JM @jsmurray - Twitter Profile

Ted Turner inherited a billboard company at 24 after his dad killed himself. By the time he died Wednesday at 87, he had founded CNN, built the world's largest bison herd, and handed the United Nations a billion dollars after thinking about it for 48 hours. In September 1997, at a UN dinner in New York, Turner walked to the podium and pledged the billion with no warning. It was one of the biggest charity gifts ever made. The US had fallen behind on its UN dues. The agency was running on fumes. The Foundation he created has since turned that gift into more than $2 billion for global programs. CNN almost died in the crib. It launched June 1, 1980 with 1.7 million subscribers, far short of what it needed to break even. Within months, costs doubled and revenues halved. Turner took new loans at 18% interest. The three big networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) called it the "Chicken Noodle Network" and waited for it to fail. Then the 1991 Gulf War broke out. Bombs started falling on Baghdad on January 17, but other networks lost their feeds within hours. CNN's three had a phone line that held up. They kept broadcasting from a hotel as bombs fell. Turner's instruction to his news chief on the war budget had been four words: "spend whatever it takes." For weeks, CNN was the only network showing the war live. State TV around the world dropped its coverage and rebroadcast CNN's feed. Over a billion people watched. Even the Pentagon got its updates from CNN. CNN was just the start. Turner bought the Atlanta Braves in 1976, put them on his superstation, and beamed baseball into nearly every home in North America years before they became good. The Braves won the World Series in 1995. He won the America's Cup, sailing's biggest trophy, in 1977. He bought MGM in 1986 for $1.5 billion, mostly for the film library that became Turner Classic Movies. He launched TNT and Cartoon Network. He commissioned Captain Planet, a cartoon about superhero environmentalists, to teach kids about pollution. Turner started buying ranches in 1987 and never stopped. He ended up with about 2 million acres, more than three times the size of Rhode Island. The bison herd grew to 51,000 head, the largest privately owned anywhere in the world. He started Ted's Montana Grill, a chain serving bison burgers, so the herds could pay for themselves. He sold his media empire to Time Warner in 1996 for $7.5 billion. The 2001 Time Warner-AOL merger then wiped out about $8 billion of his fortune in 30 months. By his own math, that's a $10 million loss every day for two and a half years. TIME named him Man of the Year in 1991. He once said: "If only I had a little humility, I'd be perfect."

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jsmurray retweeted

Variety

@Variety

about 2 months ago

Jane Fonda pays tribute to her former husband, Ted Turner: “He swept into my life, a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate and I’ve never been the same,” Fonda wrote on Instagram. “He needed me. No one had ever let me know they needed me, and this wasn’t your average human being that needed me, this was the creator of CNN, and Turner Classic Movies, who had won the America’s Cup as the world’s greatest sailor. He had a big life, a brilliant mind and a soaring sense of humor." “He could also take care of me. That was new as well. To be needed and cared for simultaneously is transformative. Ted Turner helped me believe in myself. He gave me confidence. I think I did the same for him, but that’s what women are raised to do. Men like Ted aren’t supposed to express need and vulnerability. That was Ted’s greatest strength, I believe." https://t.co/gcHcWQabGs

Variety's tweet photo. Jane Fonda pays tribute to her former husband, Ted Turner:

“He swept into my life, a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate and I’ve never been the same,” Fonda wrote on Instagram. “He needed me. No one had ever let me know they needed me, and this wasn’t your average human being that needed me, this was the creator of CNN, and Turner Classic Movies, who had won the America’s Cup as the world’s greatest sailor. He had a big life, a brilliant mind and a soaring sense of humor."

“He could also take care of me. That was new as well. To be needed and cared for simultaneously is transformative. Ted Turner helped me believe in myself. He gave me confidence. I think I did the same for him, but that’s what women are raised to do. Men like Ted aren’t supposed to express need and vulnerability. That was Ted’s greatest strength, I believe."

https://t.co/gcHcWQabGs

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JM @jsmurray

2 months ago

@Matt_Pinner Hi baby

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JM @jsmurray

2 months ago

Went to see Raye at the @CocaColaRoxy and the show was amazing but venue is horrible. Unbearably hot inside and people were passing out left and right. Raye and her sisters who opened for her all repeatedly asked for the AC to be turned on and water for attendees. It was awful.

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