Before her show airs on PBS, Christiane Amanpour’s daily musings air on CNN International, and on Monday that included an interview with producer Joni Levin and writer and director Keith Clarke of the new documentary Call Me Ted about CNN founder Ted Turner. During their discussion, Amanpour, who is usually very keen to label Republicans Putin apologists, hyped Turner’s record of “always” doing “the right thing,” including “trying to bring peace between the Soviet Union... and the United States.”
Amanpour asked her guests to “just remind people, I mean, I know it, because I work for CNN, but with that risk and that gamble and that all in, he changed the entire media landscape. It was really a global revolution. Just remind how that happened and how perilous it was, and how it could have failed at any moment along the way.”
Levin began by hyping Turner’s determination on “whether it was CNN, or cable, or, you know, whatever it was” before claiming, “I think it's just his inner belief, his inner belief in who he was, and things were not always transactional for him, it was really about doing the right thing. And you don't find that often.”
Amanpour replied, “I was going to ask you that because that is something that, you know, those who work for him and have been in his orbit really admire, the fact that he always did the right thing on climate, on, you know, the environment, on nuclear weapons. You know, on -- even trying to bring peace between the Soviet Union as it was and the United States.”
In 1988, Turner created a multipart documentary entitled Portrait of the Soviet Union. In that documentary, actor Roy Scheider declared, “The Soviet Union, draped in history, born in a bloody revolution, bound together by a dream that is still being dreamt. The dream of a socialist nation marching toward the world's first communist state."
"Once the Kremlin was the home of czars. Today it belongs to the people."
Less than three years later, that dream would lie where it belonged: dead on the ash heap of history.
Turner has also defended other communist dictators, such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro, “I expected Castro to be some horrible person, but he was a great guy.” A year before North Korea’s Kim Jong-il detonated a nuclear bomb, Turner had this exchange with Wolf Blitzer:
WOLF Blitzer: But this is one of the most despotic regimes and Kim Jong-il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn't that a fair assessment?
TED TURNER: Well, I didn't get, I didn't get to meet him, but he didn't look, in the pictures that I've seen of him on CNN, he didn't look too much different than most other people.
BLITZER: But look at the way, look at the way he's, look at the way he's treating his own people.
TURNER: Well, hey, listen. I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars, but ah-
BLITZER: Lot of those people are starving.
TURNER: I didn't see, I didn't see any, I didn't see any brutality in the capital or out in the, on the DMZ… I think that we should give them another chance. It doesn't cost us anything. We already have agreements. And North Korea never posed any significant threat to the United States.
Back in the present day, we can clearly see that Turner did not always do “the right thing.” If Blitzer could challenge him to his face in 2005, there is no reason for Amanpour to do corporate fluff in 2024.
Here is a transcript for the November 25-taped show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
11/25/2024
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And also, just remind people, I mean, I know it, because I work for CNN, but with that risk and that gamble and that all in, he changed the entire media landscape. It was really a global revolution. Just remind how that happened and how perilous it was, and how it could have failed at any moment along the way.
JONI LEVIN: Well, and that again goes back to, you know, Ted's nature, you know, his instinctive nature. I mean, now he really had it, you know, whatever that it is. But, you know, again, people thought he was nuts and they always said no to him. And as I said, he took no and turned it into on, that was his -- that was who he was. And so, he was always planting the flag, you know. And he used to say, you know, I'm just going to go as far as I can, as fast as I can, and I'll worry about it when I get there, whether it was CNN, or cable, or, you know, whatever it was. And that was just his nature, and I think it's just his inner belief, his inner belief in who he was, and things were not always transactional for him, it was really about doing the right thing. And you don't find that often.
AMANPOUR: That -- I was going to ask you that because that is something that, you know, those who work for him and have been in his orbit really admire, the fact that he always did the right thing on climate, on, you know, the environment, on nuclear weapons. You know, on -- even trying to bring peace between the Soviet Union as it was and the United States.
