President Donald Trump asserted that CNN founder Ted Turner was “personally devastated” after selling the news network and the new owners “destroyed” it because it became “woke” — although there’s no evidence of Turner having lamented CNN’s coverage as being “woke.”
“Ted Turner, one of the Greats of All Time, just died. He founded CNN, sold it, and was personally devastated by the Deal because the new ownership took CNN, his ‘baby,’ and destroyed it. It became woke, and everything that he is not all about,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
But Turner had not criticised CNN for any perceived political bias in its coverage — and the media mogul and philanthropist, who was once married to Jane Fonda, embraced many progressive causes.
The Turner Foundation, which he founded in 1990, supports efforts for improving air and water quality, developing a sustainable energy future to protect the climate, safeguarding environmental health, maintaining wildlife habitat protection, and developing practices and policies to curb population growth rates. In 1997, Turner pledged $1 billion to create the UN Foundation to support United Nations causes, at the time the largest individual philanthropic gift in history, and he urged other wealthy individuals to follow his lead.
In 1995, Turner reached a deal to sell CNN (and the rest of Turner Broadcasting System) to Time Warner for $7.5 billion in stock, which closed the following year. CNN was valued at around $2.8 billion, the AP reported.
Famously, Turner said he regretted selling CNN and the rest of his cable TV empire.
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In October 2012, he told Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning” that “I got maneuvered out” after the sale to Time Warner. While he owned 10% percent of Time Warner stock after that deal, following the disastrous AOL Time Warner merger in 2020, he said, “I was diluted down to 3%.” Turner also said in that interview that he would like “to see more emphasis on hard news and international news and a little less fluff” on CNN. In addition, Turner commented on that year’s race for U.S. president, saying “I like Obama’s policies better” than Republican candidate Mitt Romney, because Obama is “better on the environment and really and truly wants to end the wars.”
Turner, in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in 2015, also discussed his regret about selling CNN and being pushed out of the company. “You’ve got to be able to take some disappointment in life, too… you just have to roll with the punches [when] adversity hits you,” he said.
In a 2019 interview with Variety, Turner said, “I don’t watch much television besides CNN, but I’ll catch something on TCM on occasion,” referring to another one of the cable networks he started, Turner Classic Movies.
Meanwhile, Trump in his post on Wednesday also expressed hope that David Ellison, whose Paramount Skydance has clinched a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, will restore CNN “to its former credibility and glory.” The $111 billion WBD deal has major financial backing from Oracle co-founder and mega-billionaire Larry Ellison, David’s father, who is friendly with Trump.
“Maybe the new buyers, wonderful people, will be able to bring it back to its former credibility and glory,” Trump wrote regarding CNN. “Regardless, however, [Turner was] one of the Greats of Broadcast History, and a friend of mine. Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Ellison — who last month threw a dinner party “honouring” Trump — has pledged that CNN will remain an editorially independent news organization. The editorial independence of CNN “will absolutely be maintained,” Ellison told CNBC. “It’s maintained at CBS. It’ll be maintained at CNN.”
Among other litigation Trump has pursued against news outlets, he sued CNN in 2022, alleging defamation over the network’s use of the term “Big Lie” to describe Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Trump had sought $475 million in damages. A federal judge dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against CNN in July 2025, writing in the decision that “CNN’s statements while repugnant, were not, as a matter of law, defamatory.” An appeals court upheld the decision last November.
From Variety US