[deleted]
Ted Turner has died
191–200 of 255 posts
Re: Ted Turner has died
#192This is still my favorite Onion article ever: “Ted Turner Sends Self Back In Time To Prevent AOL Time Warner Merger”
https://theonion.com/ted-turner-sends-self-back-in-time-to-p...
Re: Ted Turner has died
#193It'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.
Besides the questionable ethics of billionaires in general, I'd say Turner's biggest blunder was inventing the 24 hour news cycle, which has since been used to push a lot awful stuff that Ted himself probably found pretty distasteful.
And on the flip side, while Turner was politically progressive, with his personal behavior, he was a hard drinking, loud talking guy who would likely have been villanized by the woke CNN of the early 2020's.
Re: Ted Turner has died
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh my god I finally get a very specific Harvey Birdman joke as a result of this factoid. Fuck me, Phil Ken Sebben as a parody of Ted Turner kinda works .
Incidentally, Turner created Cartoon Network.
That I was aware of. I'm more familiar with his media and wildlife conservation efforts than his business acumen or sports achievements. Captain Planet, Turner Classic Movies, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, etc.
Re: Ted Turner has died
#195Re: Ted Turner has died
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rightfully so if you ask me. Out the gate think about the implications of determining, say, skin color. I’m not saying “under no circumstances should it be done” but I also think people don’t appreciate the importance of the decisions made and the politics/implicit biases under the hood. I’m not even getting in to artistic intent and impact on lighting here either. Colorizing b&w images is still debated to this day.
Eh regarding skin color people don’t care about realism these days. You have historical remakes with totally anachronistic ethnicities in them and “no one” cares. I mean sure, some people do, the same as some people used to complain about overrepresentation of caucasians in some old movies set in what was then called “the orient”. I think the only ones who put up a fight are the Japanese who don’t like their producti…
> Eh regarding skin color people don’t care about realism these days. You have historical remakes with totally anachronistic ethnicities in them and “no one” cares.
This isn't exactly the same thing. Colorizing historical footage decides what the color is. A remake is an interpretation with nowhere near the same claim of accuracy and the audience 100% knows this. The social politics of this are incredibly important.
Re: Ted Turner has died
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also the "T" in TBS, originally WTCG in Atlanta that became "superstation" WTBS (later dropping the leading W). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_TBS_(American_TV_ch...
And WTBS the radio station was also purchased by Ted Turner! It was originally "Tech Broadcasting Service" and run by an MIT student group. For the $50k purchase, the newly-named WMBR purchased a new transmitter. https://wmbr.org/www/history
I never knew this.
Also if you're in the Boston/Cambridge area, WMBR is a fun and weird listen and clearly sounds like college radio when compared to something like WERS.
Re: Ted Turner has died
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say film restoration is what allows old movies to be enjoyed the way they were made.
Colorization does not count as restoration. That's enhancement, at best.
All restoration choices are at least a little bit subjective.
That said, I agree with you!
Re: Ted Turner has died
#199Ted 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.
>as a supporter of Bison... I'm not sure I've run into a 'supporter' of a particular type of bovine before. Why? Bison are surely pretty comparable on a lbs mass to methane released ratio when fed with the same diets that cattle are.
One of the last existent species of North American megafauna!
Re: Ted Turner has died
#200I 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.
I don't think so. In latter decades CNN descended into a spin zone with blatant conflicts-of-interest, such as:
- CNN anchor Suzanne Malveaux was married to Karine Jean-Pierre (Biden's press sec, 2022-5)
- CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour is married to James Rubin, (was Clinton admin asst. secretary of state for public affairs, 1997-2000)
- Jen Psaki's 2017 revolving-door when she was said to be actively shopping herself for a job at CNN while still Obama's WH communications director (no 12-month "cooling-off" period). Left WH 1/2017, joined CNN 2/2017.
- for decades now, CNN seems to function like a retirement home for Clinton-era operatives like James Carville and Donna Brazile. In particular this was a blatant conflict-of-interest in the 2016 primary (Hilary vs Bernie, and the DNC shenanigans). I've seen many bloggers say that TV loves these commentators not because they're that relevant or insightful, but because they steer candidates and their budgets towards big wasteful traditional media spends (and not more targeted internet campaigns, like Obama 2008 or Trump 2016).
- the legendary 2004 takedown of CNN's Crossfire debate show (a younger Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala) by Jon Stewart ("You're on CNN! The show that leads into me is puppets making prank phone calls! What is wrong with you?")
I don't find talking heads persuasive, and one simple antidote is to flick between coverage of the same issue on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, PBS, ABC/NBC/CBS, BBC, DW, RT, foreign channels, etc. to see conflicting narratives, or sometimes conflicting facts.
Maybe the better converse question is: when did CNN stop being any more credible and up-to-the-minute than other news sources (incl. internet ones, or SM)? Maybe late 1990s. Its rise and fall parallel the Clinton admin.