Ted Turner death: Media icon behind CNN dies at age 87

Ted Turner, the brash media mogul who made billions pioneering modern cable television died Wednesday at 87 years old, CNN reported first.

Turner was most well-known for founding CNN, the cable network that altered news forever in 1980 when it established the 24-hour news channel.

But his impact on television extends far beyond CNN – Turner established the concept of “superstation” which allowed local cable television to access a national audience, created the Turner Broadcasting System and launched channels such as TNT, Cartoon Network, TBS and more.

His ambition led him to own the Atlanta Braves and turn it into a national franchise, renewing interest in professional wrestling with the creation of World Championship Wrestling, winning the America’s Cup in yachting and amassing millions of acres of land across several states for preservation.

Married three times, once to actress Jane Fonda, Turner was well-known for making no-filter statements that earned him the nickname “Mouth of the South.” Turner’s outspoken nature sometimes overshadowed his risk-taking business acumen.

He once bragged, “If only I had a little humility, I’d be perfect.”

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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,” Mark Thompson, the CEO and chairman of CNN, 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,” Thompson said.

Turner died after a long battle with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disease, Turner Enterprises said in a statement.

President Donald Trump acknowledged Turner’s death in a statement, claiming the media mogul was “personally devastated” after selling CNN and his other networks to Time Warner in 1996 for $7.5 billion.

“He founded CNN, sold it, and was personally devastated by the Deal because the new ownership took CNN, his ‘baby,’ and destroyed it,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “It became woke, and everything that he is not all about. Maybe the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to bring it back to its former credibility and glory. Regardless, however, one of the Greats of Broadcast History, and a friend of mine. Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!”

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The creation of CNN

Turner’s signature achievement was creating CNN, the first 24-hour, all-news television network in 1980.

The creation of the network stemmed from Turner’s ambition to become successful – particularly after his father’s death by suicide.

After taking on his father’s billboard company, Turner purchased a small Atlanta television station and began transmitting the station to cable systems across the nation via satellite – greatly expanding the channel’s audience.

He took a chance by starting CNN, sometimes derided as the “chicken noodle network” in the early days of cable television. Turner sued the Reagan Administration to gain access to the White House press poll.

"I didn't care what [or] how much adversity life threw at me. I intended to get to the top," he told CBS News in 2008.

CNN’s breakthrough moment came during the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991. Most television journalists had fled Baghdad, warned of an imminent American attack. CNN stayed, capturing arresting images of a war’s outbreak, with anti-aircraft tracers streaking across the sky and correspondents flinching from the concussion of bombs.

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Though it created an entirely new standard for cable news, the creation of CNN nearly bankrupted Turner due to its rapid growth and accruing debt.

"I was gonna go broke if I didn't get things turned around real fast. But I was able to get it refinanced, without government help, I might add, unlike what's going on today, but we made it. But by the skin on our chinny chin chin. And two years later we made a run at CBS, unsuccessful, but we did take a swing," Turner told CBS News.

Eventually, Turner merged his broadcasts with Time Warner in 1996, cementing his status as a giant in the media industry. Although Turner was promised a continued role in CNN after his company’s sale, he was gradually pushed out, much to his regret.

“I made a mistake,” he later said. “The mistake I made was losing control of the company.”

The same year as the merger, television saw the birth of Fox News Channel and the arrival of a new dominant mogul in cable news, Rupert Murdoch – whom Turner publicly feuded with for years.

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‘The Mouth of the South’

Through the years, Turner’s antics and penchant for making brash, controversial statements occasionally overshadowed his professional activities.

He was expelled from Brown University for sneaking a woman into a dorm and, seeking to avoid the Vietnam War draft, joined the Coast Guard because “I liked boats,” as he told the Washington Post.

After winning the America’s Cup in 1977, Turner became inebriated and was captured stretched out on the floor at the victory celebration.

He managed to insult many with his shoot-from-the-lip style. An atheist since his only sister died of lupus at age 17, he called Christians “losers” and “Jesus-freaks,” later apologizing for both remarks.

He once suggested in a speech that unemployed Black people be used to haul mobile missiles with ropes “like the Egyptians building the pyramids.” After civil rights leaders demanded an apology, he said he was just joking.

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Other times, his humor saved him from potentially awkward situations, like when he talked to an audience in Berlin in 1999. “You know, you Germans had a bad century,” Turner said, according to The New Yorker. “You were on the wrong side of two wars. You were the losers. I know what that’s like. When I bought the Atlanta Braves, we couldn’t win, either. You guys can turn it around. You can start making the right choices. If the Atlanta Braves could do it, then Germany can do it.”

Turner, father of five children, grabbed a leadership role in American philanthropy with his Sept. 18, 1997, pledge to give $1 billion, or $100 million a year for 10 years, to United Nations charities. Even as Turner’s fortune shrank after the AOL Time Warner merger, he continued giving money to the U.N., calling it the best hope for peace.

Turner is survived by his five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Robert Edward Turner III was born on November 19, 1938, and died at 87-years-old on May 6, 2026.

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