Media tycoon Ted Turner, founder of CNN, died Wednesday at age 87.
Turner is widely credited with pioneering 24/7 cable news. His death was announced in a statement from Turner Enterprises.
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“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless, and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement,” CNN Worldwide CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement. “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.”
Turner revolutionized news through his creation of the Cable News Network, which provided 24-hour news coverage. To keep up, all his major rivals adopted the model, helping to establish today’s news-saturated environment.
CNN was just one of his many business ventures, however. He also created TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, and other stations watched by millions of homes.
Among the network’s finest hours in the news was the first Gulf War, which began when CNN correspondent Peter Arnett was located within Baghdad, Iraq. The on-the-ground perspective allowed CNN to produce its own independent reports, in contrast to rival networks’ reliance on the U.S. military.
Turner’s investment in 24/7 live news infrastructure allowed CNN to be the most reliable network covering the war. The Gulf War coverage earned CNN a Peabody Award in 1990, which noted the network had “matured from a cable curiosity to become an international service of inestimable importance.”
Turner was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1991.
Turner was also known for his high-profile rivalries with other media figures, most famously Rupert Murdoch. He went so far as to challenge the media mogul to a fist fight over differing positions on the 2003 Iraq War.
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Politically, Turner was notably eclectic, making allies varying from the right-wing John Birch Society to communist dictator Fidel Castro. He variously cast himself as a patriot defending conservative family values on television, and other times as a leading Democratic voice.
Turner had largely withdrawn from the public eye after his 2018 diagnosis of Lewy body dementia.
