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Tribute to CNN's Ted Turner · Mark and Pete

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  Tribute to CNN's Ted Turner. Welcome to Mark and Pete.
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  Yes, Ted Turner. He was the last genuinely
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  swashbuckling media tycoon. Yes, this is Mark and Pete, 2
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  blokes with half an opinion. Now here's our first thought.
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  Cut through business, swashbuckling businessmen are
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  entrepreneurial money machines who are clever and mercurial.
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  They cross swords in the market with every rival and fight for a
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  future and financial survival. Rebellious and ruthless and
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  often rambunctious. Yes, their swagger with swift
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  and work is industrious, flamboyant and daring with every
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  deal to the death. High life highlight stakes to
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  every last living breath. Yes, Ted Turner.
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  Well, it is remarkable, isn't it, that Ted himself pioneered
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  cable TV. He also was the founder back in
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  1980 to actually set up CNN. So, Mr. Pete, I ask you about
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  the media mogul Ted Turner. What do you think of him as an
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  entrepreneur, swashbuckling as he was seen?
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  But his, his legacy that he leaves is quite extraordinary.
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  Yes, it is quite certainly. CNN is a strange beast in
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  itself. I'll come back to that.
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  But yes, he's the swashbuckling bit that we mean is that he took
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  risks as an entrepreneur. And really that's the way that
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  you make money, isn't it? If you're prepared to take a
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  risk, you have the opportunity of making a large amount of
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  money. If you play it, always play it
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  safe, you might make a small amount of money.
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  That's, that's the way it works. That's why some entrepreneurs
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  are able to get startling results.
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  I mean, he, he did some, it wasn't just CNN was he had other
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  media, media outlets that he started those.
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  He would, I believe at one stage he was, I don't know if it's the
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  biggest, well, one of the biggest private land owners over
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  in the US. So he, he, you know, he really,
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  that's maybe overextending, but he really taking a risk in
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  pushing forward in his business, in his business life.
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  And so I think the yes, his legacy is, well, that rather sad
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  to say that CNN has really taken a downturn in quality.
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  It's suffering from what some people call Trump Derangement
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  Syndrome, which has affected its reporting.
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  But it still seems to be in every airport that you go
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  through played as the news, news on their on their TV screen.
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  So it's as a business, I guess it's still doing reasonably
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  well. The listenership may be down,
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  but they're still there. And his legacy, I I think
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  though, is more as one who took risks and started things.
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  It's not necessarily what's left behind.
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  It's the way the that he operated that people remember.
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  Well, what's remarkable is that initially there was a lot of
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  scepticism about CNN when he first started it and he was
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  often mocked as an in quoted grammar, the chicken noodle
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  network as it was often described, which is quite
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  extraordinary really. But of course, this was
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  something that really prospered. And it would be also worth
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  noting that there was an unusual comment by President George
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  Bush, who once said he learnt more from CNN than he did from
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  the CIA. Well, you can interpret that how
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  you wish. But the fact is, is that, you
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  know, for decades for a channel to be able to survive, albeit
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  that, as you say, that it has gone through peaks and troughs.
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  Interestingly, President Trump himself has been a fierce critic
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  of the of the CNN. But he did say of Ted Turner,
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  whenever I needed him, he was there always willing to fight
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  for a good cause. So it is acknowledged that the
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  man behind the channel was somebody who was respected in
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  the industry. And what I think he is also
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  important, he was a risk taker. He was somebody who had
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  forthright views, but he was prepared to do things that maybe
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  others wouldn't. On a personal level, he had a
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  bit of a a turbulent private life.
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  He was actually married to the actress Jane Fonda from between
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  1991 until 2001. But it was and sadly revealed
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  that he did obviously have those personal challenges.
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  But in business, what I would say is he was a visionary.
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  And that's something that you don't always get in today's
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  society, yes. I would say yes, in terms of the
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  legacy of his actual businesses, I was probably a bit of
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  scepticism earlier, but really he he created really didn't he,
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  Cable, cable news, the the sort of 24 hour cycle cable news
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  which is copied by lots of others, but you might say never
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  actually beaten people, big rivals.
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  I mean Fox gets I think more views these days.
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  It changed the whole landscape of media.
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  It's argued that cable news is on its way out and the Internet
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  shows are replacing it, but they haven't done it yet.
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  Cable news is still still going. So yeah, he certainly has
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  changed a whole industry, which, you know, that's quite an
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  extraordinary legacy in itself. Well, what was interesting is,
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  is that one time he used to really sort of reflect on his
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  own persona sometimes and he dubbed himself the mouth of the
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  South and he based the company in Atlanta, not in LA or New
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  York. And he had a vision to bring
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  this 24 hour news to the world. What I do think is, uh,
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  interesting here is, is that when you sort of look at the
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  media landscape, there are some big influences.
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  And of course, we tend to sort of now look at the more social
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  media type of, uh, you know, moguls that are out there.
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  But I, I, I wonder whether really the, the likes of, you
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  know, some of those social media moguls should look back at and
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  thank Ted Turner because really it's the foundation, wasn't it?
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  It was the foundation stone of good media. 24 hours.
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  And I know it's technologically different, but without it, I'm
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  not sure where the media would be today.
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  I think it would be a different landscape.
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  And, and, and if you look at online news channels, they're
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  still covering the same idea that the ongoing news cycle is
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  part of the way that they work as well.
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  That's their milia. And he created that.
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  Yes, technologically the way that you access the media is
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  different, but still it's the concept behind it.
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  That's, I mean, that's changed things.
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  It used to be that news only happened at certain times.
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  And in fact, for some events it, it seemed like they were timed
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  to fit in and sometimes, you know, overtly.
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  So with the Evening News, you know, so that you get reported.
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  Whereas that's all changed now. I mean, people still do change.
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  What they're doing is so as not to affect the markets too much.
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  That's a different matter. But the, the, the idea that news
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  was on a schedule has now changed.
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  You report the news, the news is reported on immediately.
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  And I wonder if he's responsible then for the fall of newspapers,
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  because the the newspapers are always behind with the news
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  after. His. 24 hour news cycle.
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  It's a good point because as you quite rightly say, for centuries
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  the the printed media was very much dominant, but of course
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  obviously it couldn't keep pace with real time.
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  Now obviously with a 24 hour news service, it absolutely to
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  your point certainly caught people's attention both in
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  business and also on consumers. And I think that that is
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  something again, that, you know, we have to sort of look at Ted
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  and sort of see him in a, in a totally different light in this
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  form. And, and I think that from from
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  my point of view, you know, he had an empire basically included
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  organisations like TBSTNT channels, Turner Classic Movies,
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  Cartoon Network, which I know was one of your favourites.
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  And, and when you think about that, that that sort of sort of
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  shows the creativity that sort of came through all of his work.
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  No, I think that the good thing here is, is that we should
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  really be sort of grateful for those.
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  And not many people probably would know the name Ted Turner
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  in the European and Asian markets.
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  But without any doubt, without Ted Turner, I'm not entirely
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  sure that we would really be enjoying the media that we would
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  typically do today. So really, I think we're what
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  we're saying here is this is a great tribute to Ted Turner,
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  swashbuckling businessman. And yeah, for sure, we we thank
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  him for his legacy and we hope that maybe God is looking upon
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  him to tune in for the next version of his
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  entrepreneurialism.