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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTed Turner reveals Lewy body dementia
I used to work for Ted Turner back in the old CNN days. It kind of sucked, because everybody got minimum wage. This was 1981 or so. But it was fun because everybody was young, it was party time in Atlanta, and Ted never fired anybody. I mean you really had to screw up bad to even get close to getting fired. Ted would throw these parties on the lawn at Techwood, and pull a beer truck up and everyone, even those on air during breaks, were getting buzzed. Then we would pile on buses and Ted would run us down to the stadium for a baseball game. I only talked to him a couple of times, but he was down to earth, I can tell you that. I was standing next to him at a company party once and the stock had just put his net worth over a billion dollars. He was talking to us in a circle and drinking Budweiser out of a can. Back then we were doing straight up news, and CNN is nothing today like it was back then. The funny thing was we hated "big corporate news" - which is what CNN became. But back then Ted was the one with the vision, you had to give him that. I was sorry to hear about his health. Everybody said the CNN we knew died when Ted lost control of the company. I would agree with that.
https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/28/media/ted-turner-dementia/index.html
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)You were very fortunate to be on the ground floor of something so cool!
katmondoo
(6,454 posts)2naSalit
(86,307 posts)Met him once, briefly, he was polite and gracious, respectful. Wish I could have had a conversation with him but there was a line for that and he was trying to leave... but he spoke over their heads in response to the comment I made to him as I walked past.
Went to an event at one of his ranches a long time ago too.
He is getting up their in age.
TygrBright
(20,753 posts)I'd bring my meals on a tray to watch the ongoing news coverage and the varying 'magazine' features they'd slot in at regular intervals.
Damn' I miss that format.
sadly,
Bright
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)I sat a few rows behind him once at a Braves' baseball game. He had those seats down low just above the dugout. Probably early 1990s. He was with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, and they were having a ball.