ITV

Tag: Ted Turner

  • Ted turner: The Maverick man

    Ted turner: The Maverick man

    MUMBAI: CNN founder, Ted Turner, is the subject of a 60-minute profile encompassing his remarkable life and achievements. Reported by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, TED TURNER: THE MAVERICK MAN explores his difficult early years, his extraordinary career, his legendary America’s Cup win, Turner’s historic humanitarian and cable television legacies – and everything in between. The documentary will air on Sunday, November 24 at 4.30pm IST.

    Blitzer traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, and outside of Bozeman, Montana – to Turner’s Flying D Ranch – where Turner works to preserve bison and land and water reserves for future generations – for the exclusive profile as Turner approaches his 75th birthday in 2013. During revealing interviews with Blitzer, Turner opens up about his successes and failures, both personal and in business. Intimate interviews with Turner’s five children and key figures in his life, including ex-wife Jane Fonda, President Jimmy Carter, broadcaster Larry King, MLB players Phil Niekro and Dale Murphy, and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, add additional layers to the complex portrait.

    “Ted Turner has done for the broadcast media industry what Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have done for technology and personal communications,” Blitzer said. “From this in-depth look behind Ted’s hard won achievements and biographical challenges, viewers will come to understand the man we know today.”

    The film features first-hand accounts from Turner on founding his first “Super Station” and rapidly transforming that venture into a global media company. Of CNN’s ground-breaking, enterprising broadcast coverage of the 1991 Iraq War, Turner reflected it as still the “greatest scoop in the history of journalism.”

    In the film, Fonda describes her first meeting – and being wooed by – her former husband and describes their enduring friendship and love for one another. Carter describes how Turner hatched the idea to pursue Fonda – during a fly-fishing trip at Turner’s Flying D ranch.

    In addition, Nunn and Turner’s children describe Turner’s environmental passions and the motivation for his historic United Nations Foundation gift and other philanthropies. Murphy and Niekro share memories of Turner’s purchase of the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team – and the team’s triumphant march from last to first place in the League. Exclusive family videos and photos are also included in the hour.

  • Ted Turner bids adieu to Time Warner

    Ted Turner bids adieu to Time Warner

    MUMBAI: For one so flamboyantly outspoken – he once famously challenged nemesis Rupert Murdoch to a face-off in the boxing ring – Ted Turner’s departure from the network he founded was pretty low key.

    There were none of the usual verbal fisticuffs, just a relatively quiet fading away for the maverick “former” media mogul as he bid goodbye on Friday to Time Warner inc, the media behemoth that had swallowed the network he created – CNN.

    The severing of all direct ties to Time Warner was made official Friday after Turner chose not to stand for re-election at the company’s annual meeting.

    Expectedly, the two-hour meeting, held in Atlanta instead of the Time Warner’s headquarters in New York, was underpinned by the recurring theme of Turner’s legacy, which saw more than one senior executive, including chairman and CEO Richard Parsons, giving their eulogies to the now ex-vice chairman.

    The fact that all the paens sung about his “legacy” had nothing more than sentimental value was not lost on anyone, including Turner, who chose not to stay till the end of the meeting and left mid-way through it and headed for his home in upscale Atlanta.

    And he did throw in a not-so-gentle parting shot before he left saying, “I have been with the company and its successors for 35 years now. I just wished that the last five years, I could have made a bigger contribution. I didn’t have that opportunity, unfortunately, but I hung in there as long as the company, I felt, needed me — until the class-action lawsuits and the antitrust problems were resolved.”

    That about summed up the regret that Turner, 67, now officially part of Time Warner’s past, will always carry with him – not to have any say in the world’s first truely global news network CNN. Well maybe he still might. After all he remains the company’s largest individual shareholder.

    But that’s not on his mind at the moment anyway. He has his philanthropic work and he has his restaurant chain – Ted’s Montana Grill that serves bison meat – as his main priorities. Turner is chairman of the United Nations Foundation, which he started with a $1 billion pledge to the agency in 1997, and co-chairs the Nuclear Threat Initiative with former US senator Sam Nunn of Georgia.

    His final words to Time Warner shareholders: “I’ve done my best and, like (famed newsman) Edward R. Murrow said in that great Warner Bros. movie that was just released a month ago, good night and good luck.”

    CNN certainly could use some of that luck as it tries desperately to catch up with Murdoch’s news ratings leader Fox News, which has left Turner’s former network in its wake these past few years.