Media mogul Ted Turner, who pioneered the modern 24-hour news culture when he launched the CNN channel, has died at the age of 87, the network has announced.<\/p>\n
In 1980, Turner launched Cable News Network as the first dedicated rolling news channel, which soon became a central part of the media landscape.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump paid tribute to him as \u201cone of the greats of broadcast history, and a friend of mine\u201d.<\/p>\n
Current CNN CEO and chairman Mark Thompson described Turner as \u201cthe giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognise him and his impact on our lives and the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Thompson said: \u201cTed was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Trump has been a fierce critic of the current CNN, but said of Turner: \u201cWhenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
CNN initially faced scepticism and struggles \u2013 being mocked as the \u201cChicken Noodle Network\u201d in its early years by those who thought it would not succeed.<\/p>\n
But the channel proved its worth by providing speedy and continuous updates of stories like the assassination attempt on US President Ronald Reagan in 1981, and the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986.<\/p>\n
The network truly came of age with its live rolling coverage from Iraq during the 1990-1991 Gulf War.<\/p>\n
President George Bush once said he learned more from CNN than he did from the CIA.<\/p>\n
CNN\u2019s success led other news channels to follow, such as Fox News, launched in 1996 by Turner\u2019s long-time rival Rupert Murdoch.<\/p>\n
But CNN was far from Turner\u2019s only outlet. He began his career by taking over the successful family billboard company when his father took his own life, then bought a radio station in Atlanta, Georgia.<\/p>\n
Within a decade, that station had become the foundation of the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and its boss was one of the biggest media moguls in the US.<\/p>\n
He was also known for his brash personality, which earned him the nicknames \u201cthe Mouth of the South\u201d and \u201cCaptain Outrageous\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
He even lived in CNN\u2019s headquarters for a number of years, often walking around the newsroom in his bath robe, \u201ceager to debate the day\u2019s news\u201d, Thompson said.<\/p>\n
Beyond the media, Turner was a world-class yachtsman, winning the America\u2019s Cup in 1977.\u00a0In 1983, a Murdoch-sponsored yacht collided with Turner\u2019s boat in an Australian race, which led Turner to challenge Murdoch to a fist fight.<\/p>\n
Turner also owned sport properties including\u00a0the Atlanta Braves baseball team, Atlanta Hawks basketball team and Atlanta Thrashers ice hockey team.<\/p>\n
He also became a major philanthropist, donating $1bn to the United Nations and millions more to environmental causes, and promoted and invested in clean energy.<\/p>\n
He was married to actress Jane Fonda from 1991 until 2001.<\/p>\n
In 2018, Turner revealed he had Lewy body dementia, a degenerative nerve disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The post CNN founder Ted Turner dies at 87<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Media mogul Ted Turner, who pioneered the modern 24-hour news culture when he launched the CNN channel, has died at the age of 87, the network has announced. In 1980, Turner launched Cable News Network as the first dedicated rolling news channel, which soon became a central part of the media landscape. US President Donald […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}