Ted Turner still hurting over CNN, Doesn't want to be chummy with Rupert Murdoch, and thinks news networks are hiring too many chickens

By SDH Ted Turner the one time media mogul, who suffers from a rare case of foot in mouth disease, sat with PBS's Charlie Rose for a one on one where he spoke about his current rolls as Chairman of the United Nations Foundation and Restaurateur. Ted says he would love to see all nuclear weapons wiped off the face of the earth and more steps taken to produce cleaner energy. But what caught our ears the most was when Ted spoke about how angry he was when the AOL Time Warner deal went to hell. He also shared that Michael Milken, Liberty Media boss John Malone and two others he refused to name told him to support the deal thinking it would have been a huge success. But as it turns out they were wrong. Ted also spoke about his long time feud with News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch which was not too long ago put to rest over lunch at Ted Turner's restaurant, Ted's Montana Grill. But even though they buried the hatchet, he doesn't want to be too chummy with Rupert and is still wondering if he should invite him to his 70th birthday bash. Asked about what he thinks about CNN today and other news networks, Turner went into his usual shotgun mouth mode and said, CNN is too giddy and needs to be more serious because he believes news should be serious especially in these times. He is also not pleased with the networks letting quality journalists go in favor of eye candy, which he called chickens. When asked about the very opinionated Lou Dobbs, Turner basically said Dobb’s needs to shut up and just report the news. Turner says that Dobb’s has become too opinionated. He said if he was still running things at CNN he would put Dobbs in check, which he claimed to have done in the past when he was running things at CNN. Ted talked about how he almost bought CBS, ABC and NBC at some point but each of them slipped through his fingers. Ted sounds like he misses the media business and feels like he could do more. When asked by Rose if he would team up with Rupert Murdoch on a project, he didn’t brush it off. So is Ted Turner done with the media business? At almost 70 and all those major brands under his belt, it’s easy to say he is done. But with all his money and connections, we don’t see any reason to right him off just yet.

New York Times' Ron Stodghill says Dick Parsons is being forced to stand down and more in this morning's not so worthy media news

The head of Merrill Lynch got canned and Dick Parsons is about to hand over control of Time Warner to Jeff Bewkes. Does this spell doom for black chief execs in America? [NYT] Ted Turner knows when to back down from a fight he can't win. The mouth of the south made nice with the world's biggest media mogul, Rupert Murdoch over lunch signaling the end of many years of back and forth insults. Good for you Teddy. [DHD] NBC Universal shutters yet another online failure. First it was NBCi, then NBBC , now its Dotcomedy.com which was basically like Viacom's thedailyshow.com. Dotcomedy.com ran clips of SNL but never gained any real traction. Could it be because SNL lost traction about 5 years ago? [MW] While getting roasted by colleagues, former bosses and friends, former NBCer turned AOLer Randy Falco said that AOL is worth fighting for. Um.....OK [B&C]

The cowboys came out for Ted's New York City

Former media titan Ted Turner who has been slowly but surely building a restaurant empire, recently celebrated the grand opening of Ted's Montana Grill New York and the cowboys and girls came out to chow down on grilled bison. However looking through the flix we didn't see any of his old buddies from Time Warner.

It's Turner mania: And he has a buyer

Ted Turner didn't just leave the board of TimeWarner and went underground. He is milking it for what its worth. After all the man did give us CNN. TED Turner's life story sold for $4.5 million to Hachette Books, publishing sources told Media Ink, one of the first big non-fiction deals for the French giant that took over the Time Warner Publishing Group earlier this year. read...

Speaking of Ted: A look back, kinda!

Ted Turner will go down in history as one of America's greatest businessmen, oh yeah and for having the biggest mouth as well. Time mag saw something in him early on out. Above are two Time covers we found featuring the man who would lose most of his fortune through what has been dubbed the worst merger in business history.

Morning Wire: Ted's life for sale!

Legendary Media mogul Ted Turner is putting something very important to him on the block...............his life. Who wouldn't want to grab the rights to this man's life and publish a book and even make a movie about him? Media mogul Ted Turner is kicking off the auction for his life story today, and some publishing sources say they expect the Mouth of the South to snag an advance of $7 million - or higher. Turner is the co-founder of CNN, the ex-spouse of actress Jane Fonda and the largest single landholder in the U.S. He's famous for shooting from the hip, for long-running feuds with other media titans, for pledging to donate $1 billion to the United Nations and for pioneering the 24/7 news format in 1980. read...

Ted Goes out, only the way Ted can

He may not have admitted it, but it was a sad day for Ted Turner. He officially stepped down as a Time Warner board member and walked away from the company he helped build over many years. Turner got hit the hardest when the worst merger in history went south but Mr. Turner had only kind words with a jab and a plug here and there of course. Chairman Richard Parsons read a pronouncement praising Turner’s accomplishments, then Mr. Turner took the stage, first thanking all of the people who helped to put together the five-minute video tribute. (so sarcastic, we love this man) the went on to state the following: “I have been with the company and its successors for 55 years now,I just wished that the last five years, I could have made a bigger contribution. I didn’t have that opportunity, unfortunately, but I hung in there as long as the company, I felt, needed me -- until the class-action lawsuits and the antitrust problems were resolved.” “I’ve done my best and, like Edward R. Murrow said in that great Warner Bros. movie that was just released a month ago, good night and good luck.” Classic Ted Turner. We could sure go for one of those Bison burgers right now. Read...

Goodbye Ted, we'll miss you

Ted Turner -AKA- The mouth of the south will officially say see ya to the media industry when he leaves the board of Time Warner on May 19 at the company's annual meeting in Atlanta. We used to love reading the Monday morning headlines with the latest Ted episode. But those days are now long gone and will officially end next week. No other media mogul has been as outspoken as Ted Turner. No other media mogul has seen their fortune go down the toilet like Ted Turner, even though he still holds 33 Million shares of Time Warner. You gave us CNN and played a roll in the creation of what is considered the biggest media company. So every time we tune in we will think of you. read....

Question of The Day: Did Dick Parsons save Time Warner?

Dick Parsons is the last man standing from the AOL Time Warner era. He was charged with cleaning up the shit storm the worst merger in history caused. Some $200 Billion in shareholder value was wiped out instantly hitting Ted Turner the hardest almost sending the man to the poor house. Praises have been laid up on Dick for a job well down. Bringing down the companies debt, increasing cash flow and even putting Jeff Bewkes a well liked exec in the co-pilot’s seat. The move the symbolized the companies road to recovery, was when the AOL name was dropped from the corporate name. Dick even managed to fight off corporate shark Carl Icahn. But all this and the stock price is still hovering at or around where it has been for the last couple of years $ 17.33. Is Dick and Co. doing everything right, or is there something they can do better?

Ted Turner supports Dick............kinda

Ted Turner the man who took the biggest hit after the disastrous merger of AOL and Time Warner kinda came to the defense of Time Warner boss Dick Parsons.........kinda. Turner said Parsons is doing a good job "for the most part." "I'm not convinced about anything as far as stock markets are concerned, but I would hope for a rise in the share price" Yeah you and every other shareholder Teddy! [nyp] Fresh News: Ted Turner to de-Time Warner himself [reuters]