Ted Turner has Died

[Zincwarrior]

Ted Turner has died. Like the current iteration of CNN or not, but it was truly groundbreaking at the time.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death

CNN founder Ted Turner, a pioneer of cable TV news, dies at 87​

By Brian Stelter and Ann O’Neill
Updated 34 min ago

CNN founder Ted Turner dead at 87
2:25
Ted Turner, the media maverick and philanthropist who founded CNN, a pioneering 24-hour network that revolutionized television news, died peacefully Wednesday, surrounded by his family, according to a news release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.

The Ohio-born Atlanta businessman, nicknamed “The Mouth of the South” for his outspoken nature, built a media empire that encompassed cable’s first superstation and popular channels for movies and cartoons, plus professional sports teams like the Atlanta Braves.

Turner was also an internationally known yachtsman; a philanthropist who founded the United Nations Foundation; an activist who sought the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons; and a conservationist who became one of the foremost landowners in the United States. He played a crucial role in reintroducing bison to the American west. He even created the Captain Planet cartoon to educate kids about the environment.

 

[rosends]

He brought WTBS channel 17 into my life. That introduced me to Georgia Championship Wrestling. The Super Station.

 

[teddyearp]

I miss the old Headline News Network. I miss the days when CNN actually reported news and not opinion pieces disguised as news.

 

[wamose]

I bet a part of Jane Fonda died with him. But you can be sure it wasn't her brain because that died decades ago.

 

[odanny]

He was a good tycoon, he did some good things with his money. Immensely talented and forward thinking, he was a man of many interests.

 

[Meathead]

Ted Turner has died. Like the current iteration of CNN or not, but it was truly groundbreaking at the time.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death

CNN founder Ted Turner, a pioneer of cable TV news, dies at 87​

By Brian Stelter and Ann O’Neill
Updated 34 min ago

CNN founder Ted Turner dead at 87
2:25
Ted Turner, the media maverick and philanthropist who founded CNN, a pioneering 24-hour network that revolutionized television news, died peacefully Wednesday, surrounded by his family, according to a news release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.

The Ohio-born Atlanta businessman, nicknamed “The Mouth of the South” for his outspoken nature, built a media empire that encompassed cable’s first superstation and popular channels for movies and cartoons, plus professional sports teams like the Atlanta Braves.

Turner was also an internationally known yachtsman; a philanthropist who founded the United Nations Foundation; an activist who sought the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons; and a conservationist who became one of the foremost landowners in the United States. He played a crucial role in reintroducing bison to the American west. He even created the Captain Planet cartoon to educate kids about the environment.

Thought he died years ago.

 

[Zincwarrior]

Thought he died years ago.

That does often happen doesn't it.

 

[MarathonMike]

He was a good man who lost most of his wealth with the failed merger of CNN and AOL Time Warner. Afterward he dedicated his life to charity and stayed out of politics. RIP

 

[struth]

Turner will be sadly remembered as a promoter of the Chinese one child policy and wanting to bring that style of govt to the United States

 

[odanny]

As skipper of the yacht Courageous in 1977, Mr. Turner won the America’s Cup, sailing’s most prestigious trophy. He also brought his competitive drive to ownership of the Atlanta Braves, the long-hapless baseball team he bought in 1976. The team rewarded his vigorous support and patience with a World Series victory in 1995 over the Cleveland Indians.

His interests and ambitions seemingly boundless, Mr. Turner became one of the largest private landowners in the Western Hemisphere, and he used his more than 2 million acres, from Montana to Argentina, to preserve endangered flora and fauna. He underwrote foundations that campaigned against nuclear arms proliferation and for such causes as population control, solar energy and debt forgiveness for developing countries.

In 1986, he created the Goodwill Games to foster brotherhood among athletes after the two world superpowers — the United States and Soviet Union — traded boycotts of the Summer Olympics in Moscow (1980) and Los Angeles (1984) during a surge in Cold War tensions. He lavished hundreds of millions of dollars on the venture before it was shuttered in 2001 because of low television ratings.

Years before Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates rose to the top of world philanthropy, Mr. Turner donated $1 billion to start a foundation to support United Nations projects in developing countries.

In business, as in all his undertakings, Mr. Turner cultivated a renegade persona. The bad boy yachtsman, who galled the elite gatekeepers of sailing in New York and Newport, Rhode Island, was also the Atlanta David battling the media Goliaths of New York. “I was cable,” he once quipped, “when cable wasn’t cool.”

 

[Mac-7]

Ted Turner has died. Like the current iteration of CNN or not, but it was truly groundbreaking at the time.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death

CNN founder Ted Turner, a pioneer of cable TV news, dies at 87​

By Brian Stelter and Ann O’Neill
Updated 34 min ago

CNN founder Ted Turner dead at 87
2:25
Ted Turner, the media maverick and philanthropist who founded CNN, a pioneering 24-hour network that revolutionized television news, died peacefully Wednesday, surrounded by his family, according to a news release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.

The Ohio-born Atlanta businessman, nicknamed “The Mouth of the South” for his outspoken nature, built a media empire that encompassed cable’s first superstation and popular channels for movies and cartoons, plus professional sports teams like the Atlanta Braves.

Turner was also an internationally known yachtsman; a philanthropist who founded the United Nations Foundation; an activist who sought the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons; and a conservationist who became one of the foremost landowners in the United States. He played a crucial role in reintroducing bison to the American west. He even created the Captain Planet cartoon to educate kids about the environment.

Mr jane fonda?

I dont care

 

[odanny]

Think of how smart it is to buy up television networks to broadcast games of all the baseball, basketball, and hockey teams that you own.

Making cable a force​

From the start, Mr. Turner showed an insatiable appetite for business and risk. He began to diversify his father’s billboard company by gobbling up advertising competitors in radio and television. He bought Atlanta’s basketball and hockey teams, as well as its baseball franchise, putting himself in debt to have reliable and relatively cheap programming for his TV stations.

In 1976, with rented satellite capacity, he turned a puny Atlanta UHF station into a superstation that would be able to transmit a lineup of old movies, reruns of “Lassie” and “I Love Lucy,” and games played by his sports teams to cable systems across the country. That station, now known as TBS, bolstered the foundation of cable TV when it was desperate for programming to satisfy its monthly subscribers.

Another major gamble came in 1980, with CNN and his move into 24-hour news. He envisioned viewers, long limited to the networks’ half-hour evening newscasts, flocking to wall-to-wall coverage of global events.

 

[Zincwarrior]

Think of how smart it is to buy up television networks to broadcast games of all the baseball, basketball, and hockey teams that you own.

Making cable a force​

Oh man I forgot he did TBS.

 

[odanny]

Oh man I forgot he did TBS.

I remember the early days of cable, no matter when it was you were scrolling through the available channels at the time, there was a good chance you would come across a Braves game. I'm pretty sure he might have been the first to broadcast one baseball team's games into every major market in America.

But he could not make them win. Or interesting to watch.

 

[1srelluc]

He married Jane Fonda....How good could he have been?

 

[marvin martian]

He married Jane Fonda....How good could he have been?

He was also born on third base to rich parents.

 

[TimFitz]

He bequeathed us Turner Classic Movies, which remains my default channel.

 

[Dekster]

Dementia had to be a hell of a sucky hell for him

 

[Robert W]

Ted Turner has died. Like the current iteration of CNN or not, but it was truly groundbreaking at the time.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death

CNN founder Ted Turner, a pioneer of cable TV news, dies at 87​

By Brian Stelter and Ann O’Neill
Updated 34 min ago

CNN founder Ted Turner dead at 87
2:25
Ted Turner, the media maverick and philanthropist who founded CNN, a pioneering 24-hour network that revolutionized television news, died peacefully Wednesday, surrounded by his family, according to a news release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.

The Ohio-born Atlanta businessman, nicknamed “The Mouth of the South” for his outspoken nature, built a media empire that encompassed cable’s first superstation and popular channels for movies and cartoons, plus professional sports teams like the Atlanta Braves.

Turner was also an internationally known yachtsman; a philanthropist who founded the United Nations Foundation; an activist who sought the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons; and a conservationist who became one of the foremost landowners in the United States. He played a crucial role in reintroducing bison to the American west. He even created the Captain Planet cartoon to educate kids about the environment.

I must have done something right since I am also 87 and am healthy.

 

[my2¢]

He brought WTBS channel 17 into my life. That introduced me to Georgia Championship Wrestling. The Super Station.

I remember after the Braves signed Andy Messersmith, Turner had him given jersey #17 with "CHANNEL" in place of his name above it. It took a short while before being told by the muckety-mucks running baseball to knock it off.

Those early days of cable were wild. It introduced me to the Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life as it was being played everywhere on cable because its copyright hadn't been renewed and it had fallen into public domain.

Then from 1977 there was Qube, a two-way cable system tested in Columbus, Ohio that I subscribed to until I packed up and relocated to Arizona. The wackiest thing I experienced there was when they allowed fans at home to call the plays for Columbus' semi-pro football team. Up to that point I hadn't even known Columbus had a semi-pro football team. On offensive we viewers mostly pressed the button for "deep pass", while "blitz" dominated the call on defense. The game didn't go so well for Columbus.

The infancy of cable was quite an era.