Surging Gas Prices Shake Americans, and How Ted Turner Unleashed 24-Hour News

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0:33From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, May 7th. Here's what we're covering.

0:44Paint me a picture of how you managed fuel costs since the war and the spike in prices. I mean, I was paying well below$3. And then, let me see, within a week, a week, it jumped up a damn near dollar. Across the U.S., gas prices keep ticking up, but the weight of that burden is not hitting everyone equally. I mean, yeah, it's rough. I mean, gas was the one thing that wasn't that expensive. According to an analysis released by the New York Fed, lower-income Americans are feeling the worst of it. My colleague Talman Joseph Smith talked with a woman in her mid-40s who drives for Uber and Lyft in Charleston, South Carolina.

1:27She said the jump in gas prices has eroded her take-home pay. It's like, why am I even coming out of the house? In general, the analysis found, lower-income households are spending a lot more on gas than usual, even as they're cutting back on how much they're buying. They may be driving less, carpooling, taking public transit if they can. Higher income households, however, are buying the same amount of gas as before, even with the surge in prices. It's a sign their behavior has largely been unaffected. The data shows the spike in fuel costs is essentially inflaming the economic divide in the U.S.

2:04and perpetuating the K-shaped state of the economy, where those on top keep thriving, while those at the bottom slide in comparison. Meanwhile. We're in a, I call it a skirmish, because that's what it is. It's a skirmish. Over the last day, updates on the state of the war and a potential peace deal have been contradictory and rapidly changing. Yesterday in the Oval Office, President Trump said, quote, I think we won and that talks were going well. They want to make a deal. We've had very good talks over the last 44 hours. And it's very possible that we'll make a deal. But the president also issued a new threat on social media, writing that if Iran doesn't agree, quote, the bombing starts and it will be sadly at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.

2:55For its part, Iran has given conflicting responses, too. Yesterday, one Iranian official dismissed a reported proposal to end the war as a list of American wishes. But later, another official, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, said his government was reviewing an American plan. and would let mediators from Pakistan know its position.

3:24In the West Bank, experts say that extremist Israeli settlers are using the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a chance to intensify attacks on Palestinians. Essentially, with the world distracted, they've been ramping up a campaign of violence against residents there. In one West Bank village, a Palestinian man described seeing his son fatally shot in a settler attack before he himself was stabbed and beaten unconscious. In another village, masked men sexually assaulted a shepherd and brutalized his extended family, including children. All told, 13 Palestinians were killed in attacks in the first two months of the war, almost as many as all of last year, according to the United Nations.

4:08Many more were injured, and more than 600 have been driven from their homes. The campaign of violence and intimidation is emptying out entire villages and leaving many Palestinians afraid of what will happen each night when it gets dark. One Palestinian woman told the Times she feels like no one is protecting them and, quote, we are on our own. The Israeli military is supposed to maintain order in the West Bank, but several commanders told the Times they struggle to get their troops to take action. in some cases because the soldiers sympathize with the settlers. When it comes to investigating the attacks, that falls on the Israeli police.

4:46They say they've made several arrests, but Times reporting has shown they've long failed to bring settlers to justice. The police also denied that there's been a surge in attacks. Israel's right-wing government, which has overseen a record expansion of West Bank settlements, has also minimized the violence. In the past, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has downplayed settler attacks as just the work of, quote, a handful of kids.

5:17And when those early days were rough, did you keep the faith? Did you always think this would make it? Never question it. I knew it was going to be a hit from before it went on the air. The media mogul Ted Turner, who changed the way the world consumes the news when he launched CNN, has died at 87. He's considered one of the first ever celebrity CEOs, and he built up a vast empire with not just news, but TNT, TBS, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network. Turner got his start as a teenager painting billboards for his father's advertising company in Georgia. And later, as a businessman, he developed a reputation for being brash, self-aggrandizing, and taking astounding risks, going into debt to buy his first TV station, as well as the Atlanta Braves, and the entire catalog of classic MGM movies.

6:06And some of those bets paid off big. He was the kind of person who just went big for everything, telling a journalist at one point he wanted his legacy to be on par with that of Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Gandhi. In an extraordinary act of philanthropy, he donated more than a billion dollars to the United Nations. But he also drew backlash over the years for using ethnic and racial slurs. And he developed a reputation for controversy, at one point befriending Fidel Castro, reportedly saying, he's like me, a dictator. The most significant piece of his legacy, though, dates back to 1980. Ready, camera three, one center up.

6:45Good evening, I'm David Walker. And I'm Lois Hart. Now here's the news. That's when he launched his signature creation, the Cable News Network, or CNN. In some sense, we are all living in Ted Turner's world. My colleague Jim Rutenberg, who's covered the media for more than two decades, says many people thought Turner's idea was crazy. When Ted Turner comes along in 1980 to start CNN, the news is primarily delivered by three anchormen on three networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. They are on the air for 30 minutes a night. That was your big dose of news. Ted Turner said, I think people will watch for longer.

7:24In fact, I think they will watch for 24 hours. That was a revolutionary thought. You know, sometime after we started, I could see we were going to be a big winner. Those days when people were making fun of it, kidding it. CBS wanted to buy you out. All my life, people kidded about me when I said it. And he was vindicated. He drew huge audiences. CNN was everywhere, in very short order, in every sports bar, in every corporate office, in every airport, in hotels and finally homes around the world. The idea that there's a bottomless 24-hour appetite for news and information is foundational to the entire development of media ever since.

8:08To the establishment of social media, to the establishment of streaming, to the establishment of all these many podcasts that we have today. There's no end to the appetite and it's Ted Turner who makes that realization.

8:28And finally, America has been undergoing a great undamming. According to the nonprofit group American Rivers, last year, more miles of the country's waterways were reconnected thanks to dam removals than at any other time in history. That involved removing more than 100 dams in 30 states and reconnecting almost 5 ,000 miles of waterways. The country is scattered with tens of thousands of dams that have been built for all kinds of purposes, both practical, to generate power or irrigate farms, and recreational, for fishing or swimming. But many are increasingly obsolete, making them a liability for people and the environment.

9:08One dam expert told the Times that in many places there's been bipartisan support for tackling the issue. When dams are removed, the resulting free-flowing waterways are healthier, cooler, and serve as a vital habitat for fish. Advocates for removing more dams say it's best to do it intentionally, with a plan, especially as dams get older and older. One told the Times, quote, With more extreme weather, more and more of these structures are failing over time. If we don't remove them, Mother Nature is going to do it for us.

9:42Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, how spirit changed air travel and how the airline ultimately unraveled. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow with the latest and the Friday News Quiz.