Ted Turner, media tycoon who founded CNN, dies at age 87

U.S. Ted Turner, media tycoon who founded CNN, dies at age 87 By Lee Cowan Lee Cowan National Correspondent, "CBS News Sunday Morning" Lee Cowan is an Emmy-award-winning journalist serving as a national correspondent and substitute anchor for "CBS News Sunday Morning." Read Full Bio Lee Cowan May 6, 2026 / 10:24 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Ted Turner, the media tycoon who founded CNN and led an empire that also included cable channels TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies as well as the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks, has died, CNN reported Wednesday, citing a statement from his company, Turner Enterprises. He was 87.Turner was never a man to shy away from a challenge — on land or sea.He was the skipper who brought the America's Cup yachting trophy back to the U.S. in 1977. He devoted hundreds of thousands of acres of land to save the American bison. He owned the Atlanta Hawks for 19 years and the Atlanta Braves for 20, during which time the Braves won the 1995 World Series. And in 1980, he changed the way we all consumed news with the launch of CNN, the first 24-hour cable news network."I'm a lot of different people, if you don't know that by now," Turner told CBS' "60 Minutes" in 1979. "I'm a multifaceted person. I've got a lot of different personalities. You ought to see me at midnight on a full moon." Ted Turner in a photo from 2008. Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images He was a hard-drinking, cigar-smoking adventurer — with deep pockets."I get thousands, millions and billions mixed up," Turner said during a 2008 "60 Minutes" interview. He was debating with Morley Safer whether he had lost nearly a million dollars a day or $10 million a day for two and a half years as the largest individual shareholder of AOL Time Warner. (It was the latter.) Then the corporate parent of what had been Turner's empire, the media giant was hit hard when the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s.Turner was also known for making off-co...