Mike Boettcher, a former CNN correspondent who joined the network shortly after its 1980 launch, remembered Ted Turner as a man whose relentless ambition defied skeptics and reshaped global news. Speaking on NewsNation’s “Jesse Weber Live” Wednesday evening, Boettcher described Turner—who died at 87—as a figure whose “fearless” character was the engine behind the first 24-hour cable news channel.
“Ted was fearless, and I think that was the quality that he had that made CNN happen because he wouldn’t give up,” Boettcher said. He recalled that many dismissed Turner’s vision as reckless, but the media mogul proved them wrong: “People said that Ted was crazy, but he was crazy like a fox. One of the smartest men I ever knew.”
Boettcher, who later served as chief correspondent of CNN’s terrorism investigative unit and now teaches at the University of Oklahoma, also shared a telling anecdote from a trip to Cuba with Turner. The pair visited former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and Boettcher said they engaged in heated geopolitical debates before entering Castro’s office.
“At the end of this trip, we went into Fidel Castro’s office, and Ted wanted to thank him, and Fidel wanted to say goodbye. And we walked into the office and Fidel Castro on this big East German old TV set, there was a snowy signal to CNN,” Boettcher recounted. “And Ted was excited because here was one of the world’s biggest figures watching the network he’d created.”
Turner sold CNN to Time Warner in 1996, a deal that ended his direct control of the network. He later channeled his wealth into philanthropy, founding the Turner Foundation, United Nations Foundation, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative. His environmental efforts included building the world’s largest bison herd on his 2 million acres of land across 28 properties, part of a broader push to repopulate the endangered species.
In 2018, Turner disclosed he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. He was hospitalized for mild pneumonia in 2025 before his death. He is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Current CNN leadership also paid tribute. Mark Thompson, the network’s chair and CEO, said in a statement: “He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.”
President Trump added his own tribute on Truth Social, calling Turner “one of the Greats of All Time” but also blasting the network’s current direction. “He founded CNN, sold it, and was personally devastated by the Deal because the new ownership took CNN, his ‘baby,’ and destroyed it,” Trump wrote. “It became woke, and everything that he is not all about.”
