Ted Turner, Founder of CNN and TBS, Dies at 87

Ted Turner died Wednesday at the age of 87. The founder of Cable News Network transformed a tiny UHF station, Channel 17 in Atlanta, into CNN, TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. He launched CNN on June 1, 1980, in Atlanta, Georgia, pioneering the modern 24-hour news culture that soon became central to the media landscape.

Turner took over the family billboard company after his father died by suicide. He bought a radio station in Atlanta, Georgia, that became the foundation of the Turner Broadcasting System, or TBS. S.

He owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team, the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and the Atlanta Thrashers ice hockey team. 5 billion acquisition of MGM film studios in 1985. In the 1990s he bought Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema before his company merged with Time Warner.

Beyond business, Turner won the America's Cup in 1977. In 1983 a Murdoch-sponsored yacht collided with his boat in an Australian race. He was married to Jane Fonda from 1991 until 2001 and in 2018 revealed he had Lewy body dementia.

Turner donated $1 billion to the United Nations. He promoted environmental causes, invested in clean energy and became known as a major philanthropist and bison rancher. President Donald Trump paid tribute to Turner as one of the greats of broadcast history and a friend of mine.

Trump said. Mark Thompson, the current CNN CEO and chairman, described Turner as the giant on whose shoulders we stand. Thompson said Turner was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement.

He added that Turner was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Christiane Amanpour wrote on X: "Just remember when giants strode the world. " Mary Alice Williams told the BBC that Turner was a wild man and a go-for-broke idea guy.

She said CNN was founded on the belief that it could connect the whole world so we could all see each other, so we could see that we shared common struggles and we could share practical solutions in the hope that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance at peace in this troubled world.

Walter Isaacson called Turner the most fearless journalist I've ever seen. Isaacson said Turner was fearless when it came to his corporate overlords when Time Warner bought him and fearless when it came to political leaders who tried to push back on him.

Claire Atkinson told BBC Radio 4's Media Show that Turner was a swashbuckling founder of CNN. CNN was initially mocked as the Chicken Noodle Network. The network proved its value with coverage of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986.

It provided live rolling coverage from Iraq during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. President George Bush said he learned more from CNN than he did from the CIA. Joe Klein spent a few months with Turner in 1986 exploring the possibility of ghosting his autobiography.

Klein went hunting, to ball games, and to Moscow with him that year. Fox News was launched in 1996 by Rupert Murdoch.