Ted Turner: Media Should Pay More Attention to Global Problems
Ted Turner: Media Should Pay More Attention to Global Problems
By David S. Hirschman
Published: September 19, 2006 9:00 PM ET
NEW YORK Appearing before a group of journalists and international policy leaders at Reuters' offices in New York, mogul-cum-mega-philanthropist Ted Turner said Tuesday that he thought the media -- particularly in the U.S. -- should work harder to cover all parts of the world "honestly, intelligently, and regularly," and spoke candidly about his foundation's work with the United Nations as well as his hope that Al Gore might be persuaded to run for U.S. President in 2008.
When asked about the possibility that the next U.N. secretary general might be a woman, Turner went a step further, advocating that men should be barred from public office for a hundred years in every part of the world.
Turner, the founder of global news network CNN, nearly nine years ago pledged to give $1 billion (over ten years) to a foundation that would help to strengthen the United Nations and funnel money into U.N. causes around the world. He said that the media needed to help people understand each other across cultures.
"We need to understand people that are like us and are different from us," he said in his distinctive Southern drawl. "That's one of the reasons I started CNN and did my best to get them to concentrate on serious international news so that people would be better informed. If we don't have the right information today, we're doomed."
Looking forward to 2008, Turner expressed his hope that the next U.S. President would be a "great leader who thinks ahead, like Al Gore." He suggested the audience help convince Gore to run because "we can't afford to waste another eight years."
Turner also expressed his dismay at the situation in Iraq, saying that the U.S. had done "incalculable" damage over the past three years.
"[The decision to invade Iraq] will go down in history -- it already is going down in history -- as one of the dumbest moves that was ever made by anybody," Turner said, citing the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and the German invasion of Russia during the Second World War as other "dumb" moves.
"We lost so much," he said of the U.S. invasion. "It literally broke my heart, it was so dumb. ... If you started wars with everyone you don't like, well good God, we would all be at war with everybody."
Turner said that, even in such a world, he wouldn't be at war with anyone -- even Rupert Murdoch: "I'd fight [Murdoch] in the ring, with gloves on, but I wouldn't bomb News Corp."
As for women: "If we had women holding all the public offices, the amount of money on the military would be immediately cut way back and more would be spent on healthcare and education," Turner said. "There wouldn't be lack of family planning or birth control if the women ran things."
Apart from the talk, Turner also joined billionaire investor Warren Buffett and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn Tuesday in a new initiative which will give $50 million to the UN's nuclear watchdog agency to create a uranium stockpile. The project is hoping to dissuade countries around the world from developing nuclear programs by providing supplies of low-grade fuel to be used at nuclear power plants.
David S. Hirschman (dhirschman@editorandpublisher.com) is E&P's online editor.
Links referenced within this article
dhirschman@editorandpublisher.com
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/mailto:dhirschman@editorandpublisher.com
Find this article at:
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003124692
By David S. Hirschman
Published: September 19, 2006 9:00 PM ET
NEW YORK Appearing before a group of journalists and international policy leaders at Reuters' offices in New York, mogul-cum-mega-philanthropist Ted Turner said Tuesday that he thought the media -- particularly in the U.S. -- should work harder to cover all parts of the world "honestly, intelligently, and regularly," and spoke candidly about his foundation's work with the United Nations as well as his hope that Al Gore might be persuaded to run for U.S. President in 2008.
When asked about the possibility that the next U.N. secretary general might be a woman, Turner went a step further, advocating that men should be barred from public office for a hundred years in every part of the world.
Turner, the founder of global news network CNN, nearly nine years ago pledged to give $1 billion (over ten years) to a foundation that would help to strengthen the United Nations and funnel money into U.N. causes around the world. He said that the media needed to help people understand each other across cultures.
"We need to understand people that are like us and are different from us," he said in his distinctive Southern drawl. "That's one of the reasons I started CNN and did my best to get them to concentrate on serious international news so that people would be better informed. If we don't have the right information today, we're doomed."
Looking forward to 2008, Turner expressed his hope that the next U.S. President would be a "great leader who thinks ahead, like Al Gore." He suggested the audience help convince Gore to run because "we can't afford to waste another eight years."
Turner also expressed his dismay at the situation in Iraq, saying that the U.S. had done "incalculable" damage over the past three years.
"[The decision to invade Iraq] will go down in history -- it already is going down in history -- as one of the dumbest moves that was ever made by anybody," Turner said, citing the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and the German invasion of Russia during the Second World War as other "dumb" moves.
"We lost so much," he said of the U.S. invasion. "It literally broke my heart, it was so dumb. ... If you started wars with everyone you don't like, well good God, we would all be at war with everybody."
Turner said that, even in such a world, he wouldn't be at war with anyone -- even Rupert Murdoch: "I'd fight [Murdoch] in the ring, with gloves on, but I wouldn't bomb News Corp."
As for women: "If we had women holding all the public offices, the amount of money on the military would be immediately cut way back and more would be spent on healthcare and education," Turner said. "There wouldn't be lack of family planning or birth control if the women ran things."
Apart from the talk, Turner also joined billionaire investor Warren Buffett and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn Tuesday in a new initiative which will give $50 million to the UN's nuclear watchdog agency to create a uranium stockpile. The project is hoping to dissuade countries around the world from developing nuclear programs by providing supplies of low-grade fuel to be used at nuclear power plants.
David S. Hirschman (dhirschman@editorandpublisher.com) is E&P's online editor.
Links referenced within this article
dhirschman@editorandpublisher.com
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/mailto:dhirschman@editorandpublisher.com
Find this article at:
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003124692
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