Ted Turner, CNN Founder and Media Pioneer, Dies at 87

Ted Turner, the media mogul who founded CNN, died Wednesday at the age of 87, according to a statement from Turner Enterprises.

Turner launched CNN on June 1, 1980, creating the first 24-hour all-news network and reshaping the entire broadcast industry in the process. Before selling his empire, he also built a portfolio of popular cable channels and left a mark well beyond the newsroom.

Off-screen, Turner was a competitive yachtsman and, for a time, owned two Atlanta sports franchises, the Braves and the Hawks. He was a committed philanthropist who founded the United Nations Foundation and a conservationist who created the animated series "Captain Planet" and helped reintroduce bison to the American West. His candid, larger-than-life personality earned him the nickname "The Mouth of the South."

In 2018, Turner revealed he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder. He was hospitalized in 2025 with pneumonia and spent time recovering at a rehabilitation facility before his death.

He was 87 years old.