The Real Ted Turner Stood Up To Be Counted

Letter to Romans: “This Is Your Life” was a popular 50’s tv show that put a face on celebrities’ “real” personality & history. It was oft heart-wrenching as well as revealing. In that spirit, here’s a memory of the oft-misunderstood Ted Turner based on an interview with me in 1985 …

The subsequent article I wrote for Pioneer Press’ Highland Park news was published February 7, 1985 after Turner gave a stirring & illuminating lecture at Lake Forest College. It was curiously titled, “Making Money Isn’t everything: Turner.” I say “curiously” because reading the obits on the media mogul’s life, the CNN creator & sports owner (and Jane Fonda’s “favorite ex”) is typically described as rich, rich & richer. We’re told everything this “brash” if not ruthless entrepreneur did turned into gold. Yet, even in that interview I found Turner at age 46, to be more of a romantic optimist with a strong dose of common sense accountability in looking at life. He candidly told about his growing “disillusionment with ‘merely making money’” and intention to spend the rest of his life on global issues like nuclear proliferation & world hunger. Turner said he was going to put his fortune where his mouth was & how he was planning a foundation to tackle the crap he saw all around him. In doing so, he said he had come to reject the world’s (and his old man’s) mania for accumulating wealth. [Tho he was skeptical of organized religion & Jane’s embrace of Christianity.]

So, it was with great curiosity (and approval) that I read the WSJ article published May 7 titled, “Ted Turner Used His Media Riches to Become One of America’s Biggest [Philanthropic] Landowners.” The gist of the article may have surprised many, but not me: “The founder of CNN … owned roughly 2 million acres, using the land for conservation & ecotourism.” THAT is the Ted I met one night in 1985, the one who went on to really put his money where his mouth was.

Davd Soul