Ted Turner | 60 Minutes Archive

0:01 60 Minutes rewind.

0:05 Tonight we take another look at the Maverick Ted Turner,

0:08 Captain Outrageous, Terrible Ted, the mouth from the South.

0:13 We've been spending time with him,

0:14 following him around the past couple of months to find

0:16 out what he's up to, what his plans are.

0:19 This television pioneer who created CNN more than 20 years ago.

0:24 Well, he is fascinating as usual, unpredictable as usual.

0:29 He let us know that he didn't much like

0:31 his job as vice chairman at AOL Time Warner,

0:34 but he didn't give us a clue that he was going to resign from that job,

0:37 which he did last week.

0:39 We talked with him again yesterday, and you'll hear more about that later.

0:42 First, come with us now as we walk with Ted on a Manhattan sidewalk outside AOL

0:49 Time Warner headquarters and begin to learn what

0:52 has been churning in Ted Turner's always volatile mind.

0:57 They've not iced you here.

1:01 Iced me?

1:01 Yeah, iced you.

1:02 What's that mean?

1:03 I know what icing the puck is, but you mean put me on ice?

1:09 Yeah.

1:07 No, I'm not I'm not uh out.

1:09 I have uh one foot in the door and one on the sidewalk.

1:15 See, here we we're welcome to go in.

1:17 Though, as we said, he resigned last week,

1:20 Ted Turner still holds the title of vice chairman, and he will until May.

1:25 as a vice chairman here at AOL.

1:28 What does that mean?

1:28 What what is your job?

1:31 Uh vice chairman is uh is is is is kind of a title without portfolio.

1:39 Title without meaning,

1:40 right?

1:40 Like the emperor of Japan.

1:42 He's in charge of just about nothing.

1:44 He doesn't even have a voice anymore about the running of his baby CNN.

1:48 He says his formal role has been that of advisor,

1:52 but it's not really what he wants to be.

1:54 I'm trying to be as good at I'm trying to play the role

1:56 that I've been uh that I've been given as as good as I can.

2:00 But you're the guy who said and I'm on the board of directors.

2:02 So they pay attention to you.

2:04 Well, they do.

2:05 Yes.

2:06 As much as you'd like.

2:08 No.

2:09 [applause]

2:10 Back when the plan to merge Time Warner with AOL was first announced.

2:14 Ted voted for it with unbridled joy.

2:17 And uh I I did it with uh with as much or more excitement and enthusiasm

2:23 as I did on that night when I first made love some 42 years ago.

2:27 It was well, you know, on the eve of something like that.

2:32 It was very clear that uh that it was going to go through,

2:35 so I might as well have gone along with it.

2:37 And it was a big mistake.

2:38 That was absolutely.

2:40 When the merger was announced, stock prices soared,

2:43 giving Ted, the largest individual shareholder, billions.

2:47 But since then, AOL Time Warner stock has gone south.

2:51 Way south.

2:52 How much did you lose from AOL Time Warner?

2:56 I don't From the high to the low.

2:58 Yeah.

2:59 7 or 8 billion.

3:01 How did things get so bad?

3:02 Well, it's been a long road and 60 Minutes has been there for much of the ride.

3:08 Back in 1977, we first met the young Ted Turner on 60

3:12 Minutes when he sailed the courageous to victory in the America's Cup race.

3:16 Ah, you know, it's just another sailboat race.

3:20 And then he had a little too much victory punch.

3:23 But the yachtsman, Playboy, Bad Boy,

3:26 was already on his way in large part due to his father,

3:30 who ran a successful billboard company,

3:32 but who was tortured by depression and tough on his son Ted.

3:37 I do not think my father was abusive.

3:39 My father was a strict disciplinarian, but he and I were extremely close.

3:43 He used to beat you with a wire hanger.

3:45 With a wire coat, he did.

3:46 He did several times.

3:48 And then the story goes that he made you beat him.

3:53 He did.

3:53 He made me uh spank him one night and uh that was very very hard.

3:58 And I I was easier it was uh much easier to be spanked than spank your father.

4:05 Then when Ted was 24, his father committed suicide.

4:08 And that is when Turner swung into high

4:10 gear as an entrepreneur and budding tycoon.

4:15 By 1979, when my colleague Harry Reinzner talked with him,

4:18 Ted had already created the nation's first TV super station.

4:22 Wayne, what do you think of this team?

4:24 I like every one of them.

4:25 And he was the owner of the Atlanta Braves baseball team.

4:28 And then the very next year, 1980, he launched CNN.

4:33 This is CNN.

4:35 It was dubbed the Chicken Noodle Network back then,

4:38 but as CNN began to show it was a serious news operation,

4:41 Turner's appetite got even bigger.

4:44 In 1986, when Diane Sawyer interviewed him for 60 Minutes,

4:48 Ted had just lost his bid to take over this network CBS.

4:54 Along the way, of course,

4:55 there was his personal life, and that was another story.

4:59 Turner has been married and divorced three times,

5:02 most recently to Jane Fonda, to whom he remains deeply loyal.

5:08 I read something Jane Fonda had said about him.

5:10 She has said with all the love in the world,

5:14 she says he has been severely hauntingly traumatized.

5:20 He always thinks something is to be pulled

5:22 out from him with reference to your dad.

5:25 Maybe he has no belief in permanency, stability.

5:30 It is one reason I'm not with him.

5:34 I'm sure that she feels that way.

5:36 She's told me that.

5:39 Um I I I I I wouldn't say that I agree with that completely.

5:44 I know uh that I that I have some insecurity uh problems.

5:50 Most overachievers do that.

5:51 I've had But he's had other problems.

5:53 problems that earned him those names.

5:55 Captain Outrageous, Terrible Ted, and Mouth from the South.

5:59 Much of it because he says what's on his mind.

6:02 And you never know what that's going to be.

6:04 And sometimes neither does he.

6:07 And I get in trouble because, you know,

6:10 when you're when you're speaking off the cuff and you don't

6:12 aren't positive what you're going to say till you say it,

6:15 you say things that u taken out of context uh look pretty outrageous sometimes.

6:22 Like the time he took a swipe at religion or one particular religion.

6:26 Christianity is for losers.

6:29 Terrible statement.

6:30 I I I I really regretted regretted that uh

6:35 from the time that it came out of my big fat mouth.

6:38 I believe that you should live by your word.

6:42 And there were others like when he gave

6:44 a speech some months after the World Trade Center disaster.

6:47 Look, after 9/11, you said in a speech, "Oh my god,

6:51 what was on your mind?" And some had a problem with it and you apologized after.

6:56 We all expressed regret for it.

6:59 But let me let me repeat what you said.

7:02 Okay, go ahead.

7:04 The 19 young men who blew themselves up going in the trade center

7:08 that our administration called cowards.

7:10 I mean, how are you a coward when you're willing to die for your country?

7:13 I mean, I think they were brave at very

7:15 least cuz I'm not going to fly my airplane.

7:17 I got brave was a bad was a bad word.

7:20 But I do not think because I I know for instance,

7:22 my father committed suicide and he was not a coward.

7:26 He was very brave when he shot himself in my in my opinion.

7:29 So I' I've that's why to a degree I said that.

7:33 Nonetheless, he regrets he said it.

7:35 A lot of times what you have in your mind is best left unsaid.

7:40 Particularly if you're trying to be diplomatic.

7:42 Trying to be diplomatic.

7:44 Ted Turner.

7:44 I try and be diplomatic.

7:45 I really do.

7:46 Maybe I didn't when I was younger, but I'm certainly trying now because I,

7:50 you know, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

7:56 But that's not really true.

7:57 Words can hurt somebody.

7:59 But sometimes Ted Turner's words can have a distinctly different effect.

8:03 And at a recent UN lunchon honoring him,

8:05 he recounted the events that led up to a speech he made back in 1997.

8:10 A speech that stunned the audience and even Ted Turner.

8:14 I got a letter saying that I was going to be

8:16 honored by the United Nations Association as their man of the year.

8:20 And I thought, well, what am I going to say?

8:21 Because I had to make a little speech.

8:23 What am I going to say?

8:24 you know, say something significant.

8:27 What could you say that's significant?

8:28 [laughter] UN doesn't have any money.

8:31 You know, the US won't pay.

8:32 I said, "Give them some money.

8:34 Give them a lot of money." I said, "How much you going to give him?" I said,

8:37 "We got to, you know, he's got to get in the newspaper.

8:40 It's got to be a big figure.

8:41 How about a how about a billion?" You know, I mean,

8:45 and so the mouth from the South had put his money where his mouth is.

8:48 He pledged $1 billion to the United

8:50 Nations through a foundation he would create.

8:54 And then the next really incredible thing is we

8:57 had to come up with a name for this foundation.

9:01 And I'm good at names.

9:02 I came up with the name Goodwill Games.

9:03 You know, my buddies are Russians.

9:05 We call me buddies.

9:06 You know, we had a lot of fun.

9:07 Anyway, you know, so I I I said,

9:10 "What is the name?" And there was one name that just spouted out.

9:13 I said, "The United Nations Foundation." I said, 'But wow,

9:19 the United Nations will have to let us use their name.

9:24 What happens if I turn out to be a jerk?

9:27 You know what?

9:28 Can you imagine the United Nations at war

9:31 with the United Nations Foundation with that name?

9:33 I mean, really.

9:34 So, I came to Kobe said, "Would you let us use your name?" He said,

9:37 "We got to look at that carefully." He said, "Turner,

9:40 you're not going to embarrass us, are you?" I said, "I sure hope not.

9:43 You know, I I I don't intend to." and and they approve that.

9:49 Ted pledged that billion dollars over 10 years,

9:51 but since the collapse of his AOL Time Warner stock,

9:54 he's extended that payout period,

9:56 but he insists he is committed to pay every dollar of it.

10:00 Beyond that, he's also committed to fighting

10:02 the use of weapons of mass destruction.

10:05 He created and backrolled something called

10:08 the nuclear threat initiative for that purpose.

10:11 You're trying to save the environment,

10:13 trying to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.

10:16 A billion dollars for the United Nations

10:19 through your UN Foundation to relieve poverty,

10:21 to stop war, cures diseases.

10:25 It sounds like a one-man mission to cure the world.

10:28 Well, I wouldn't say a one-man mission to cure the world.

10:30 That's but but but basically uh I I I do feel

10:35 the the world and life have been mighty good to me.

10:38 I want to put something back.

10:39 So the satisfaction that you get personally from this philanthropy,

10:44 from this giant philanthropy,

10:47 I I I do it because I feel like it's the right thing to do.

10:50 But still, he hasn't given up entrepreneurship.

10:53 There's Ted Turner, the land baron, who owns nearly 2 million acres,

10:57 more land than the state of Delaware.

10:59 And there's the restaurant,

11:01 who's opened a chain of Ted's Montana Grill restaurants.

11:06 and Ted Turner Pictures, which recently bankrolled Gods and Generals,

11:09 a Civil War movie premiering next week.

11:12 And incidentally, when you cough up the cash,

11:14 as he did, you get yourself a cameo appearance.

11:17 We owe you Texas boys a debt of gratitude for putting on these shows.

11:21 But at the end of the day, what Turner is proudest of is the same

11:25 thing he's lost control of, his beloved CNN.

11:29 Incidentally, just yesterday,

11:30 Turner told me he is against a merger between CNN and ABC News.

11:36 Too many problems, he says.

11:38 When you look at CNN today, if you were still running it, what would you change?

11:44 Well, I don't think that's fair.

11:47 Sure.

11:47 I don't know, it's not.

11:47 I And I'm not going to uh Is there too much talk and not enough news?

11:52 I'm not I I think basically that CNN is doing a pretty good job.

11:57 I mean, there are some things obviously that I don't like,

11:59 but I'm old old fuddy duddy that uh that it reported to for 22 or 23 years.

12:06 So, I mean, obviously any changes are going

12:09 to be something that are some give me some trouble.

12:13 But, you know, that's just the way old folks are.

12:15 That's why every now and then it's a good thing for older people

12:18 to to step aside and let younger people uh run these things and move on to

12:24 Is that aimed at me?

12:25 No, not necessarily.

12:27 [laughter] He and I took a walk over to CNN's

12:30 glass enclosed street level studio here in New York City.

12:34 Come on.

12:34 And got it.

12:36 You're on the outside looking in at CNN.

12:42 Yes, we are.

12:43 Can you imagine?

12:48 And before we knew it, we were briefly on CNN ourselves.

12:52 Then outside the window you have Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes.

12:55 Oh, and Ted Turner.

12:56 And Ted Turner.

12:57 Wow.

12:58 What do you feel about looking in at CNN?

13:00 It's difficult, but uh you know, you can't live in the past.

13:05 You've got to live in the present and the future.

13:08 And I've got plenty to do.

13:10 When the name Ted Turner is mentioned,

13:12 every time people say CNN, you're the guy who started this.

13:16 You're the guy.

13:17 Don't forget the Cartoon Network.

13:19 [laughter] But the viewership of it is twice what CNN's viewership really is.

13:23 Yeah.

13:24 All right.

13:24 Shall we go in?

13:25 Sure.

13:25 Absolutely.

13:27 If they'll let us.

13:28 All right.

13:28 The boss is here.

13:30 No, I'm not.

13:32 The boss is not here.

13:34 The founder is here.

13:35 And of course, he was greeted warmly.

13:38 Great.

13:38 Thanks for stopping by.

13:39 Good to see you.

13:40 Thank you very much.

13:40 Nice to see you.

13:42 But as we left CNN, walking over to AOL Time Warner's headquarters,

13:47 it became a stroll down memory lane for Turner.

13:51 Isn't that the old CBS building right there?

13:53 That's right.

13:54 You know, I used to sing when I walked by.

13:56 This nearly was mine.

13:59 [laughter] I had all three of the networks bought at one time or another.

14:04 Of course, he never did acquire any of major networks.

14:07 And now at the age of 64 and you're in good shape.

14:11 Yes.

14:12 What do you want your life to be?

14:14 Well, I want it to be varied.

14:15 I want it to be interesting.

14:17 I want it to be exciting.

14:18 I want it to be challenging.

14:20 And I want it to be fun.

14:21 And when it all ends, well, Ted Turner has a plan for that, too.

14:26 I know what I'm having them put on my tombstone.

14:30 I have nothing more to say.

14:32 [laughter]