Ted Turner, the media maverick and philanthropist who founded CNN, a pioneering 24-hour network that revolutionized television news, died peacefully Wednesday, surrounded by his family, according to a news release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.
Being from the Atlanta area makes my opinion of Ted really complicated, obviously he was a billionaire which is inherently unethical, but he also really helped put Atlanta on the map in the 90s. TBS, the Braves, Captain Planet, TNT, the Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim were all things that directly brought my childhood joy and can trace their origins back to Ted Turner. His contributions to the repopulation of American bison shouldn’t be ignored either.
There are no ethical billionaires but I have a difficult time looking at Turner in the same way I do Zuck, Musk, Gates, etc.
Edit: Jesus I forgot WCW, he surely was a man with faults but Ted was the antithesis of Vince McMahon for a period of time. And standing afainst Vince is almost always the morally correct position
There are no ethical billionaires but I have a difficult time looking at Turner in the same way I do Zuck, Musk, Gates, etc.
It’s funny how people have this intense desire to pigeon hole people into “good” and “bad” categories. To the point where you feel the need to apologize for pointing out good things he’s done, because you know people will jump on you for it if you don’t.
To be fair, I do think disgust or strong dislike is an eminently reasonable baseline to have when the subject is “billionaires”. Exceptions should only be made on a case-by-case basis.
While it’s true that there are degrees of awfulness amongst the billionaires, there is no philanthropy sufficient to redeem the extraction and abuse necessary to become one of them. Some are worse, but none are better.
Yeah I agree and wasn’t trying to make the guy a saint or anything, just trying to add some nuance to the discussion from the impact he had on my life specifically. Although that said, I would probably put Ted on the ‘less evil’ end of the bell curve of billionaires.
Dude your good. People are complicated. Legacies are messy. There’s nuance. Its easy to make a blanket statement that “all billionaires are evil”
Its more difficult to reflect and analyze a person or situation and think for yourself and find good, or bad, in something. Don’t apologize and don’t let Lemmy’s hard line lazy ass one liners make you second guess that.
If a time travelers footsteps on a butterfly in the Jurassic can change the sentient race in the future, I figure that a billionaire absent mindedly funding a water well can accidentally bring the next utopia. I’m not holding my breath, but good things tend to ripple outwards.
The 24 hour news cycle was more or less inevitable as TV and radio became ubiquitous. I’m honestly surprised it didn’t happen back in the 50s and 60s if I’m being honest. Not to absolve Turner of any wrong doing but it was the inevitable end result of how our tech and society progressed.
Being from the Atlanta area makes my opinion of Ted really complicated, obviously he was a billionaire which is inherently unethical, but he also really helped put Atlanta on the map in the 90s. TBS, the Braves, Captain Planet, TNT, the Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim were all things that directly brought my childhood joy and can trace their origins back to Ted Turner. His contributions to the repopulation of American bison shouldn’t be ignored either.
There are no ethical billionaires but I have a difficult time looking at Turner in the same way I do Zuck, Musk, Gates, etc.
Edit: Jesus I forgot WCW, he surely was a man with faults but Ted was the antithesis of Vince McMahon for a period of time. And standing afainst Vince is almost always the morally correct position
It’s funny how people have this intense desire to pigeon hole people into “good” and “bad” categories. To the point where you feel the need to apologize for pointing out good things he’s done, because you know people will jump on you for it if you don’t.
To be fair, I do think disgust or strong dislike is an eminently reasonable baseline to have when the subject is “billionaires”. Exceptions should only be made on a case-by-case basis.
Extreme concentration of wealth is a social problem. It creates opportunities for great harm and few opportunities for anything good to come of it.
While it’s true that there are degrees of awfulness amongst the billionaires, there is no philanthropy sufficient to redeem the extraction and abuse necessary to become one of them. Some are worse, but none are better.
Yeah I agree and wasn’t trying to make the guy a saint or anything, just trying to add some nuance to the discussion from the impact he had on my life specifically. Although that said, I would probably put Ted on the ‘less evil’ end of the bell curve of billionaires.
Dude your good. People are complicated. Legacies are messy. There’s nuance. Its easy to make a blanket statement that “all billionaires are evil”
Its more difficult to reflect and analyze a person or situation and think for yourself and find good, or bad, in something. Don’t apologize and don’t let Lemmy’s hard line lazy ass one liners make you second guess that.
If a time travelers footsteps on a butterfly in the Jurassic can change the sentient race in the future, I figure that a billionaire absent mindedly funding a water well can accidentally bring the next utopia. I’m not holding my breath, but good things tend to ripple outwards.
For sure, I don’t disagree with any of what you said.
Him being responsible for the 24h news cycle negates any good he might have done.
The 24 hour news cycle already existed on radio before Turner put it on TV. Hearing it on radio was his inspiration for putting it on TV.
The 24 hour news cycle was more or less inevitable as TV and radio became ubiquitous. I’m honestly surprised it didn’t happen back in the 50s and 60s if I’m being honest. Not to absolve Turner of any wrong doing but it was the inevitable end result of how our tech and society progressed.