Ted Turner: I Considered Making HLN A Right-Wing Station

CNN founder Ted Turner revealed that he considered making CNN's sister station, now known as HLN, a right-wing alternative to the original network.

Speaking at a private Atlanta school on Wednesday, Turner said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that even before Fox News was launched in 1996, he thought a right-wing competitor might be the biggest threat to CNN:

Turner even thought about making his Headline News Network into a conservative alternative to CNN before Fox was launched, Turner told a Galloway School audience in Atlanta.

But, he decided against the idea.

"I did not want to rant or rave -- one way or the other," Turner told hundreds of students, teachers and parents.

Even, so Turner said, he did not think the decision not to turn HLN into a conservative outlet was his biggest mistake. That honor went to the distastrous merger between Time Warner and AOL. He said he lost "most of his fortune" in the deal, the AJC reports.