Known as ‘The Mouth of the South,’ Ted Turner changed global media forever when he launched CNN in 1980|UN Women|CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The media entrepreneur and businessman, Ted Turner, who transformed television news with the launch of CNN and built one of America’s largest cable empires, died Wednesday. He was 87.

Turner had revealed in 2018 that he was living with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder.

The man who created 24-hour news 
In 1970, he financed the purchase of a struggling Atlanta television station, which he later renamed WTCG and expanded through satellite broadcasting.

Known as “The Mouth of the South,” Turner changed global media forever when he launched CNN in 1980, creating the world’s first 24-hour television news channel. The network revolutionized how audiences consumed breaking news, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the 1991 Gulf War. 

Former President George Bush once famously said he learned more from CNN than from the CIA during the war. In 1991, Time named him “Man of the Year” for reshaping how the world witnessed history.

Building a cable empire
Beyond CNN, Turner expanded aggressively into entertainment and sports. He acquired MGM’s legendary film library and Hanna-Barbera cartoons and turned them into TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies.

In 1996, he merged Turner Broadcasting with Time Warner in a multibillion-dollar deal that reshaped the media industry.

A legacy beyond television
Known for his larger-than-life personality, Turner also owned the Atlanta Braves, won the 1977 America’s Cup yacht race, and became one of America’s biggest landowners (owning an estimated 2 million acres of land) and philanthropists. 

He founded the United Nations Foundation, donated $1 billion to UN causes, and helped restore bison populations across the American West. 

Turner also created the animated environmental series Captain Planet to teach children about protecting the environment.