this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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214
CNN founder Ted Turner, a pioneer of cable TV news, dies at 87 (www.cnn.com)
submitted 3 days ago by TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com to c/news@lemmy.world
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[–] cmbabul@slrpnk.net 75 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Being from the Atlanta area makes my opinion of Ted really complicated, obviously he was a billionaire which is inherently unethical, but he also really helped put Atlanta on the map in the 90s. TBS, the Braves, Captain Planet, TNT, the Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim were all things that directly brought my childhood joy and can trace their origins back to Ted Turner. His contributions to the repopulation of American bison shouldn't be ignored either.

There are no ethical billionaires but I have a difficult time looking at Turner in the same way I do Zuck, Musk, Gates, etc.

Edit: Jesus I forgot WCW, he surely was a man with faults but Ted was the antithesis of Vince McMahon for a period of time. And standing afainst Vince is almost always the morally correct position

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 37 points 3 days ago (2 children)

There are no ethical billionaires but I have a difficult time looking at Turner in the same way I do Zuck, Musk, Gates, etc.

It's funny how people have this intense desire to pigeon hole people into "good" and "bad" categories. To the point where you feel the need to apologize for pointing out good things he's done, because you know people will jump on you for it if you don't.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 24 points 3 days ago

To be fair, I do think disgust or strong dislike is an eminently reasonable baseline to have when the subject is “billionaires”. Exceptions should only be made on a case-by-case basis.

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 days ago

Extreme concentration of wealth is a social problem. It creates opportunities for great harm and few opportunities for anything good to come of it.

[–] DiarrheaSommelier@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

While it's true that there are degrees of awfulness amongst the billionaires, there is no philanthropy sufficient to redeem the extraction and abuse necessary to become one of them. Some are worse, but none are better.

[–] cmbabul@slrpnk.net 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yeah I agree and wasn't trying to make the guy a saint or anything, just trying to add some nuance to the discussion from the impact he had on my life specifically. Although that said, I would probably put Ted on the 'less evil' end of the bell curve of billionaires.

[–] JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Dude your good. People are complicated. Legacies are messy. There's nuance. Its easy to make a blanket statement that "all billionaires are evil"

Its more difficult to reflect and analyze a person or situation and think for yourself and find good, or bad, in something. Don't apologize and don't let Lemmy's hard line lazy ass one liners make you second guess that.

If a time travelers footsteps on a butterfly in the Jurassic can change the sentient race in the future, I figure that a billionaire absent mindedly funding a water well can accidentally bring the next utopia. I'm not holding my breath, but good things tend to ripple outwards.

[–] DiarrheaSommelier@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

For sure, I don't disagree with any of what you said.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Him being responsible for the 24h news cycle negates any good he might have done.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Him being responsible for the 24h news cycle negates any good he might have done.

The 24 hour news cycle already existed on radio before Turner put it on TV. Hearing it on radio was his inspiration for putting it on TV.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

The 24 hour news cycle was more or less inevitable as TV and radio became ubiquitous. I'm honestly surprised it didn't happen back in the 50s and 60s if I'm being honest. Not to absolve Turner of any wrong doing but it was the inevitable end result of how our tech and society progressed.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 36 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I'm probably as environmentally conscious as I am today because of him and Captain Planet. RIP

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 24 points 3 days ago

I'd rather remember him for Turner Classic Movies, which helps preserve and restore so much original creative content, and presents it without commercials.

[–] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Bill Hicks on Ted Turner 1990ish

[–] Jimbabwe@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Weird, I had to switch my location to out of the USA to watch that

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Netherlands works if anybody is cycling through countries.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Pun intended?

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

I just thought people might be spinning their wheels, and the Netherlands was their answer.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Me too.

[–] Throbbing_banjo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Same here. Bill Hicks has been dead for 30+ years now lol who the fuck is the copyright for

[–] couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago

Ted. Turner.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

He might be lucky he didn't have to see this shitshow.

[–] hateisreality@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

You say that, but there is a crazy Internet conspiracy theory that bill Hicks just became Alex Jones... Here

Please note, this is just to amuse yourself, I had to scroll past all the links debunking it to find the old article

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Good.

[–] DiarrheaSommelier@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 days ago

One less billionaire.

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Dicks out for Turner Time.

[–] TootTootComingThru@lemmy.world -1 points 3 days ago

See ya.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world -5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I never understood the idea of calling it cable news?
Radio/TV antenna, Satellite and Cable, are merely different ways of distribution of similar content.
It would be the same as distinguishing papers on weather they are delivered by mail or kiosks.

Now everything is through Internet, so it's even more stupid to separate between them.
I know that it used to be that somethings were legal on cable news that weren't on over the air channels. Which again is also super moronic, and mostly due to childish regulation mostly based on Christian pearl clutching, where seeing a naked person is prohibited, but seeing brutal murders are not, but using a swear word while doing the killing is not?

Well Luckily the influence from USA is diminishing, so hopefully we will have less of such inconsistent idiotic double standards in the future.

[–] TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

because back then, your option for tv was... antenna. Period. Rabbit ears or an aerial on the chimney. (And yes, I am old enough to remember when the fancy tv options were available over an aerial with a motor on it, that you rotated to pick up different regional area broadcasts. Oooh!) If you wanted cable tv, you had to get an actual physical cable run to your house. All the other delivery options have now just sort of glommed on to the term "cable."

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Apparently you fail to get the point. That cable is just a different means to receive similar content. And that different laws for either are nonsensical.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago

They haven't. Cable news is still CNN, Fox, etc. Streaming is streaming. Nobody calls their local broadcast station cable news, even though they likely get it via cable.