Ted Turner

“Ted” Turner (1938- ): Cable News Network

Robert Edward “Ted” Turner is a media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman he is credited with establishing CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel. As a philanthropist, he is known to have given $1 billion to establish the United Nations Foundation to broaden support of the United Nations. Turner began his media empire in 1963, taking over his father’s billboard business and building it into a net worth of $1 million. In 1970, he purchased an Atlanta UHF station and began Turner Broadcasting System. From that came Cable News Network (CNN) in 1980, which covered the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Persian Gulf War. A former owner, he turned the Atlanta Braves into a nationally known franchise. He launched the charitable Goodwill Games to promote peace through sports and reinvented interest in professional wrestling in the late 1990s known as Worldwide Championship.

As a media mogul, Turner founded CNN and TNT (Turner Network Television) in 1988 to gain additional cable channels; Cartoon Network in 1992 in acquiring rights to MGM and Warner Brothers libraries of cartoons and movies; and TCM (Turner Classic Movies) in 1994 devoted to classic movies and several additional entities. In creating CNN, Turner said “We won’t sign off until the world ends.” He is one of the largest landowners in the United States and uses his land for ranches to popularize bison meat. He is a strong proponent of healthcare reform, solar, wind power and geothermal power, reducing the U.S. military budget, global warming, and offshore drilling. He devotes his assets to environmental causes.

Robert Goldberg. Citizen Turner: The Wild Rise of an American Tycoon. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1995.