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Ted Turner, the combustible and visionary businessman who upended television by creating CNN, the first 24-hour cable news network, and then gave away a fortune to save the planet, died on Wednesday at his home near Tallahassee, Florida. He was 87.
His death was announced by Turner Enterprises, with a statement saying he passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family. Mark Thompson, CNN’s Chairman and CEO, called Turner the “giant on whose shoulders we stand”.
Turner’s life was a classic, improbable American epic. Born Robert Edward Turner III in Cincinnati in 1938, he was sent to military school, got expelled from Brown University, and at age 24, inherited his father’s billboard business in Georgia. In 1970, he bought a failing UHF station, transforming it into a “superstation” that beamed Braves baseball across the nation. But his wildest gamble came on June 1, 1980, when he launched CNN. Experts mocked the “Chicken Noodle Network.” Turner and his scrappy team of young journalists proved them all wrong. CNN’s relentless, live coverage of the 1991 Gulf War turned viewers into “instant witnesses of history,” revolutionizing global news and earning Turner a rare distinction: Time magazine’s Man of the Year.
He was more than a media mogul. Turner was a master of the high seas, skippering his yacht Courageous to victory in the 1977 America's Cup. He was a sports team owner, bringing a World Series title to the Atlanta Braves. He was a trendsetting cattle rancher, building the world’s largest bison herd and selling the meat in his own chain of restaurants, Ted’s Montana Grill. He created the environmental cartoon “Captain Planet” and, in one of the most astonishing gestures in history, he wrote a check for one billion dollars to the United Nations.
That gift, in 1997, launched the UN Foundation. It was not an anonymous donation; it was a brash, public declaration that a private citizen could step in and fund global solutions to the world's most intractable problems, from climate change to the elimination of nuclear weapons. “If I only had a little humility, I’d be perfect,” he famously said.
The Trumpet and the Whispers: Tributes from Wolf Blitzer and the World
Tributes poured in from across the globe, but none were more poignant than from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, whom Turner hired in 1990. On air, Blitzer recalled their final lunch a few months ago. “It was just so painful to see how he had deteriorated,” Blitzer said, his voice thick with emotion. He remembered a vibrant, demanding boss, a man who drilled into his staff that CNN was the “Cable News Network” — “Capital N, capital E, capital W, capital S” — and that news came first.
The Atlanta Braves called him a “brilliant businessman, consummate showman and passionate fan”. Jane Fonda, his ex-wife and lifelong friend, said simply, “I would never love anyone like I love him”. His daughter, Laura Turner Seydel, called her father a “real-life Captain Planet”. In a world often paralyzed by crisis, Turner built a 24-hour newsroom and then handed his fortune to the stewards of the global system. He lived a paradox: a champion of conservation who was one of the largest private landowners in the country; a fierce businessman who gave his empire to his rivals; a high-stakes yachtsman who ultimately anchored his legacy in philanthropy.
The "Mouth of the South," as he was affectionately known, never mellowed into a quiet retirement. In 2018, he revealed he was battling Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurological disorder. The news was a blow, but it also explained his increasing retreat from public life. He was hospitalized for pneumonia in early 2025 before recovering. Even as he faded, his cultural DNA was woven into the very fabric of global society. He leaves behind five children, fourteen grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren; and the most improbable monument of all: a news network that calls the world, every minute of every day, because Ted Turner refused to wait until 11 p.m.
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