03-Jun-2005
This was just too good a story not to send out immediately to all of you! It confirms the need for more balanced news, more good news, positive stories, and the poll taken right after this story broke yesterday showed 82 percent said they agreed with what Turner, founder of CNN, said. Enjoy..and email me with your comments. Bill Bailey
Turner Says CNN Should Cover Politics, Environment
Mogul Says Cable Network Too Focused on 'Pervert of the Day'
By KRISTEN WYATT, AP
ATLANTA (June 1) - CNN should cover international news and the environment, not the "pervert of the day," network founder Ted Turner said Wednesday as the first 24-hour news network turned 25.
Turner, an outspoken media mogul who started CNN in 1980 but no longer controls the network, said he envisioned CNN as a place where rapes and murders that dominated local news wouldn't be emphasized, but he's seeing too much of that "trivial news" on the network he created, now second in ratings to Fox News Channel.
"I would like to see us to return to a little more international coverage on the domestic feed and a little more environmental coverage, and, maybe, maybe a little less of the pervert of the day," he said in a speech to CNN employees outside the old Atlanta mansion where the network first aired.
"You know, we have a lot of perverts on today, and I know that, but is that really news? I mean, come on. I guess you've got to cover Michael Jackson, but not three stories about perversion that we do every day as well."
His remarks won applause and laughter from CNN employees, but the moderator for Turner's remarks, CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, said: "But everyone else is doing that. Why do you think it's important not to?"
"Somebody's got to be a serious news person."
-Ted Turner
Turner replied: "Somebody's got to be a serious news person. Somebody's got to be the most respected name in television news, and I wanted that position for CNN.
"I wanted to be The New York Times of the airwaves. Not the New York Post, but The New York Times. And that's what we set out to do, and we did it."
The brash Turner acknowledged that CNN wasn't all highbrow when he was in charge, either. "We followed O.J. Simpson ... It was pretty trivial, but high-interest."
As usual, the 65-year-old Turner made his remarks with a roguish smile.
The media pioneer called CNN his greatest professional achievement.
And at one point he claimed partial credit for ending the Cold War.
Amanpour asked his if he honestly thought he had a hand in it.
"I'm absolutely certain I did," he said.
06/01/05 19:03 EDT
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
