
“He envied me because I was ahead of him, a little bit, but not much,” Turner said of Murdoch.
“He was one of the smartest guys in the media business — is one of the smartest.”
His biographer later said Turner had been left deeply unhappy by CNN’s later turmoil.
“When I look at CNN today, I cry for Ted Turner because he’s really unhappy,” Porter Bibb told Fox News Digital in a report published before Warner Bros. Discovery announced the ouster of CNN CEO Chris Licht.
Bibb said Turner was no longer well enough to step back in and fix the network he created.
Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav had picked Licht to replace Jeff Zucker after the longtime CNN chief was forced out over an undisclosed workplace relationship.
He was tasked with pulling CNN away from its left-leaning image while trying to reverse a ratings slump.
But his short run was rocked by backlash over a Donald Trump town hall, low staff morale, and a damaging Atlantic profile before he was fired.
PRESIDENT TRUMP PAYS TRIBUTE
President Donald Trump also pointed to Turner’s pain over CNN as he paid tribute to him on Truth Social.
He praised Turner as one of the biggest names in broadcast history while also taking a swipe at CNN’s later ownership.
“Ted Turner, one of the Greats of All Time, just died,” Trump wrote.
“He founded CNN, sold it, and was personally devastated by the Deal because the new ownership took CNN, his ‘baby,’ and destroyed it.”
Trump claimed the network had changed after Turner left.
The president said he hoped CNN’s new buyers could restore the network.
“Maybe the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to bring it back to its former credibility and glory,” Trump wrote.
“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! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, also paid tribute to the network’s founder after his death.
“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement,” Thompson 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.”
