Ted Turner Goes To Town On Time Warner

Interviewed this morning at the Time/Life Building by Time magazine's Josh Tyrangiel, the swashbuckling CNN founder took every opportunity to bash his former company over the head, blasting Gerald Levin and Dick Parsons, excoriating Time and CNN, and comparing the merger of Time Warner and AOL to the development of the atomic bomb in its tragic impact. (Parts of the interview, which was timed to promote Turner's autobiography, will appear in next week's issue of Time and on the magazine's website; it will be awfully interesting to see just which parts.)

Afterward, talking to a group of Time Inc. employees, he said, "It gave me a chance to get a few things off my chest." No kidding.

Some highlights that only could've come from the Mouth of the South:

-Turner, who has lost the vast majority of his fortune and given away most of the rest, said he intends to make fresh billions by investing in clean energy. And what will he do with it? "I might buy Time [Warner] back, because it might be two dollars a share by then. When I left it was eighteen."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Turner, told Wolf that Bush was in so over his head, he was dangerous, no kidding Ted.

[JScott]

Buy it back Ted!!!!!

[truthglow]

PLEASE, and then fire Wolf!

[northstar11]

bercovici

why do you chose to demean turner by refering to him as "the mouth for the south" or did someone just pee in your corn flakes this morning.?

[Paw1]

I think Ted Turner and Ted Nugent should do a talk show together. Heck, neither of them is physically capable of keeping their mouth shut for more than a few minutes at a time. BETTER TED THAN DEAD. A ratings winner on any news channel!

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Turner is a hell of lot smarter than Nugent. If gun happy Nugent wasn't promoting the NRA, he would be doing his own tribute concerts with no audience. He sucked in the 70's, he sucks more now.

[JumpingCholla]

I love Ted Turner. I wish we got to see more of him.

[totalliberal]

How dare he question the brightest members of our society, ......................cow owners.

[EllaBee]

I can't wait to meet him on Friday. He will be speaking to the Atlanta Press Club.

[paulfree17]

I think Ted would be an excellent chairman of the FCC.......

[bored2tears]

The one thing Turner was never able to do was keep his ambitions in check. He lost control of Turner when he overpaid for MGM and had to be bailed out by the big cable MSOs. Had he ascended to the CEO job at Time Warner, I have no doubt he would have been quite enthusaistic about the AOL deal.

A visionary? Yes. A good businessman? Not at all.

[cariintexas]

WHY did you sell CNN Ted? I watched CNN exclusively before Turner sold it and now I do not watch it at all. Wolf Blitzer and Lou Dobbs should get their severance package for Christmas.

[20thcenturykid]

Ted Turner is still the all-time #1 authentic American Hero, bar none, and it's a pity he's not in government, where honest, courageous men are still sorely needed. He's been my idol all my life. Somebody should mention something to Obama about the mistake of taking Levin into his future cabinet.

[behindthescene]

YOU MADE YOUR MONEY...... PLEASE HIRE MORE MINORITIES AT CNN..THE % IS NOT 50/50..

[luckyoldson]

And exactly how would Turner do this hiring?

[KeepMeLearning]

That's what I'd like to know...

[behindthescene]

REDISTRIBUTION TOP TO BOTTOM.....

FUNNY NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT ANYMORE.....

HYPOCRISY LIVES ON....

[behindthescene]

REGARDING PARSONS.....

YOU VOTE FOR REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH I DONT SEE IT CNN....AT ALL

WEALTHY OVERPAID REPORTERS, EXECUTIVES ETC....

HYPOCRISY LIVES ON..

[behindthescene]

THIS WONT POST BUT I TRIED

REDISTRIBUTION....

MAJOR PAY CUTS FOR WEALTHY EXECUTIVES AND REPORTERS....

LEAVES $ TO HIRE MORE STRUGGLING NON CAUCASIANS...

CASE CLOSED..

IF IT WONT HAPPEN..
.
THESE PEOPLE MUST TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...THEY VOTED FOR CHANGE....
HYPOCRISY NEED NOT APPLY.

PEOPLE MUST BOYCOTT.

[GoHabsGo]

Lollie,Imust respectfully diasagree.Your anger towards Chicken News Network is commendable,but misdirected.I believe the anger should be aimed at *reporters*such as Sheep Sh!tzer and Lou Snobbs.I personally believe that Mr.Turner is a decent man.More so than other so-called captains of industry.Other than that I love your postings.Keep them up as I always read what you have to say.

[SlinkyTWF]

CNN's issues are owing to its producers and upper management. Many of the journalists who remain after the post-AOL purge are still very good journalists. But what you see on the air is through the filter of the producers. If it smells, they dealt it.

[SlinkyTWF]

On another flank, Turner actually did care about his employees. He refused to pay them decently, and once famously said that he'd fold the company if they formed a union, but he really did care. When TW instituted their mass lay-off, he lobbied for good severences for them, and fought to keep as many as he could. It really hurt him at a personal level because he had promised to resist post-acquisition lay-offs, and to him, this was a stab in the back of both him and the Turner staff. His "new" position removed the decision-making power on that issue from him.

Another thing Turner did was to be more open to hiring persons right out of school, giving them an opportunity to gain valuable experience in the industry that they would otherwise have not gotten. I am given to understand that this policy ended with the mergers.

Speaking as a former Turner employee who was present at the events.

[zenandpeace]

Having worked at Time Warner for ten plus years, I can tell you that Ted Turner was revered by employees. He's a decent, hard-working man and he really did care about the employees and the company.

What AOL Time Warner did to him was just horrible. Case and Levin plotted against him to get him off the board of directors. Turner is a visionary and wish he would buy the company back 'cause there are some people there that I could do without--bunch of insensitive, bean counters with no vision and no direction.

[KeepMeLearning]

I believe that's how we got Christiane Amanpour, and that was a very, very good thing for journalism.

[elcojonu]

Ted knows life.

[bluevalentine]

Ted, you rock! I've always thought a lot of your honest approach to life. I wish you the best! And Iook forward to reading your autobiography.