Ted Turner, the media tycoon who based CNN and led an empire that additionally included cable channels TBS, TNT and Turner Traditional Motion pictures in addition to the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks, died Wednesday, his firm Turner Enterprises stated in an announcement. He was 87.
The corporate stated Turner died peacefully surrounded by his household after a protracted battle with Lewy physique dementia, a progressive mind dysfunction that he revealed he was combating in 2018. Further particulars about his demise weren’t instantly out there. CNN first reported Turner’s demise.
“Ted was an intensely concerned and dedicated chief, intrepid, fearless and all the time prepared to again a hunch and belief his personal judgement,” CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson stated in an announcement. “He was and all the time would be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the large on whose shoulders we stand, and we’ll all take a second right now to acknowledge him and his affect on our lives and the world.”
President Trump reacted to Turner’s demise on social media, calling him “one of many Greats of Broadcast Historical past, and a buddy of mine.” In the identical submit, Mr. Trump additionally criticized the stewardship of CNN, a frequent goal of the president’s ire, after Turner offered the information outlet.
Turner was by no means a person to draw back from a problem — on land or sea.
He was the skipper who introduced the America’s Cup yachting trophy again to the U.S. in 1977. He devoted lots of of 1000’s of acres of land to avoid wasting the American bison. He owned the Atlanta Hawks for 19 years and the Atlanta Braves for 20, throughout which period the Braves gained the 1995 World Sequence. And in 1980, he modified the way in which all of us consumed information with the launch of CNN, the primary 24-hour cable information community.
“I am quite a lot of totally different individuals, if you do not know that by now,” Turner informed CBS’ “60 Minutes” in 1979. “I am a multifaceted individual. I’ve acquired quite a lot of totally different personalities. You must see me at midnight on a full moon.”
Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle through Getty Photographs
He was a hard-drinking, cigar-smoking adventurer — with deep pockets.
“I get 1000’s, thousands and thousands and billions combined up,” Turner stated throughout a 2008 “60 Minutes” interview. He was debating with Morley Safer whether or not he had misplaced almost one million {dollars} a day or $10 million a day for 2 and a half years as the most important particular person shareholder of AOL Time Warner. (It was the latter.) Then the company mum or dad of what had been Turner’s empire, the media big was hit exhausting when the dot-com bubble burst within the early 2000s.
Turner was additionally recognized for making off-color remarks, incomes him quite a few nicknames, together with the Mouth From The South and Captain Outrageous. He was, for some, as unlikable as he was invincible.
However in 2018, he disclosed to “CBS Sunday Morning” senior contributor Ted Koppel he was combating Lewy physique dementia.
“It is a gentle case of what individuals have as Alzheimer’s,” Turner informed Koppel. “It is just like that, however not almost as dangerous.”
Turner married 3 times, together with his decadelong marriage to actor and activist Jane Fonda from 1991 to 2001. In 2012, Turner informed CNN that Fonda was in all probability the nice love of his life, he hadn’t gotten over her and he doubted he ever would.
“Once you love someone, and you actually love ’em, you by no means cease loving ’em,” he stated.
Turner’s legacy will all the time be paired with CNN, and but the present he appeared most pleased with was the pure habitats he saved by shopping for and defending extra wild acreage than nearly anybody within the U.S.
It is tempting to name him a grasp of his area, however he’d desire caretaker. We do not personal something, he stated, we simply borrow it for some time.
