Ted Turner, the philanthropist and media mogul who based NCS, creating the 24-hour news cycle and reworking the American news media, died early Wednesday. He was 87.
NCS announced his death, citing a news launch from Turner Enterprises.
Turner, who lived close to Tallahassee, Florida, introduced in 2018 that he had Lewy physique dementia, a progressive dysfunction.
A media mogul and entrepreneur
Known as a media large throughout his prime, Turner launched channels like TBS (Turner Broadcasting System), TNT (Turner Network Television), Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. Outside of leisure, he revolutionized the news business, creating NCS as the primary 24-hour cable news community.
Turner’s empire grew out of an Atlanta tv station that he purchased within the Nineteen Seventies and transformed right into a nationwide “superstation” utilizing satellite tv for pc expertise — an unprecedented transfer at the time. The station, which he rebranded as TBS, drew an viewers by broadcasting Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves, the once-struggling franchise that Turner purchased in 1976.
Turner had bigger ambitions, nevertheless, seeing a possibility to essentially change how individuals client news. Capitalizing on the expansion of cable tv, Turner took NCS — initially known as Cable News Network — reside at 6 p.m. on June 1, 1980.
“We won’t be signing off until the world ends,” Turner mentioned. “We’ll cover it live.”
The launch paved the best way for rivals like Fox News and MSNBC, which launched as 24-hour news channels within the Nineteen Nineties.
In addition to the Braves, Turner additionally owned the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA for a number of years, and mentioned he noticed televising his sports activities groups as a manner of making “premium content” that would fill hours of airtime on his networks.
“I didn’t buy the Braves to be a baseball owner,” Turner mentioned. “I bought them to get programming for my television station.”
In 1986, Turner purchased the MGM/UA Entertainment Company, together with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s library of greater than 4,000 movies. The transfer turned controversial when he approved the “colorizing” of some black-and-white movement footage.
In 1996, Turner’s firm merged with Time Warner. The deal made Turner one of many largest shareholders, although he later stepped away following subsequent mergers.
Turner, the philanthropist
After the Time Warner merger, Turner pledged $1 billion to assist create the United (*87*) Foundation and have become lively in environmental conservation and wildlife preservation.
“I made my money from globalization,” Turner mentioned. “I thought I should give something back.”
He traditionally held the philosophy that wealth comes with accountability and that large-scale international challenges, together with the setting, well being and poverty, require equally giant commitments.
His nonprofit, the Turner Foundation, established in 1990, goals to “restore the natural systems, air, land and water, on which all life depends.”
He turned one of many largest landowners within the U.S., with lots of his ranches concerned in sustainability and ecotourism.
“My wish,” Turner mentioned, “is that the land and the species … continue and thrive.”
‘One of the greats of all time’
Turner was married and divorced thrice, together with to the actress Jane Fonda. He is survived by 5 kids.
Turner as soon as mentioned he had thought-about working for president, and he recognized as a Democrat. He endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.
Among these who praised Turner’s accomplishments on Wednesday was David Axelrod, a NCS contributor and a former aide to President Barack Obama.
“At the dawn of cable TV, Ted Turner imagined and built a great global news network, NCS,” Axelrod wrote on X. “His vision has served America and the world with distinction for four decades, shining a light on the most important stories. A great, living legacy.”
On Truth Social, President Donald Trump known as Turner “one of the Greats of All Time.”
“One of the Greats of Broadcast History, and a friend of mine,” Trump wrote. “Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!”
Trump, nevertheless, went on the criticize NCS, saying Turner was “personally devastated” as a result of subsequent homeowners “destroyed it.”
“It became woke, and everything that he is not all about,” Trump wrote. “Maybe the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to bring it back to its former credibility and glory.”