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Ted Turner has died

cnn.com

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Re: Ted Turner has died

#91

Post by jcgrillo »

paddy_m wrote: post #53

Ted Turner won the America's cup there in 1977. His team named Courageous was legendary. Robbie Doyle was a team member, and got a degree from Harvard in applied physics. In the middle of the trials to see which team would defend the cup for the US, he remade the sails to be more competitive. Doyle went on to found a racing sailmaking company. I used to live in Newport, RI. I love sailing and introducing people to th…

There was recently another good film on Netflix about the Australian victory at the 1983 America's Cup[1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSmns9QWPiE

Re: Ted Turner has died

#92

Post by jcgrillo »

Henchman21 wrote: post #57
deferredgrant wrote: post #52

[flagged]

I'd say it changed it extremely negatively . Before CNN, the news was reported when it happened. AFTER CNN, creating "news" to fill the gaps between news actually worth reporting happened. This was the start of the slippery slope to the news being little more than entertainment.

It seems like a powerful lesson in good intentions and their unintended consequences.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#93

Post by georgemcbay »

john_strinlai wrote: post #47
georgemcbay wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Giving Pledge still exists, but like most philanthropy it has always been more about PR and reputation washing rather than real public good. The majority of people who have died since making the pledge did not meet the terms they agreed to and the vast majority of people still alive who made the pledge are on track to fail to meet the terms as their wealth is growing significantly faster than their charitable don…

> more about PR and reputation washing rather than real public good. there is a parable i cant quite remember, but something along the lines of "the starving kid does not care where the food comes from". that doesn't quite capture it... but in this context: the people receiving the money/help do not care if they got it because of "reputation washing" or "real public good". they get the help in both scenarios, and tha…

> there is a parable i cant quite remember, but something along the lines of "the starving kid does not care where the food comes from".

A lot of the money never goes to the starving kid, it goes into foundations that act more as tax shelters than they do actual charitable organizations.

> who cares whether the billionaire did it because they are truly generous or because they thought "this will look good in the news"?

It matters when the scope of their giving doesn't match the PR-generating pledges they make, which is the real point of my post.

If someone gives their money away to a good cause, I don't care what their real motivation is, but if they say they are going to give >50% of their wealth to charity to generate PR and then they never do that (true for the majority of Giving Pledge pledgers) that is behavior I think it contemptable and worthy of being called out.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#94

Post by john_strinlai »

georgemcbay wrote: post #93
john_strinlai wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> more about PR and reputation washing rather than real public good. there is a parable i cant quite remember, but something along the lines of "the starving kid does not care where the food comes from". that doesn't quite capture it... but in this context: the people receiving the money/help do not care if they got it because of "reputation washing" or "real public good". they get the help in both scenarios, and tha…

> there is a parable i cant quite remember, but something along the lines of "the starving kid does not care where the food comes from". A lot of the money never goes to the starving kid, it goes into foundations that act more as tax shelters than they do actual charitable organizations. > who cares whether the billionaire did it because they are truly generous or because they thought "this will look good in the news…

>A lot of the money never goes to the starving kid, it goes into foundations that act more as tax shelters than they do actual charitable organizations.

this is covered by the "actual, real charities/non-profits/good causes" caveat in my comment.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#95

Post by unselect5917 »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #3

I remember CNN bursting onto the scene. It was revolutionary. Although there was never (even today) enough news to fill a 24hr period. Just endless repeats of the same block of news.

News isn't watched, it's read. There's extraordinary convincing power in having a talking head say things to you. You're way more likely to believe it regardless of truth. It's why they all do it.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#96

Post by fragmede »

PretzelPirate wrote: post #69
mekdoonggi wrote: post #42

Ted Turner owned the largest American Bison herd (~45k animals), supplying meat for his "Ted's Montana Grill" restaurants. I don't know much else about the man, but as a supporter of Bison I can commend that part of his legacy. An impressive vision and execution.

> but as a supporter of Bison If you support Bison, why commend someone who killed them for a profit?

Because the person who killed then for a profit also paid to have them exist, gave them a home and food. In wanting to eat bison meat, he paid to have more bison exist, so there are more bison than if he hadn't killed some of them for eating.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#97

Post by Supermancho »

nikitalita wrote: post #34

It's funny to me that, whenever these uber-rich old ghouls that were widely despised like 40 years ago die, they're remembered fondly, simply because we have much, much worse rich old ghouls now.

Although Ted Turner’s net worth at the time of his death in May 2026 was estimated between $2.2 billion and $2.8 billion, his politics were very progressive.

> In 1996, Turner admitted, "For the 10 years I ran [the team], it was a disaster. ... As I relinquished control of the Braves and gave somebody else the responsibility, it did well."

When's the last time you heard a billionaire say something like that?

> "We're the only first-world country that doesn't have universal healthcare and it's a disgrace."

> Iran's nuclear position: "They're a sovereign state. We have 28,000. Why can't they have 10? We don't say anything about Israel — they've got 100 of them approximately — or India or Pakistan or Russia."

> dubbed opponents of abortion "bozos"

> In 2002, Turner accused Israel of terror

> in 2008, Turner asserted on PBS's Charlie Rose that if steps are not taken to address global warming, most people would die and "the rest of us will be cannibals".

There's more than wikipedia covers, but you get the idea.

Re: Ted Turner has died

#98

Post by Biganon »

foolfoolz wrote: post #44
mekdoonggi wrote: post #42

Ted Turner owned the largest American Bison herd (~45k animals), supplying meat for his "Ted's Montana Grill" restaurants. I don't know much else about the man, but as a supporter of Bison I can commend that part of his legacy. An impressive vision and execution.

how do you own a herd

In order to own your herd, you need to herd your own

Re: Ted Turner has died

#99

Post by mc32 »

superfrank wrote: post #76
lubujackson wrote: post #24

I remember around 2000 I read about how Ted Turner started his empire: he bought podunk local TV stations that had loose contracts with media owners that allowed them to broadcast shows as often as they wanted, with no restrictions. In the those days, local TV stations were broadcast just like radio and so the assumption was the contract only concerned the audience the TV station's antenna could reach. But the contra…

Wow. It wasn't until I read your comment that it clicked that the Turner in Turner Classic Movies is Ted Turner.

There was a bit of a furore when he tried colorizing old B&W movies… imagine if he’d had AI to do colorization, upscaling and sharpening back then!

Guess we’ll still have Ted’s Montana Grills for a while…

Re: Ted Turner has died

#100

Post by [deleted] »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #3

I remember CNN bursting onto the scene. It was revolutionary. Although there was never (even today) enough news to fill a 24hr period. Just endless repeats of the same block of news.

[deleted]
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