Ted Turner, the media mogul and CNN founder whom Forbes estimated was worth $2.8 billion at the time of his death, died on Wednesday at 87, according to a release from Turner Enterprises that was first reported by CNN.
Ted Turner founded CNN in 1980. (Photo by Ben Rose/Getty Images for UNICEF)
Getty Images for UNICEF
Turner, whose ventures ranged from co-founding a nonprofit to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons to owning a number of Atlanta sports teams, was likely best known for founding CNN in 1980, the nation’s first 24-hour, all-news cable channel.
Turner’s all-hours approach to CNN, which he considered his “greatest achievement,” revolutionized television news, and he reportedly declared at the network’s founding that CNN “won't be signing off until the world ends.”
Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN, honored Turner as the “presiding spirit of CNN” in a statement Wednesday, calling the late mogul an “intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgment.”
Turner died as the 1,518th-richest person in the world, but for decades he placed on the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America, though his fortune took a tumble after the 2001 Time Warner-AOL merger caused the company’s shares to drop, five years after he sold his Turner Broadcasting company to Time Warner.
Turner, who was known as the “Mouth of the South” for his brash and outspoken personality, previously told Forbes after exiting Time Warner he decided he would dedicate “most of my time to trying to save the world,” embracing philanthropic causes like protecting endangered species, opposing nuclear warfare and donating $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation.
Turner had five children and was married three times, including a decade-long union with actress Jane Fonda, who said in 2018 she would “never love anyone like I love him.”
President Donald Trump called Turner “one of the Greats of Broadcast History, and a friend of mine,” in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday morning, also attacking CNN as “woke” and claiming the network turned into “everything that [Turner] is not all about.”
Turner was worth $2.8 billion at the time of his death, Forbes estimated. He was once worth a lot more—on the Forbes 2001 billionaires list, he placed 35th with an estimated net worth of $8.8 billion—but after the Time Warner-AOL merger and ensuing tumult, his fortune plummeted. After the merger proved disastrous, and a clash with company CEO Gerald Levin led to Turner being demoted to head of cable networks, the value of Turner’s Time Warner stake plunged 80%, Forbes reported in 2011. Turner was the third-largest individual landowner in the United States by the time of his death, with an estimated 2 million acres across Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and New Mexico.
The television mogul was well known for his outspoken personality, earning nicknames including “The Mouth of the South" and “Captain Outrageous.” He famously had a rivalry with fellow media mogul Rupert Murdoch of News Corp, whose Fox News posed a serious challenge to CNN. In 1983, when a Murdoch-funded yacht collided with Turner’s yacht during a race, causing Turner’s boat to sink, Turner reportedly challenged Murdoch to a fist fight. He also vowed to squash Murdoch “like a bug” with the ill-fated Time Warner-AOL merger. In a 2011 interview with Forbes, Turner mocked News Corp’s phone hacking scandal, which shut down Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid and prompted him to testify before Parliament. “My career in broadcasting and media is over, but we didn’t tap into anybody’s wires or anything. We just played by the rules,” Turner said, saying Murdoch is “sure getting into a lot of trouble.” He also made a range of controversial political statements, including calling abortion opponents “bozos” and advocating for global leaders to adopt China’s one-child policy to stop overpopulation. Turner, who lost billions after the Time Warner-AOL merger, joked to Forbes in 2011 that “you can get by on $2 billion,” vowing to pivot to philanthropic efforts. Describing his focus on environmental conservation, he quipped to Forbes, “I like the elephants and the gorillas and everything, too. But I have to say, if I had to pick one species, I’d pick women.”
Murdoch, whom Turner said he had made amends with in a 2019 interview, paid tribute to Turner on Wednesday, calling him a “trailblazer” and a “great American and friend.” “Ted Turner’s vision for 24-hour cable news transformed the media industry and gave viewers everywhere a front seat to witness history unfold,” Murdoch said. David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, called Turner a “visionary, a trailblazer and a foundational force behind many of the brands that are central to Warner Bros. Discovery today” in a memo to staff Wednesday. CNN host Wolf Blitzer announced Turner’s death on air, saying, “We’re all here doing this because of Ted,” whom he called a “legend” who “revolutionized the television business.”
Turner founded CNN because he felt Americans were “so ill-informed,” journalist Lisa Napoli wrote in a book on the creation of the news network. Turner once said he “worked until 7 o’clock, and when I got home the news was over,” saying he “figured there were lots of people like me” who missed television news completely. After pivoting to philanthropy and activism, Turner co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative in 2001 with former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, an organization seeking to de-escalate nuclear threats worldwide. Among his other ventures were the Turner Endangered Species Fund, which focuses on preserving species protected under federal and state endangered species laws, and Turner Enterprises, which manages Turner’s vast swaths of land and the more than 45,000 bison that reside there.
Ted Turner's Plans To Save The World (Forbes)
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