Ted Turner: Bush 'Turned Friends Into Enemies,' Men 'Screwed Up' World

During a Monday November 19 appearance at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, CNN founder Ted Turner charged that the Bush administration has "turned a lot of our friends into enemies," as he contended that when President Bush came into office, "we were friends with just about everybody in the world." Turner remarked, as documented by Raleigh's newspaper the "News and Observer": "Making friends where there used to be enemies is a very important thing to do. ... That's why I'm so sorry about this administration. Because we were friends with just about everybody in this world -- the United States was -- when this administration came to power. Now, we've turned a lot of our friends into enemies. ... I think the country with the most friends is the one that wins in the end." (More quotes follow)

The CNN founder also repeated his contention that men have "screwed up" the world as they have been the dominant leaders for so long, and theorized that, with women in charge, "we would get big reductions in military budgets and big increases in education and health care." Turner: "I'm not saying men shouldn't be able to do everything else -- be able to run education, business -- just part from public office for 100 years. ... Let's let the women run the countries, run the world for a while. I know what would happen. We would get big reductions in military budgets and big increases in education and health care."

Turner also argued that his $1 billion donation to the United Nations was "an investment in the future of humanity," and charged that CNN is now "trivializing the news," and that he "doesn't like it as much as when [he] was running it." Turner: "I don't like it as much as when I was running it. ... I think they're trivializing the news. ... They still do some excellent programming, but I'm disappointed overall, particularly in the programs like 'Headline News' and prime time."

The complete text of the "News and Observer" article from November 20 containing some of Turner's quotes can be found here.