The man who changed TV news

0:00It's Consider This where every day we go deep on one big news story. And today, the legacy of the man who changed the way we get the news. If Alexander the Great could conquer the known world, why couldn't I start CNN? That is CNN founder Ted Turner speaking to Oprah Winfrey. Turner transformed the media industry and revolutionized television news when he launched the Cable News Network, or CNN, in 1980. It was the country's first 24-hour news channel. You can do so much more in 24 hours than you can in 24 minutes. Turner died Wednesday at the age of 87. Consider this. Ted Turner changed the way we consume the news.

0:48How did he do it? And where are we now?

0:56From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang.

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2:22It's Consider This from NPR. When the U.S. and Israel bomb Iran and start a war, we know about it moments after it started, sometimes even moments before. When Russian tanks cross the border into Ukraine, we watch as it is happening. And when after five decades the U.S. returns to the moon, that feat is beamed all around the world. This access to immediacy, our ability to be there as history is unfolding, much of that is possible thanks to the vision of CNN founder Ted Turner. He was affectionately known as the Mouth of the South, and he transformed the way the world got its news when he founded the 24-7 News Network in 1980.

3:09And one person who played a key role in that legacy as well is CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amampour. She started at CNN as a desk assistant back in 1983. Welcome, Christiane. Wow, Elsa, thank you. And the way you put it really brings back so many memories. I can imagine. Well, as I mentioned, you began at CNN almost at the very beginning of the network. What was it like back then to be there? What was Ted Turner like back then? It was amazing. I joined three years after the start. So I've been there 43 years. CNN is in my DNA. But who knew? You know, a lot of us, people of my generation who joined as desk assistants or video assistants or whatever the VJs, video journalists and the like, we literally used to say to ourselves, well, we're all just undergrads.

4:01None of us have gone to graduate school. But this is our graduate school on the job. and we're going to get all the experience we need to go off to the big leagues. And so it was this unbelievable gathering of eager, passionate, mission-driven young journalists who had the rarest of rarest things. And that was a boss who we worshipped and admired. I mean, it is not too much to say that he was the commander and we were the foot soldiers. And when Ted Turner said something, we saluted and said, yes, sir, and did it because we knew that this was somebody who guided us correctly, guided the world correctly, and with his information revolution decided to do something to the benefit of the world.

4:44It wasn't what we see now with the cynicism and the destructive elements that we can see in so much of today's mass media. It actually was born to try to really kind of save mankind. How about for you personally, how did Turner's vision of the world and of journalism's role in influence your own approach to your own work as someone who has helped explain so many world events to audiences for decades? It was fundamental. I absolutely could not believe my luck when I ended up as a, as I say, an undergrad desk assistant in Atlanta. I'd come from England. I'd before that come from Iran. So Iran is what turned me into wanting to be a journalist.

5:25And I landed in Atlanta of all places at the mouth of the South, you know, chicken noodle news to try to become a foreign correspondent. And that's the vision I had. And I could see it being emulated all around me. It was being done. We became the preeminent international news gatherers because of CNN's vision and because he insisted, because of Ted Turner's vision, who insisted that we cover all sides of every story. During the first Gulf War, which launched CNN as an international behemoth, Ted said that we had to be in Baghdad as well, which was on the receiving end of all the firepower from the United States that was arrayed in Saudi Arabia to try to get Saddam out of Kuwait.

6:07And he said, we have to be behind enemy lines. We have to cover all sides of the story. And so he made it voluntary. On a personal level, though, I mean, he was known for having this huge personality. Some people might call it brash. He could certainly rob a lot of people the wrong way. Was that part of his charm, Cristiano? Or did it sometimes interfere with his mission and the way he related to people? You see, I don't think so. Ted was a very different person. He was an individual. And I just loved it. Every time he says something controversial, I'm thinking, wow, he's got such cojones. You know, he's dashing and he's handsome and he's swashbuckling and he's with us.

6:48He lived, you know, in Atlanta, but often he stayed in his sort of office apartment above the studio, above the newsroom for whatever reasons. And he would come down in the crack of dawn morning to get his crappy coffee from the break room right near the news desk and everything. And he would be in his pajamas and his robe and we'd go, whoa, what is happening? And it would be like, you know, Parting of the Red Sea would all stand back and Ted would, you know, sashay through the newsroom. But Ted was with us. Yeah. You know, so much has been said about the immediacy that CNN brought to broadcast news, giving audiences a chance to feel like they are there as something is happening.

7:28But do you think that there have been costs to that? Does that expectation of trying to be fast and on all the time, can that sometimes take away from the journalistic mission, too? Look, I think that's a valid question to ask throughout the decades that followed the launch of CNN. And there have been many, many iterations of trying to, you know, tow the actual journalistic line, not just at CNN, but in many, many other places. I always say that he's the one who started 24-7 for all the right reasons, including to break down the barriers when he sent it internationally between authoritarian states and their people.

8:05Those with a satellite dish or with the ability to, you know, connect could see a whole different worldview. So it was super important. But I do agree that there has been, you know, subsequently too much of a focus on the titillating, on the sensational, on lots of things that have degraded our public square and our public discourse and therefore our civil society and our civic community. And I think Ted was always super conscious of that. You know, when he did the – he ordered the cameras to be 24-7 on little Jessica in the well that was, you know, practically at the beginning of CNN. I remember that.

8:41That was to bring a community together, as well as being excellent for ratings. It brought people together. The whole country was on the edge of their seat, hoping that this little girl would be pulled out alive. And by and large, it wasn't political. It was about policy. It was about the actual events. It was about facts. It was about reporting the story. It was about being eyes and ears. And those are the days that I miss. CNN Chief International Anchor Kristian Amampur, thank you so much for sharing your reflections about Ted Turner with us. It was my pleasure and my privilege. This episode was produced by Erica Ryan and Karen Zamora with audio engineering by Ted Meebane.

9:23It was edited by Courtney Dorney. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.

9:32it's consider this from npr i'm elsa chang want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks amazon prime members can listen to consider this sponsor free through amazon music or you can also support npr's vital journalism and get npr plus at plus.npr.org that's plus.npr.org