I was somewhere in this crowd:
June 1, 1980. Day one of CNN, an abbreviation that was still new to every ear. Cable News Network, the dream of this handsome fella, who died this week at 87:
He was the star of the show that day. What a wild idea, news that ran all day every day. He led small-group tours of the building, with one question coming up over and over, in various forms: How on earth will you fill 24 hours a day with news? Back then, recall, broadcast news came on in the morning (usually a blur of chatty-housewife features), 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Turner, rich as hell on his daddy’s fortune (billboards) and his own expansion of it (WTCG, an Atlanta UHF station he had the idea of putting on the satellite, renaming it WTBS, aka the Superstation) had a different idea.
You can’t say he didn’t give the staff everything they needed to make it work. He had bureaus all over the world, because Americans needed to know they weren’t the only people in it. He hired commentators to do talking-head editorials, across the political spectrum. I spoke briefly to Phyllis Schlafly on day one. I think Daniel Schorr, who’d recently run afoul of CBS, was another. And a lot of the talent did double duty with WTBS — Flip Spiceland, the weather guy, was one. Here’s a gift link to the NYT obit; the video includes a few seconds of a Flip blooper.
It’s safe to say not everyone believed in this idea; Turner was every inch a southerner, and didn’t share the DNA of the NYC/DC journalism axis. For one thing, he had a sense of humor and believed it was fine to try weird things on the air, even at 2 a.m. Maybe especially at 2 a.m. He hired people like Bill Tush, who was a radio guy, then an announcer, then an anchor, then a comedian, all for WTBS, which also ran 24 hours a day, unlike most stations at the time, which still signed off sometime around midnight.
How do I know all this detail? Because I have a good source, none other than J.C. Burns, who worked first for WTCG, then WTBS, and never exactly for CNN as a full-timer, although he did a lot of work for them, mostly graphic design. And he’s how I ended up in the crowd on day one of CNN — he’d been telling me it was coming, and I offered to cover it for the Dispatch. There was a lot of why-would-we-care, but seeing as how I was going anyway, sure (the editor said), go ahead and get credentialed and file something. My story ran inside; no one cared because no one thought it would amount to much.
But hey, it did. That same why-not attitude he brought to the 3 a.m. time slot on WTCG was the spark for 24-hour cable news. The world bureaus didn’t last, the commentary eventually dwindled away, but the idea of news-around-the-clock did. It’s a mixed blessing, but it’s here to stay.
Later, much later, Turner would go Hollywood to some extent, marrying Jane Fonda, buying his Montana ranch and giving up his media empire. But I’ll always remember the man who resembled a 20th-century Rhett Butler (or Clark Gable, anyway, with that dimple in his chin and ‘stache), a championship sailor who won the America’s Cup and was so drunk at the press conference afterward he sank under the table with a bottle in each hand. He was half-crazy, but he was a smart businessman and he made his mark. RIP.
Trivia question: The first story read on the air on CNN? An update on the attempted assassination of Vernon Jordan in Fort Wayne, two days before.
Two bits of bloggage, both gift links, before we let the weekend wash over us:
Jeffrey Epstein’s purported suicide note is as semi-literate as his emails. “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!” the note reads. No, we wanted you to stand trial and serve a long stretch in prison, but what’s done is done.
And The Atlantic hits another one out of the park in its probe into Kash Patel, drinking man:
President Trump’s FBI director has a great deal of affection for swag. Merchandise for sale on a website he co-founded—still operating, nearly 15 months into his term—includes beanies ($35), T-shirts ($35), orange camo hoodies ($65), trucker caps ($25), “government gangsters” playing cards (on sale for $10), and a fight with kash Punisher scarf ($25).
One thing not for sale is liquor, because liquor is something Patel gives away for free.
… it is not unusual for him to travel with a supply of personalized branded bourbon. The bottles bear the imprint of the Kentucky distillery Woodford Reserve, and are engraved with the words “kash patel fbi director,” as well as a rendering of an FBI shield. Surrounding the shield is a band of text featuring Patel’s director title and his favored spelling of his first name: ka$h. An eagle holds the shield in its talons, along with the number 9, presumably a reference to Patel’s place in the history of FBI directors. In some cases, the 750-milliliter bottles bear Patel’s signature, with “#9” there as well.
There’s a picture of the bottle, which the magazine bought on eBay. The seller said it was a gift from Patel at an event in Vegas.
All over the south this week, Republicans are gerrymandering the shit out of individual states and carving up majority-black districts. This moment seems to capture the weirdness and injustice of it all:
Chaos in Alabama:
Last night, Republican State Senators rammed through a bill to advance redistricting while tornado sirens blared, the chamber was being evacuated, and the livestream went dark.
When this is how they pass it – that tells you everything you need to know.
— Fair Fight Action (@fairfightaction.bsky.social) May 7, 2026 at 12:02 PM
And that’s our republic today. I’m not CNN, but I do my best. Have a great weekend, all.
alex said on May 8, 2026 at 11:13 am
My memories of early CNN are a bit, uh, hazy. I didn’t even have cable until the mid-’80s, when the salespeople going door-to-door came to my apartment one day, got me stoned and sold me my first basic cable package. Those were some interesting times.
251 chars
Jeff Gill said on May 8, 2026 at 11:27 am
Ted bought a large amount of land around the northern edges of Philmont Scout Ranch, and has been extremely generous in letting Scouts hike & camp on his property. When my son & I were there in 2013 of our ten nights “on the trail” backpacking around a northern loop, including Baldy Mountain, I figured out later we spent four of those nights sleeping on Ted’s property & almost half our 90+ miles across his land. Saw our first bison roaming the range on his Vermejo Ranch acreage, near the Valle Vidal which is just one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever been on. So I will always have a warm spot for Ted just because of that experience.
656 chars
Deborah said on May 8, 2026 at 11:30 am
Turner died from Lewy Body Dementia, it’s interesting what a leveler dementia is, the wealthy and famous get it just as much as the regular nobodies. Lots of us suspect that the president is in the early stages, the signs are there. His father had Alzheimers and died at age 93 from common complications. Reagan had it too and probably had the beginnings while he was still in office. There are early onset cases which are particularly devastating for families. There is no cure yet, but there are treatments that can slow down the process to a small degree, or at least there seem to be. They know a lot more about it than they did a decade ago, but there isn’t a lot of work being done to learn more and with all the budget cuts in medical science, expectations are bleak for breakthroughs for now anyway.
I’ve mentioned here that I’ve been consulting on interior design for the dementia center project that my husband’s uncle’s foundation is starting. There will be a “groundbreaking” in Evanston in September, a close in suburb of Chicago. I put that in quotation marks because it will be in an existing space initially as a “mistake place”, to find out what works best, after 5 or 7 years hopefully a ground-up building will be built. This has been in the works since 2020, much research and planning have been done with a largish team of designers, planners, writers and medical people. It’s not a place for people to live, it’s combination of uses, clinical exam and testing spaces, social worker spaces, gathering spaces, therapy spaces (movement, art, music et), a large interior garden and a coffee bar for the community. The building is in downtown Evanston. It’s as much for caregivers, maybe more, as it is for patients. This has been fairly all consuming in our lives especially the last couple of years. The fact that it’s actually being constructed is gratifying.
1882 chars
Deborah said on May 8, 2026 at 11:41 am
Jeff, Turner was the largest landowner in New Mexico for a long time, and a lot of it (if not all) was put in trusts to keep it natural and wild. Jane Fonda may have been instrumental in that. Jane and her family lived in NM some of the time. She sold her place in Santa Fe (actually Tesuque) a few years ago. I had seen Peter Fonda in town, and a good friend of Jane’s lived in Abiquiu, I had met her a few times. The friend had been a neighbor of the Fonda’s when Jane was a child and after her mother killed herself, Jane lived at her friend’s house for a while.
As it said in the NYT Turner bought up lots of land in the west and put it in trusts to stay natural. Montana was one of the other states where he owned a lot of land.
736 chars
Julie Robinson said on May 8, 2026 at 12:17 pm
While there are some new treatments, other conditions that are common in the demographic of dementia preclude their use. My optimism is muted.
But I’m in NYC to get away from that, and having the best time. Lots of great shows right now, so we only bought two in advance and have been working the apps for lotteries, rushes and the like. We won two lotteries at $45 and $50 per tickets, for seats that said they were partially obstructed but were actually quite good.
So, we’ve seen The Lost Boys, Ragtime, The Great Gatsby, Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York, and will see Cats: The Jellicel Ball tonight. Not bad for three days.
645 chars
Brandon said on May 8, 2026 at 4:01 pm
All about the costume Heidi Klum wore to the Met Gala: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/insight/heidi-klum-s-met-gala-statue-look-draws-split-reactions/gm-GM375B6576?gemSnapshotKey=GM375B6576-snapshot-80&uxmode=ruby&ocid=edgntpruby&pc=HCTS&cvid=69fe3c36f03b416b86ed2d0ae61d2dd4&ei=8
300 chars
Icarus said on May 8, 2026 at 5:43 pm
Julie Robinson, do they still do that thing were you can get half price or reduced show tickets? I think it was called Hot Tix or something like that.
I remember doing that in 1999 and being in the front row…not as great as you’d think because in the theatre we were in, you got neck cramps but still worth it.
318 chars
Julie Robinson said on May 8, 2026 at 11:36 pm
It’s TKTS now but lines can be long and often not great deals either. Every show has a digital lottery or rush, there’s direct resale on the Theatr app. Those are often last minute and didn’t work out for us. I don’t even know if we found all the discounts, but boy howdy it’s been fun.
What did you see back in ’99?
The ballroom take on Cats is genius; better than the original.
382 chars
Brandon said on May 9, 2026 at 3:35 pm
We can thank Ted Turner for Turner Classic Movies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner_Classic_Movies
Many of his ventures were started to compete with established ones: the Goodwill Games (vs. the Olympics); Night Tracks (a TBS music video show vs. MTV); WCW (vs. the WWF); and even Tush, a variety show that was the TBS answer to Saturday Night Live.
377 chars
Jeff Gill said on May 9, 2026 at 6:10 pm
I just saw that TCM has posted:
Ted Turner’s favorite movie was GONE WITH THE WIND (’39).
He loved the movie so much that he bought the entire catalogue of movies from MGM Studios and pre-1948 Warner Bros. so he could air and preserve them.
We honor our founder by airing the film tomorrow night at 8pm ET.
(And that is so… on-brand, for Terrible Ted. But it will get watched.)
391 chars
Jakash said on May 9, 2026 at 7:13 pm
It’s not like TCM doesn’t present “Gone With the Wind” whenever they can come up with a reason to do so, regardless. As the proprietress noted, “I’ll always remember the man who resembled a 20th-century Rhett Butler (or Clark Gable, anyway, with that dimple in his chin and ‘stache).” Add in a swashbuckling personality and a media empire / baseball team in Atlanta and of *course*, he’d love GWTW.
As I’ve said before, if we could only watch one channel on TV, it would be TCM, so I give him a lot of credit for whatever he did to create / finance it. I can’t believe, given the current, horrible version of unrestrained capitalism that we’re stuck with, that they still show uncut movies with no commercials shoehorned in to ruin them.
Uh, his idea for “colorization” of black-and-white movies, on the other hand, was an absolute abomination.
861 chars
susan said on May 9, 2026 at 7:16 pm
Oy, “Gone with the Wind”??? Turner’s favorite movie? Jeezo. I wonder if he also liked “Birth of a Nation”?
106 chars
Sherri said on May 10, 2026 at 6:33 pm
What’s surprising about Ted Turner is not that GWTW was his favorite movie, but that in so many ways, he transcended his conservative Republican upbringing.
158 chars