Ted Turner Looks Back

Media Mogul Talks About His Life, Loves, Personal Struggles And Business

(CBS)  Ted Turner is like Dracula: you have to drive a stake through his heart to stop him, and though many have come close, he's back.

Though he's gone from being a really rich man to a mere billionaire, he's maintained the manic energy that drove him to change the landscape of the information age by creating CNN and 24-hour news.

The uncompromising competitor - who won the America's Cup, is the ex-husband of Jane Fonda, the batty billionaire who challenged his arch enemy, fellow billionaire Rupert Murdoch to a boxing match, once described as both genius and jackass - has now decided to reflect on a tumultuous life and more or less tell all in a memoir

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Ted Turner is the largest individual landowner in the U.S., owning two million acres across 12 states. 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer caught up with him at one of his Montana ranches.

This lonesome cowboy hates his own company: he admits he doesn't like being alone.

"These are big places to be alone, I'll tell you. Come out here and spend the night by yourself some time, you know, the coyote's out there howling," Turner says, howling. "You know, and it's pretty scary."

At the Snowcrest Ranch, Ted Turner is not alone. He keeps company with bison, horses and a stream full of Ruby River trout.

Life is good for Turner. He's not your average old-age pensioner: this most restless of men jets around the world promoting good causes, dreaming up new business ventures, and dropping in on his dozens of properties scattered about the hemisphere.

And now, as he turns 70, he's written his book. After his morning ride, the man who proudly says he never looks back, decided to do just that: to let Ted reflect on Ted.

"I've had the good fortune to have a much more diverse life than most people would, professional sports and television and news and movies," he says.

And he says his personal has been a lot of fun.

Turner burst on the scene when he captained "Courageous," the yacht that won the America's Cup.

But it was his groundbreaking creation of CNN that put Turner indelibly on the map. But, his company's rapid growth and ballooning debt nearly bankrupted him.

"I was gonna go broke if I didn't get things turned around real fast. But I was able to get it refinanced, without government help, I might add, unlike what's going on today, but we made it. But by the skin on our chinny chin chin. And two years later we made a run at CBS, unsuccessful, but we did take a swing," he says.

Instead, Turner went on to create his own broadcasting powerhouse, and when he merged his company with Time Warner in 1996, his status as media visionary was confirmed. "I didn't care what, how much adversity life threw at me. I intended to get to the top," he says.

The adversity started at infancy. Shipped off to boarding school at the age of 4, followed by years of military school for discipline, he says his alcoholic father did everything he could to toughen him up.

"You had a pretty tough father," Safer comments.

"So what. You know, lots of people have tough fathers," Turner replies.

"Well, he beat you up," Safer points out.

"No, he didn't beat me up. He spanked me," Turner says.

Turner says he was spanked with a wire hanger a couple of times, and admits it was traumatic, but says, "He was doing it to make me better."

Asked if he thinks it made him better, Turner says, "I think so."

At age 21, he began working for his father's outdoor advertising business. But shortly after, an event took place that both shaped and shattered Ted Turner: his father committed suicide.

"Were you out to prove something to him even though he was gone?" Safer asks.

"He wanted me to be a big success. And all my life I've tried to be a big success. So his influence was huge," Turner says.

[larsand1]

Ted Turner is a charming idiot. Fuuny how when he said that George Bush was the most dangerous man on the planet Morley Safer just chuckled in approval. So much for unbiased journalism. Let''s send them both to North Korea with a one-way ticket.

[fjconley]

After viewing the 60-Minutes piece on Ted Turner immediately following your story on toxic e-waste, I had to ask myself, "Who is going to clean-up the hazardous waste Turner left behind?" Is it possible to have Jane Fonda shipped to China and dismantled?

[obsnewscom]

Ted Turner we want your advice at www.obsnetwork.com so send the message out to him!

[acara-2009]

Great human interest story! Ted Turner nor his ex wife sat on the side lines of life and cheered. Isn''t that rugged individualism what we so admire? I enjoyed this inside peek at a very real encounter with this man and his family.

[vd1946]

What?? Are you all simply jealous of a successful businessman who had the smarts & foresight to set a new standard for televised news which had never been imagined? Turner''s vision even set the world up for this incredible forum: the blog!
He owns more land than anyone else, but guess what...he''ll donate it back to "we, the people" when he''s gone, so what''s to hate there?!?
Okay, so Jane Fonda made some BAAAD choices way back when, but isn''t that exactly what we Americans have always fought for...freedom of expression?? Of course, she was dead-wrong, but she was, I''m convinced, working from a peace-maker''s point of view, but just went about it badly. We''re now in an even worse "bad war," but few seem to protest, except recently at the ballot box. At least now we "hail" returning troops, so perhaps actions like JF''s taught us all a good lesson!

[skeezix06]

I tried to imagine what it would be like to be as driven with a need to succeed as he seems to be. I don''t think the continual fight to stay ahead of everyone else in an effort to succeed would make me very happy.

Money isn''t everything. It helps smooth out some of the bumps but it isn''t everything.

[enigmaforeve]

I will try not to sit on the fence about the viet cong hero. jane fonda, who could be stupid enough to trust the traitorous bxxxx, who sold out her country for a photo shoot with the enemy. The killer of American soldiers in Vietnam, should be put on trial and shot for treason.I would be glad be to be part of the execution squad, ay to have the hell I would privilege, and honor. Ted Turner just wanted to try pork out for a while, He didn''t need to buy the whole pig, hundred, maybe thousands of others who had her didn''t. Her father must have been a lot more rotten a person than he seemed to have spawned that piece of ***. She will always have a special place in the hearts of veterans.

[enigmaforeve]

I will try not to sit on the fence about the viet cong hero. jane fonda, who could be stupid enough to trust the traitorous bxxxx, who sold out her country for a photo shoot with the enemy. The killer of American soldiers in Vietnam, should be put on trial and shot for treason.I would be glad be to be part of the execution squad, ay to have the hell I would privilege, and honor. Ted Turner just wanted to try pork out for a while, He didn''t need to buy the whole pig, hundred, maybe thousands of others who had her didn''t. Her father must have been a lot more rotten a person than he seemed to have spawned that piece of ***. She will always have a special place in the hearts of veterans.

[dewbug2]

well, boo friggin'' hoo! lonesome my arse!
Maybe The hero of Chappaquiddick, your bosom buddy, can come out and you two can go for a drive some evening?
guns don''t kill people, oldsmobiles kill people....
Are you still thinking that people like you and the above mentioned ****** buddy of yours since you are both so wealthy?....did either of you, not to mention ex-wifey, ever have an honest job, like the people you all hosed?Suffer, ya ***!

[generey]

Jane Fonda Says If He Needs Company, She''d Be There In A "Blue Minute".

Just another booty call.

[dbl06]

I wish TT still owned the Braves. If he did they could get the players they need.

[voivod616]

"He then does a dead-on imitation of a coyote howl..."

"...he touches me deeply, deeply."

Oh yeah: the Nielsens can count me in on this one.

[voivod616]

Just what in the hell are the producers at "60 Minutes" up to now: using Morley Safer as a go-between for two of the most self-absorbed attention seekers of the 20th century?

With lines like "Come out here and spend the night by yourself some time" and "I would be there (for Ted) in a blue minute," this sounds like a tearjerker not to be missed! (Please...)

[anniep8]

Really, who cares what these two self-absorbed people have to say. Why doesn''t CBS interview someone who is inspirational via an invention or a new way of looking at things. Instead I get these two sugically enhanced pretend hippies, wealthier than all get out, who seem to think they have the right to tell me what I should do with my money and how I should live my life.

[czmdm]

Jane Fonda, American Traitor ***. She SHOULD have done hard prison time for her actions during the Vietnam war.


Maybe but the same goes for Bush who put us in an unjust war by lying over WMD''s.

[czmdm]

SocialismSux Apparently you believe in the neocon axiom that constantly repeating yourself will make people belive you.

Please stop with the Jesus stuff. It''s BS, cultish and if there was a Jesus there is probably some type of copyright infringement.

[harrymorgan1]

Ted Turner may feel better if his conscious did not bother him.
Much of the farm subsidy payout goes to individuals
and companies that clearly do not need taxpayer help. A
Washington D.C. think tank has posted individual farm
subsidy recipients on its web page at to
illustrate the unfairness of farm welfare for the well-to-do.
Farm subsidy recipients include Fortune 500 companies,
members of Congress, and millionaires such as Ted Turner
One of the reasons our Government is broke.

[clj124]

I think the government should take away a lot of his land and sell it to people at a reduced rate so we can spread his wealth around. Teddy seems to love telling everyone that they should pay their fair share. Plus he could have people building houses on his land as well so he will not be alone.

[socialismsux]

Boooohoooo for the billionaire atheist.


"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God"

-Jesus Christ

[pirmin3]

Poor baby. Take your zillions and buy some arm candy Ted. Elliot Spitzer can give you some pointers.