Ted Turner dead at 87 as Donald Trump pays touching tribute to CNN founder

Ted Turner, the media mogul who pioneered the modern 24-hour cable news cycle when he founded CNN, has died at the age of 87. Turner died on Wednesday surrounded by his family, according to Turner Enterprises, the company that oversees his vast business interests and investments. In 1980, Turner launched Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour, all-news television network. Reacting to Turner’s death, President Donald Trump - who has been a fierce critic of the current CNN - called him "one of the Greats of All Time". "Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!" Trump wrote on social media. Current CNN CEO and chairman Mark Thompson described him as "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 ". In a statement, Thompson said: "Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement. He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN." Ted Turner created CNN out of frustration with the limitations of traditional television news. He often worked late into the night after national network broadcasts had ended and was already in bed by the time local stations aired their own bulletins. Living in an apartment above CNN's office in Atlanta, he took a chance by launching the network, which was initially mocked as the "chicken noodle network". "I was going to have to hit hard and move incredibly fast and that’s what we did - move so fast that the (broadcast) networks wouldn’t have the time to respond, because they should have done this, not me," Turner recalled in a 2016 interview with the Academy of Achievement. "But they didn’t have the imagination." CNN's defining breakthrough came during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. While many journalists fled Baghdad, CNN’s team remained, delivering live coverage as the conflict began. Viewers around the world watched as anti-aircraft fire lit up the night sky and correspondents reported from the ground. Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav called Turner a visionary and a trailblazer. "Ted’s entrepreneurial spirit, creative ambition and willingness to take risks changed the media industry forever," Zaslav said in a note to employees on Wednesday.