By Desire Emmanuel with Agency Reports
Ted Turner, the media maverick and philanthropist who founded the Cable News Network (CNN), a pioneering 24-hour network that revolutionised television news, died peacefully Wednesday, surrounded by his family, according to a news release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.
Turner launched Cable News Network as the first dedicated rolling news channel, in 1980, which soon became a central part of the media landscape.
“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement,” CNN CEO and chairman, Mark Thompson, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.”
CNN initially struggled, but proved its worth by providing speedy and continuous coverage of stories like the assassination attempt on US President Ronald Reagan in 1981, and the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986.
CNN was far from Turner’s only outlet. He began his career by taking over the successful family billboard company when his father took his own life, then bought a radio station in Atlanta, Georgia.
Within a decade, that station had become the foundation of the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and its boss was one of the United States’ biggest media moguls.
Turner was also an internationally known yachtsman; a philanthropist who founded the United Nations Foundation; an activist who sought the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons; and a conservationist who became one of the foremost landowners in the United States.
He played a crucial role in reintroducing bison to the American west. He even created the Captain Planet cartoon to educate kids about the environment.
But it was his audacious vision to deliver news from around the world in real time, at all hours, that really made him famous – once his idea finally took off.
In 1991, Turner was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year for “influencing the dynamic of events and turning viewers in 150 countries into instant witnesses of history.”
Turner eventually sold his networks to Time Warner and later exited the business, but continued to express pride in CNN, calling it the “greatest achievement” of his life.
