Atlanta, GEORGIA – Ted Turner, the visionary media mogul, billionaire philanthropist, and “media maverick” who revolutionized the global news landscape by founding CNN, passed away peacefully on Wednesday. He was 87 years old. Turner Enterprises confirmed that he died surrounded by his family at his home.
Nicknamed “The Mouth of the South,” Turner was a transformative figure in the 20th century. In 1980, he launched CNN, the world’s first 24-hour all-news cable network, famously stating that the channel would not stop broadcasting until the end of the world. His audacity turned viewers in over 150 countries into “instant witnesses of history,” most notably during the live broadcast of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the same year he was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.
Okay News reports that Turner’s impact stretched far beyond the newsroom, encompassing sports, environmental activism, and global diplomacy.
Turner’s career began with his father’s billboard company, which he grew into a massive media empire including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and TCM. He was also the former owner of the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks. In 1996, he sold his company to Time Warner for $7.5 billion (approx. ₦10.3 trillion). Despite losing a significant portion of his fortune during the AOL-Time Warner merger in 2001, he remained a devoted philanthropist, famously pledging $1 billion (₦1.38 trillion) to the United Nations in 1997.
Beyond the screen, Turner was one of the largest landowners in the United States, managing over 2 million acres and the world’s largest private bison herd. His commitment to the environment was immortalized in the Captain Planet cartoon series and his efforts to reintroduce bison to the American West. In his later years, Turner battled Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder he went public with in 2018. He is survived by his five children and a vast legacy of “Absolute Clarity” in global communication.
