Ted Turner – A Good Or Bad Legacy For Cable News?

The recent death of media mogul Ted Turner brought out the accolades for the creator of the first cable news network, aptly titled “CNN.” Thanks to his efforts, from the early 1980s to the present we’ve had access to 24/7 news coverage. There are obvious benefits to the round-the-clock approach these days, since things move at a much faster pace in the 21^st century than in times past. However, the need to fill up a lot of otherwise “dead” space with something provocative has made for a legion of pundits telling very different stories about the same incidents or issues. This leaves the viewing public in confusion, oftentimes wondering how to sort out the “real truth” from the hyperbole or downright falsehoods.

Since Turner was a devout liberal, evidenced by his environmental stances and his inexplicable support of the anti-American United Nations, cable news has, by and large, followed a progressive-leaning model. That is, until Fox News came on the scene in 1996 and later, Newsmax television. It seems that conservatives are always late to the party these days.

Turner’s liberalism was glossed over in several ways, sometimes by him and at times with assistance of his network and other compliant media. For instance, he was an avid sports fan and acquired the Atlanta Braves baseball team shortly after he started making some serious money. He then had the foresight to broadcast Braves games on a cable channel that was available to millions of viewers across the country. Thus, the Braves cultivated fans from all over the map, and their success on the field, both recently and in the 1990s, was a catalyst in creating that fan interest. 

Turner also created a wrestling organization to compete against the other “big boys.” In addition, he had a feel for what TV consumers wanted, and with his TBS and TNT cable “super” stations delivered that programming to them. He also created a movie niche with his Turner Classic Movies, although his colorization of black-and-white classics such as Casablanca was widely panned by industry experts like film critic Roger Ebert. 

All of this business activity and acumen made Turner appear to be as pro-capitalist as one could be. However, his political views contradicted that. Turner advocated for universal health care, was anti-fossil fuels, and opined that solar and wind energy would pick up the slack that those “bad” fuels provided.

One of Turner’s nicknames, which he richly earned, was “Mouth of the South.” Turner once referred to observers of Ash Wednesday as "Jesus freaks", though he later apologized, and called opponents of abortion "bozos.” It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to claim that Turner resembled a left-wing version of Donald Trump. He certainly had the wealth, the ego, the outspokenness, and the influence that a billionaire businessman has, simply due to the huge footprint their wealth leaves on society. He even contemplated a run for president, but his ex-wife, actress and activist Jane Fonda, put the kibosh on that.

Although Turner had his fingers in a lot of pies during his long life, it’s probably a safe bet that he and his fans consider CNN as the crown jewel of his many ventures. CNN has followed an interesting path over almost half a century of its existence. During the 1990s, many on the right derisively called CNN the “Clinton News Network” for its kid-gloves treatment of all things Bill and Hillary. In my opinion, CNN’s slanted coverage of President Clinton’s impeachment, along with the intimidation provided by the insufferable James Carville, cowed special prosecutor Ken Starr and Congressional Republicans from more aggressively pursuing a host of charges against the former president. As a result, the remaining case against Clinton fizzled and had no chance of a conviction in the Senate.

After the Clinton years, CNN, now faced with stiff competition from Fox News and its right-slanted coverage, made a few token efforts toward being a bit more “fair and balanced.” To this day, conservative pundit Scott Jennings, although vastly outnumbered, has a visible perch on CNN panel discussions of current events such as the war in Iran. In President Trump’s public remarks upon Turner’s death, he opined that CNN would not have turned as far left as the successor owners have taken it if Turner were still in charge. Given Turner’s politics, that is debatable. Without doubt, CNN’s version of Trump Derangement Syndrome, although perhaps a tad milder than that of MS-NOW (formerly MSNBC), is still pretty virulent. Ted Turner, as irascible as he could be, would undoubtedly wear the TDS from the network he created with pride.