: [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION May 8, 2026: A previous version of this story incorrectly said that an audio clip of Ted Turner was from a BBC interview. Turner was speaking to Piers Morgan when he was at CNN.]
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CNN founder Ted Turner has died. He was 87 years old. His family had previously announced that he had been diagnosed with a degenerative disease that causes dementia and muscle failure. Turner established the first major U.S. cable superstation, as well as the Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. He was also the owner of sports teams in Atlanta. Later, after finding himself forced to the margins of the businesses that he led and created, he turned his attention and fortune to the world's thorniest challenges. NPR's David Folkenflik has this remembrance.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: You couldn't say Ted Turner ever lacked for brass or chutzpah. Take this line from an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
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TED TURNER: If Alexander the Great could conquer the known world, why couldn't I start CNN?
FOLKENFLIK: Even Oprah had no comeback for that. Turner's late father had built a small fortune in the billboard business but had been plagued by self-doubts. Turner betrayed none of them in 1980 as he launched the Cable News Network, the nation's first, at a converted country club in Atlanta, newly and ambitiously titled CNN's world headquarters.
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TURNER: You can do so much more in 24 hours than you can in 24 minutes.
FOLKENFLIK: Turner was a colorful figure. His outsized southern drawl, his real thin mustache, the sailing competitions. He was sometimes spotted as the owner of the then hapless Atlanta Braves dancing in the stands. And Turner could be audacious closer to home, too. Former CNN news chief Eason Jordan remembers meeting his boss for the first time. Jordan had joined CNN in college a year after its start, and he worked the overnight shift. Two floors above, Turner slept in a Murphy bed in a modest suite.
EASON JORDAN: One morning, he came through with a female mate who was not his wife. It was Raquel Welch. They were both in bathrobes. And Ted was so proud of himself for having such good company that he introduced himself and Raquel Welch to everyone in the newsroom at 4 o'clock in the morning.
FOLKENFLIK: Many people didn't understand what the fuss was all about. Joie Chen was one of them, even in journalism graduate school in 1980. She joined CNN as an international anchor in 1991.
JOIE CHEN: Many people didn't even have cable yet. I didn't have cable growing up. In those early years, you know, CNN was just considered chicken noodle news, and Ted Turner was at first considered just a dilettante.
FOLKENFLIK: Turner could be daring and outright offensive. His exuberance could swing to depression. Turner battled with rival media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, threatened to fight him at least twice. Murdoch's New York Post questioned his sanity. Meanwhile, Turner was friendly with the late Cuban autocrat Fidel Castro. For all his idiosyncrasies, Turner wanted credibility. Again, Eason Jordan.
JORDAN: Look, we were young and at times very shoddy. But we were the only game in town, and we did some extraordinary things.
FOLKENFLIK: And then in 1991, CNN experienced a defining moment, effectively owning television coverage of the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
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BERNARD SHAW: Something is happening outside.
FOLKENFLIK: This is the voice of CNN's lead anchor Bernard Shaw broadcasting live from the Iraqi capital, the only U.S. network able to do so.
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SHAW: Let's describe to our viewers what we're seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated. We're seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky.
FOLKENFLIK: Shaw and Peter Arnett, a Pulitzer-winning war correspondent from Vietnam days, were among those CNN journalists who projected calm professionalism under fire. Suddenly, CNN journalists became famous. But as Joie Chen recalls, that was never Turner's intention.
CHEN: We were always told Ted's mantra was, you are not the star, the news is the star. That's how they were able to pay us less money, I guess.
FOLKENFLIK: Turner made ambitious deals. And he took on lots of debt - investors, too. Rivals were part of larger companies and looking to launch their own cable news channels. It was all too much. Turner sold CNN and everything else to Time Warner. And then Time Warner sold itself to AOL, against his wishes, and Turner was out. The deal was often considered the worst corporate deal of all time. A year later, his marriage to Hollywood star and fitness advocate Jane Fonda, a source of strength, broke up.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're a man used to winning, and you lost Jane. Why wouldn't you...
TURNER: I lost Jane. I lost my job here. I lost my fortune, most of it.
FOLKENFLIK: In this CNN interview with Piers Morgan, Turner demonstrated a resilience.
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TURNER: You carry on. And I found other things to do.
FOLKENFLIK: Away from the business, Turner had been finding other things to do for years.
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TURNER: I'm going to donate $1 billion to the U.N. causes myself and announce it tonight.
FOLKENFLIK: With that billion, he created what's known as the U.N. Foundation. As the years progressed, Turner created the Nuclear Threat Initiative to secure loose nukes from former Soviet republics and gave widely to conservation and anti-global warming efforts. In 2012, Turner explained his approach on - where else? - CNN.
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TURNER: It's so clear that we're programmed and we're born to love and help each other, not to kill each other, destroy each other.
FOLKENFLIK: In his final years, the flamboyant showman retreated from the public eye. Ever direct, he acknowledged his affliction and spent much time riding horses and fishing at his vast properties in Montana.
David Folkenflik, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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