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  "path": "/news/1998097/pioneering-cnn-founder-ted-turner-dead-at-87",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-06T15:21:36.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.dawn.com",
  "tags": [
    "World",
    "suffering"
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  "textContent": "Ted Turner, the flamboyant US entrepreneur who transformed television news with the creation of _CNN_ in 1980, died at the age of 87, the network said on Wednesday.\n\nThe moustached southerner, yachting enthusiast and philanthropist, whose empire also included sports clubs, had been suffering from the degenerative disease Lewy Body Dementia.\n\n_Cable News Network_ upended established broadcasting with its dedication to around-the-clock breaking news and shot to global recognition with its coverage of the Gulf War in 1990-91.\n\n> The 24-hour network was the first in the United States to run non-stop news and quickly built a worldwide footprint.\n\nCorrespondents brought live coverage from major events ranging from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the Chinese crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests.\n\n_CNN’s_ decision to keep reporters in Baghdad amid US bombing on the Iraqi capital cemented the network’s reputation as an indispensable source of breaking news.\n\n“Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognise him and his impact on our lives and the world,” Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of _CNN Worldwide_ , said in a statement.\n\n“He was and always will be the presiding spirit of _CNN_.”\n\nBorn in Cincinnati, Ohio, in November 1938, Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III went to a military boarding school in Tennessee and then attended Brown University but was expelled before graduating.\n\nTurner took over a faltering family advertising business after his father, despondent over financial problems, died by suicide.\n\nAfter buying several radio stations, Turner’s purchase of a struggling Atlanta station in 1970 was his first move into television.\n\nTen years later, that became the flagship of his nationwide Turner Broadcasting System, the profits from which he parlayed into the launch of _CNN_.\n\n_CNN’s_ success inspired the creation of other 24-hour news channels, including _Fox News_ by longtime Turner rival Rupert Murdoch, _MSNBC_ and countless networks worldwide.\n\nTurner’s television empire expanded beyond _CNN_ and included _TBS_ and _TNT_ channels for sports and entertainment, _Turner Classic Movies_ and _Cartoon Network_ , among others.",
  "title": "Pioneering CNN founder Ted Turner dead at 87"
}