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CNN Founder Ted Turner Wishes Network Had A ‘More Balanced Agenda,’ Covered Less Politics

By Samantha Chang
Published on: 11:00 PST, Sep 29, 2018

CNN founder Ted Turner is disappointed with the direction the 24-hour cable news channel he launched has taken in recent years. Specifically, the billionaire mogul said he wishes CNN covered less politics than it does now and promoted a “more balanced agenda.”

“I think they’re sticking with politics a little too much,” Turner told CBS Sunday Morning. “They’d do better to have a more balanced agenda.”

Turner launched CNN in 1980 and then sold CNN and its sister network, TBS, to Time-Warner in 1996. Turner, 79, no longer has any connection to either network, and lives quietly in Montana.

Turner is currently battling health issues stemming from the onset of Lewy Body Dementia, a progressive brain disorder.

Fox News Has Beaten CNN Ratings Every Year Since 1996

Turner said when he ran CNN, he was friends with powerful and influential world leaders who cared about his opinion because he shaped news coverage.

“I was even friends with Fidel Castro and Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin — I was friends with all of them,” Turner recalled wistfully.

In 1996, Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch launched Fox News network, which has consistently beaten CNN in ratings every year for the past 22 years.

Ted Turner said he and Rupert Murdoch had a friendly rivalry for years, but they always had a deep respect for each other’s business acumen.

“He envied me because I was ahead of him, a little bit, but not much,” Turner said of Murdoch. “He was one of the smartest guys in the media business — is one of the smartest.”

Turner’s complaint that CNN is focusing too much on politics has trickled down to other segments of society.

These days, political discussions have infiltrated TV sitcoms, movies, pop-culture magazines, entertainment awards shows, sports networks, and social media amid an escalating society-wide obsession with President Donald Trump.

And some people are getting fed up with this all-consuming obsession.

Comedian Wanda Sykes Heckled Over Anti-Trump Jokes

As the Inquisitr has reported, more than a dozen angry people heckled and/or walked out of Wanda Sykes’ comedy show after her anti-Trump jokes flopped with the audience.

Fans complained that Sykes’ “comedy” routine was not funny and too political for their tastes.

Witnesses said audience members started to heckle Wanda Sykes after she kicked off her routine with a series of jokes trashing President Trump. “Do some comedy!” one attendee yelled. Another reportedly shouted, “Too political!”

One woman said she’s not a Trump supporter, but she didn’t pay to watch a comedian slam Trump all night.

“I paid for a comedy show, not for a political venue,” one woman said. “First of all, you don’t bash our president. I am not a Trump supporter, but he is my president, and I would never bash my president.”

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