CNN founder Ted Turner, a pioneer of cable TV news, dies at 87

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN US

Updated May 6, 2026, 10:14 AM ET
PUBLISHED May 6, 2026, 10:07 AM ET


Ted Turner, the media maverick and philanthropist who founded CNN, a pioneering 24-hour network that revolutionized television news, died Wednesday, according to a news release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.

The Ohio-born Atlanta businessman, nicknamed “The Mouth of the South” for his outspoken nature, built a media empire that encompassed cable’s first superstation and popular channels for movies and cartoons, plus professional sports teams like the Atlanta Braves.

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.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death

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And it has been destroyed. He had a humble concept of stationing 2 employees (usually a reporter and sound person) in multiple countries, with a sat phone, and broadcast live from around the world.

I remember being on a small cruise boat (with 100 tourists on board) going down the Nile River in Egypt from Luxor to Aswan, watching CNN from the boat's lounge back in 1992.

[AverageOldGuy]

1. Ted Turner dead at 87?

I'm 81 -- slept late, not feeling so hot myself.

[OLDMDDEM]

2. Rest In Peace, Ted.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. ...

...

[question everything]

4. CNN was the one reporting directly from Iraq in the first war there.

RIP

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. He sponsored the Goodwill Games

This was in response to the Olympic boycotts between the US and the USSR back in the eighties.

Wonder what snarky comment the slobfather going to make about him?

[BumRushDaShow]

6. He also helped to repopulate the American Bison (a/k/a Buffalo)

with the largest privately-owned herd in the U.S.

[Bengus81]

8. He bought a failing Ranch is SW Kansas and did just that. That was 25-26 years ago

Still owns it AFAIK..........

[ProfessorGAC]

7. I Credit Turner Greatly For...

...hastening the fall of the USSR.
With tge Superstation & CNN, he demonstrated to the moneyed world that there was profit in satellite television.
Once other outfits adopted his model, there was no way to fully block information about the west filtering into the soviet bloc.
He did it because he saw the money potential, but he accomplished much more than that.

[Polybius]

9. Ugh, this is horrible news

CNN and Headline News Network were never the same without him. RIP Sir.