Ted Turner, the media pioneer who founded CNN, died Wednesday, a family spokesman confirmed. He was 87.
Turner founded Cable News Network, the first 24-hour, all-news TV network, in 1980. The Ohio-born Atlanta businessman owned sports teams, including the Atlanta Braves, and was a champion yacht racer.
Mark Thompson, CEO of CNN Worldwide, described Turner as an “intensely involved and committed leader” who was “intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement.”
The brash and outspoken businessman 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 hit movie studios.
Beyond the television business, he defended the America’s Cup in yachting for the U.S. in 1977, owned more than 2 million acres of property, and became known as a modern-day philanthropist for donating $1 billion to United Nations charities. Turner, nicknamed “The Mouth of the South,” was married three times, most famously to actor Jane Fonda for 10 years.
But Turner’s legacy is certain to be the creation of CNN, once derided as the “chicken noodle network,” which broke through with the American public for its reporting during the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991.
He was gradually eased out of the business after his company, Turner Broadcasting System, was sold to Time Warner for $7.3 billion in stock in 1996. The same year, Fox News Channel first aired, ushering in a new cable news mogul in Rupert Murdoch.
Shortly after CNN broke the news of Turner’s death, the network’s longtime anchor Wolf Blitzer recalled his close friendship with the outlet’s founder.
Turner, who hired Blitzer in 1990, explained to him that CNN would have influence across the world.
“And that’s why he created CNN International, because he felt — and he was an idealistic guy — he felt that if people all over the world were seeing the same news, maybe the world would be a little bit more peaceful and a little bit better,” Blitzer said. “And that’s why he created CNN International and CNN in the U.S., so that people all over the world would be watching the same news.”
Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s veteran chief international anchor, who was also recruited in the early days of the network, hailed Turner for bringing “unprecedented reporting” to the world.
“Remember when giants strode the world? Ted Turner was a giant,” she said. “He said it like it was and like it is, and we were his willing foot soldiers. And I think he changed not just the world, but all of our lives, too.”
Ron Galella, Ltd. via Getty Images
Speaking at an event in London, Walter Isaacson, the former head of CNN, called Turner “the most fearless journalist I’ve ever seen.”
“He was fearless when it came to his corporate overlords, when Time Warner bought him; he was fearless when it came to political leaders who tried to push back on him,” Isaacson added.
President Donald Trump paid tribute to Turner in a post on Truth Social, calling him “one of the Greats of All Time” before slamming the network because it “became woke” after the Time Warner deal.
The president went on to advocate for Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, who is on the brink of buying CNN as part of a media megadeal, with Trump saying the purchase would bring the network “back to its former credibility and glory.”
