On tour with his new book Call Me Ted, CNN founder Ted Turner unloaded more of his typical liberal nuggets on the Tavis Smiley show on PBS Tuesday. He pounded Bush’s pro-life position on the UN Population Fund: "We said we were going to pay, but the Bush administration never issued the checks. So women are dying of unsafe abortions." He still had old Cold War lessons: "I learned that the Russians, if you're nice to them - if you treat people with dignity, respect, and friendliness, they'll almost always reciprocate the same way." He trashed Fox News for backing war in Iraq and then claimed they "backed off of it."
Many people have probably forgotten how dramatically Turner has supported the cause of population control and abortion. He hasn’t changed his mind:
SMILEY: To your point now about overpopulation or the world's population, what do we do about that, if anything?
TURNER: Family planning. Have one and two-child families.
SMILEY: That's very controversial, as you know.
TURNER: I realize that, but I don't believe in it being a law. I think we should do it because it's the right thing to do for the time that we are here today. All you've got to do is fly over L.A. and see it goes from the ocean to 50 miles inland, it's solid people - nothing but. The land is the same way, but we just have to do it.
And in 1950, there was not a single country in the world that had a stable population. Now there's 40 countries that have stable population or shrinking population. And where the real problems are in the developing world, where women don't have equal rights with men, where they're uneducated and they don't have access to birth control, and they have more children than they'd like to have, that's where the population explosion is really occurring.
And it's a real tragedy. Like the United States hasn't been making their $25 million contribution to the United Nations Population Fund. We said we were going to pay, but the Bush administration never issued the checks. So women are dying of unsafe abortions because they don't have any other form of family planning all over the world in the developing world. The rich countries have to do their part to help the poor countries, in my opinion.
When Smiley asked about how he wanted CNN to do the news straight, Turner claimed he wanted both sides presented on the news, and complained the news had been completely biased toward the Israelis. He also felt misled about the communists and the Cold War:
I had grown up thinking that Communists were bad because that's what I'd been told. But when I met Castro and then I went to Russia and started really getting to know the Russians because I was interested in seeing if we could help bring the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion and came up with the Goodwill Games and everything, I learned that the Russians, if you're nice to them -- if you treat people with dignity, respect, and friendliness, they'll almost always reciprocate the same way.
If you go over and tell them you don't like their country, you don't like the food, you don't like their music, you don't like their culture and you don't like their women -- you just don't like the place -- well, they won't like you at all, either.
But if you go over and say, "Man, I'm having the best time over here. This Russian food is delicious. And everybody looks so great and everybody's being so friendly to us, we're having a great time here," they give you a hug. The Russians hug each other. Men over here, we're kind of afraid to hug each other, although it's getting more common. I brought it back. If I was hugging the Russians, I figured I'd want to hug my American friends, too.
Smiley even recalled that Turner interviewed Fidel Castro for CNN. Smiley asked Turner about whether CNN was trying to match Fox News Channel on the left, and he acknowledged that the network wants hosts with an attitude now.
Fox News definitely leans to the right, and if I remember correctly, at the beginning when we were getting ready to go to war with Iraq, they endorsed the war with Iraq, they promoted the war with Iraq, and I certainly don't think that's good, that a news network was trying to stir up a war. And once the war started going badly, they sure backed off of it and everybody pretty well forgot that, but I didn't forget it.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.




















Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Ted Turner's advice to others
November 20, 2008 - 22:23 ET by WorriedTed, you are so smart. If we just show a little respect to those happy people over there in the Middle East, they won't want to KILL US ALL!
Why are people like Ted Turner allowed to give his idiotic opinions to anybody. Is he trying to be just like his ex, Hanoi Jane? He should crawl back in his hole in Montana.
Actually
November 21, 2008 - 01:13 ET by justmeI was wishing he would crawl to some other state! I love Montana and I would rather we had a few less rich liberals owning large swaths of land!
In some places, a wealthy person will buy up all the land surrounding a piece of public land and no easement will be provided. There has been a back and forth about whether or not it's legal to wade in to the public land through a waterway. I think the last ruling/decision about it was that it is legal to do, but I don't know if the fight is over yet.
Why does Tavis Smiley think
November 20, 2008 - 22:42 ET by motherbeltWhy does Tavis Smiley think just because Turner is wealthy and famous, he is qualified to pass judgment on the world situation?
Would he assume he's qualified to make a medical diagnosis? Or even figure out what's wrong with someone's car engine? But because he's Ted Turner we're supposed to take his advice on how to fix the world?
Oh, please.
Ted, you need to read Mark Steyn's "America Alone" and see the demographic trend. And then you might want to head over to the Middle East and try to convince Muslims to have one- and two-child families.
Only one thing to say to
November 20, 2008 - 22:41 ET by BettendorOnly one thing to say to this:
CAPTAIN PLANET!
http://www.livevideo...
Did you know...?
November 20, 2008 - 22:42 ET by superconTed Turner is the largest private property owner in the North America...?Almost two million acres.
http://en.wikipedia....
Through Turner Enterprises, he owns 15 ranches in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.[2] Totaling 1,910,000 acres (7,700 km2), his US land-holdings make Turner the largest individual landowner in North America.[3] According to his Ted's Montana Grill website, "Turner
Enterprises' mission is to manage Turner lands in an economically
sustainable and ecologically sensitive manner, while conserving native
species."
Turner's biggest ranch is Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico, at 920 square miles (2,400 km2), it is the largest privately owned, contiguous tract of land in the United States.[14]
That's a lot of grass to mow.
Ever notice
November 20, 2008 - 23:04 ET by general companyHow conservitive are accused of owning and running everything, but the filthy rich liberals seem to be the one wanting to impose their thoughts and beliefs on us
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
I learned that the
November 20, 2008 - 22:45 ET by TN MomI learned that the Russians, if you're nice to them -- if you treat people with dignity, respect, and friendliness, they'll almost always reciprocate the same way.
The 9/11 terrorist counted on our 'treating people with dignity, respect, and friendliness'.
President Bush had it right! His was an unpoplar decision in terms of world view but that did not deter him. He made the stand to fight the axis of evil where ever they were. These pansy liberals like Turner want to sit down for tea with our enemies!
Dear President Bush,
Thank you for keeping our country safe these past seven years! May God bless America.
Sincerely,
TN Mom
Teddy, we didn't grow up
November 20, 2008 - 22:47 ET by KevpotTeddy, we didn't grow up thinking that the people who were under the thumb of communism were bad, we grew up thinking the commie bastards who forced that failed system upon them were bad.
Kev... Ted should watch
November 20, 2008 - 23:14 ET by Clear thinkerKev...
Ted should watch this... Teach Your Children Well
Making Fun of AGW http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/
Captain Amerika strikes again
November 20, 2008 - 22:53 ET by legacyrepublicanI guess he can safely rename it Communist News Network.
I guess we can expect the MSM to start asking, "Are you now or have you ever been a conservative?"
Moreover, the thought will never occur to Captain Amerika that instead of telling the world of his taking advantage of a woman when he was thirteen thinking that abortion would correct any mistake of his, he might instead show the world how to treat her with dignity, not molest her, and thus show the world how a gentlemen treats a lady and keeps the population down.
Those without stones sir, those without stones!
Ted is
November 20, 2008 - 22:56 ET by bigtimerTed is certifiable.
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh
Just another funny liberal.
November 20, 2008 - 23:05 ET by Clear thinkerJust another funny liberal. Ted has smoked way too much of his money!
Liberal Hypocrite - Funny Guy
Making Fun of AGW http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/
Ted Turner...The lights are on, but...
November 20, 2008 - 23:20 ET by PrairieSkynobody's home...
"...peace is the highest aspiration of the American People. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will never surrender for it, now or ever." President Ronald Reagan~ January 20, 1981
Remember Ted thought we would be eating people soon...
November 20, 2008 - 23:35 ET by CapeCodScottBack in April of this year on Charlie Rose Ted went all Hannibal Lectern (LINK)
www.ScottOnCapeCod.com
"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation"... until they get fed-up enough to finally say something about it!
CCS...Ted Turner...Can you imagine what it's like...
November 20, 2008 - 23:40 ET by PrairieSkyinside that man's head???
Scary...
"...peace is the highest aspiration of the American People. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will never surrender for it, now or ever." President Ronald Reagan~ January 20, 1981
Ted Turner is an uneducated ignoramus...
November 20, 2008 - 23:39 ET by R D Helm...who just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
As a life-long Atlantan, I am ashamed that he is from my home town.
-Dave
Did this country just elect Obama/Biden, or was it Soros/Ayers?
I read his biography years
November 20, 2008 - 23:50 ET by bigtimerI read his biography years ago he wrote...seems he had issues then, still appears more than that way as the years go on...
I wished I would of had it so bad, to each their own, it's how we each handle our lives....Ted has issues still.
His Dad didn't handle the problems all that well...then again, guess he was bi-polar or took the easy way out...depending on how you look at it.
Like I said, as far as I am concerned he is certifiable.
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh
TT is the ultimate clown...
November 20, 2008 - 23:43 ET by MightyMouthjust look at his choice in women! And btw he is a total racist secessionist. Have you ever seen the movie God's and Generals? Old Ted does a bit where they are singing the "Bonnie Blue Flag" and he has to take the side of the confederacy. Real class act, he is!
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Stop government handouts
November 21, 2008 - 00:16 ET by mostlymoderateStop government handouts like welfare, school lunch programs, free medical and food stamps then not as many people would sneak into America and have 7 anchor babies. The U.S. population should DRASTICALLY go down.
Stop sending hard earned Federal tax dollars overseas to help countries that won't help themselves. Why do we keep sending money to places like Africa, Central America and South America? Stop sending the money and the population should decline drastically.
Stop giving tax benefits to people that have more children that 3 or 4. That way, if you can't afford more children you won't be inclined to have more.
teddy boy---
November 21, 2008 - 00:23 ET by misterbillSMILEY: To your point now about overpopulation or the world's population, what do we do about that, if anything?
TURNER: Let 'em eat cake!!!!
What's his book title?
November 21, 2008 - 01:03 ET by MichiganVetCall Meat-head .....
I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy
Byron White
November 21, 2008 - 02:01 ET by easygoerIt is hard to gain say Justice White's dissent in Roe V. Wade
At the heart of the
controversy in these cases are those recurring pregnancies that pose no
danger whatsoever to the life or health of the mother but are,
nevertheless, unwanted for any one or more of a variety of reasons --
convenience, family planning, economics, dislike of children, the
embarrassment of illegitimacy, etc. The common claim before us is that,
for any one of such reasons, or for no reason at all, and without
asserting or claiming any threat to life or health, any woman is
entitled to an abortion at her request if she is able to find a medical
advisor willing to undertake the procedure.
The
Court, for the most part, sustains this position: during the period
prior to the time the fetus becomes viable, the Constitution of the
United States values the convenience, whim, or caprice of the putative
mother more than the life or potential life of the fetus; the
Constitution, therefore, guarantees the right to an abortion as against
any state law or policy seeking to protect the fetus from an abortion
not prompted by more compelling reasons of the mother.
With
all due respect, I dissent. I find nothing in the language or history
of the Constitution to support the Court's judgment. The Court simply
fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers
[410 U.S. 222] and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its
action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most
existing state abortion statutes. The upshot is that the people and the
legislatures of the 50 States are constitutionally dissentitled to
weigh the relative importance of the continued existence and
development of the fetus, on the one hand, against a spectrum of
possible impacts on the mother, on the other hand. As an exercise of
raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does
today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant
exercise of the power of judicial review that the Constitution extends
to this Court.
The
Court apparently values the convenience of the pregnant mother more
than the continued existence and development of the life or potential
life that she carries. Whether or not I might agree with that
marshaling of values, I can in no event join the Court's judgment
because I find no constitutional warrant for imposing such an order of
priorities on the people and legislatures of the States. In a sensitive
area such as this, involving as it does issues over which reasonable
men may easily and heatedly differ, I cannot accept the Court's
exercise of its clear power of choice by interposing a constitutional
barrier to state efforts to protect human life and by investing mothers
and doctors with the constitutionally protected right to exterminate
it. This issue, for the most part, should be left with the people and
to the political processes the people have devised to govern their
affairs.
It
is my view, therefore, that the Texas statute is not constitutionally
infirm because it denies abortions to those who seek to serve only
their convenience, rather than to protect their life or health. Nor is
this plaintiff, who claims no threat to her mental or physical health,
entitled to assert the possible rights of those women [410 U.S. 223]
whose pregnancy assertedly implicates their health. This, together with
United States v. Vuitch, 402 U.S. 62 (1971), dictates reversal of the judgment of the District Court.
Likewise,
because Georgia may constitutionally forbid abortions to putative
mothers who, like the plaintiff in this case, do not fall within the
reach of § 26-1202(a) of its criminal code, I have no occasion, and the
District Court had none, to consider the constitutionality of the
procedural requirements of the Georgia statute as applied to those
pregnancies posing substantial hazards to either life or health. I
would reverse the judgment of the District Court in the Georgia case.
I like Tedver
November 21, 2008 - 05:47 ET by andersonshipserviceI like ted.He puts on a display the hubris and hypocrisy that is endemic to the most ardent doom sayers of global warming.He has his own fleet of jets,god knows how many homes across the globe,owns the most private land of anyone in the U.S.(he even has his own trout stream,this is the only reason to envy him)and has at least four children.Once again we find the big spender who wants to make rules that hobble all but him.Barbara Streisand but with a gap between his front teeth and a even greater gap between his frontal lobes.Another do as I say and not as I do liberal.When will people see through this flimsy facade of elitism masquerading as concern for the common man?
"Do as I say, not as I do" liberals
November 21, 2008 - 22:51 ET by GalvanicTURNER: Family planning. Have one and two-child families.
You're right, andersonshipservice. Turner actually has FIVE children.
He's just one of many hypocritical libs, like
Barrack Obama -- Champion of Public Education and heartily endorsed by the National Education Association -- who announed today that he and his wife are sending his daughters to the prestigious and private Sidwell Friends School, where Chelsea Clinton attended, instead of the predominatnly black DC school near the White House.
Congressman Charlie Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, hasn't paid income tax in over ten years on a home he owns and rents out in the Dominican Republic, but he can't wait to spend our tax dollars.
Senate-candidate Al Franken is arrears in paying his Social Security contributions to employees of Air America, though he rails against heartless Republicans who don't care about working people.
Democratic Governor Eliott Spitzer -- who targeted New York prostituion rings for prosecution -- resigned after it was revealed that he was traveling out of state to screw a high-priced whore.
VP-elect Joe Biden contributes practically nothing to charity, but brow-beats citizens about how it's our patriotic duty to pay taxes in order to help people.
If only the media would call them on these things (sigh)
Turner's "Abortion Corps"
November 21, 2008 - 07:49 ET by SickofLibsWomen in third world countries are dying from unsafe abortions because the mean old USA didn't mail the check?
The heck with Peace Corps, what we REALLY need is to start up the Abortion Corps. Second-year Med students traveling around the world performing 'safe' free abortions as part of their education.
Classic Ted Turner Video
November 21, 2008 - 08:22 ET by PopularTechIt doesn't get any better then this...
Ted Turner: "Global Warming Will Create Cannibals" (Video) (1min)
Censored Global Warming Videos
Amazing
November 21, 2008 - 09:07 ET by misterbee241It never ceases to amaze me whenever I read a Turner interview, how one man could be so bloody stupid and yet be so rich. I've always heard God looks out for drunks and fools, and while I dont know if TT is a drunk, he certainly is a fool.
"So women are dying of unsafe abortions."
November 21, 2008 - 13:29 ET by GrannyGrump42Yes, Mr. Turner, women are dying of unsafe abortions. Laura Hope Smith in Massachusetts. Edrica Goode, Diana Lopez, Holly Patterson, Chanelle Bryant, Orianne Shevin, and Vivian Tran recently in California. Brenda Vise in Tennessee.
Oops! Wrong women. It's okay if we kill women in unsafe abortions here at home, because it's legal. It's only unacceptable if the guy who kills her can go to jail. My bad!
Perhaps,
November 21, 2008 - 23:39 ET by HillbillyKingTed should off himself and decrease the worlds population by one. Practice what you preach an all that.
Teddy is a HUGE fan of a little something called Eugenics(i.e. population control) Unfortunately, so are a large number of very wealthy people who can throw money at this vile ideology.
There's a war being wage on your mind and you probably don't even know it.
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
Don Marquis 1878-1937
eugenics
November 21, 2008 - 23:44 ET by porpoiseboywho was that other guy who was big on eugenics....what was his name?...oh yeah, it was HILTER! keep up the good work, ted.
"Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason" Ben Franklin
Ecclesiastes 10:2 The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left