Ted

"The press portrayed him as a lucky daredevil in business, but Ted wasn’t so much reckless as he was fearless—there’s a difference. He was the same in sailing. At the helm, Ted would steer the speeding boat directly into the rocks before he would tack at precisely the right moment, shaving seconds off his run time. Behind the playboy image, Ted was a hard worker and a smart businessperson who saw things on the horizon that others could not: how technology, public policy, and consumer interest were shifting and aligning to create new opportunities in this new industry."

"Amused at first, I became inordinately impressed by how Ted had bucked the odds in business and government. The more business I did with him, the more convinced I became that he possessed some preternatural sense of timing, a phenomenon I still marvel at so many years later. Like a cartoon character on one of his networks, Ted would start walking directly off a cliff—and a path suddenly would appear beneath his feet, as if he’d known it would materialize."

"By 1979, he captained the winning boat in the Fastnet race, considered the most dangerous race in the history of sailing. In seas as high as fifty feet, fifteen people died in the 650-mile race, and of the 303 boats that started the race, only 86 finished. In driving sheets of rain and violent waves, Ted was so obsessed with competing and winning that he was unaware of the death and trauma behind him as he crossed the finish line."

"Half listening to me, Ted waved his hand, swatting away the pesky regulations like a fly in the room. Ted didn’t really want to hear any objections or any questions. He wanted more than anything to leave with a handshake to carry his network to reach all of TCI’s subscribers. With my questions hanging in the air, all eyes were on Ted. Instead of calmly responding to the issues, Ted, in suit and tie, dropped down onto the floor on his hands and knees and started crawling around as if he had dropped something. Groveling on the floor, he crawled over to JC Sparkman, head of operations, and kissed JC’s shoes, telling him, “JC, I’ll kiss your feet if you carry this station! Please carry my channel!” It was quite a show, acted out in dramatic fashion, and he had the entire office hooting, howling, and laughing at the theatrics. He had won the crowd. When Ted figured out he wasn’t walking away with an agreement, though, he made his intention clear: “Well, I’m ready to do it myself if I can’t get anybody to help.” Impressive. Here’s a guy who is unafraid of walking into the cage and poking the tiger. Here was a broadcast station essentially planning to take on the broadcast industry, which had had its boot on the back of the neck of cable operators for years. *Is this guy fearless or crazy?* I thought at the time. *Probably a little bit of both.*"

"Over the years, Ted had grown more passionate about liberal causes, such as the environment, global warming, and overpopulation. This was especially true during the decade he spent married to actress Jane Fonda (1991–2001), before they divorced. As his politics were swinging more to the left, I think Ted allowed CNN to drift to the left, which he regarded as key to the salvation of the planet. To Ted, the right was just a bunch of Neanderthals. That was his judgment, and he was entitled to it, just as CNN was his property to manage."

"At one point Ted stopped mid-stride and declared, “I promise you I’m gonna take this superstation and I’m gonna put it up on that satellite and beam it back down!” His voice rose as he added: “All the cable companies are gonna carry it. We’re all gonna get rich together. It’s gonna be wonderful!” Like any good salesperson, he emphasized the hope more than the hurdles."

"Ted also cultivated the attitude of the screen hero he so admired, Rhett Butler in *Gone with the Wind*, right down to the character’s pencil-thin mustache. And frankly, my dear, Ted didn’t give a damn about what other people said about him. Like me, Ted could get lost mid-thought—he’d take these epic pauses, let out a long “aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh,” like he was buffering, then suddenly drop a one-liner so sharp you couldn’t help but laugh."

"Ted explained that he had agreements in place with a new channel called HBO to share space on Satcom I, a new communications satellite going up later that year. With assurances from HBO president Gerald “Jerry” Levin, Ted told us, “There’s room on the bird for us.”"

"Just getting warmed up, Ted started pacing back and forth as he spoke, like a tiger in a cage, a recurring behavior that I came to recognize as a sign that his synapses were firing in overdrive."

". I have an engineer’s mentality that compels me to plan crucial details, fully calculating every possible outcome so that all risks are known ahead of time. Ted’s life seemed to be a string of risky bets, based on the instinct and impulse of a mad, creative genius."

"A year after he bought the Braves in 1976, Major League Baseball commissioner Bowe Kuhn suspended Ted for a year for trying to sign a free agent before his contract was up. Ted protested, pleading ignorance. The very next day, Ted acquired the Atlanta Hawks franchise of the NBA for the same reason he’d bought the Braves—programming."

"In September 1995, Ted had made up his mind, and Time Warner agreed to pay $7.5 billion for Turner Broadcasting, creating the largest entertainment company in the world. Jerry Levin would keep his CEO/chairman title and Ted would be vice chairman, responsible for the cable networks of both companies, including HBO. When the deal finally closed, and the TBS shareholders exchanged each TBS share they owned for three-quarters of a Time Warner share, Ted, overnight, would become a billionaire, with his personal holdings in TBS stock worth north of $2 billion."

"But Ted, who had joined the TCI board a year earlier in 1994, told me when I mentioned the idea of a merger, “I love you guys, but you’re too far right-wing for me. I think if CNN is going to be controlled by anybody or fit with anybody, it needs to fit with somebody who’s in the news business—and Time Inc. is probably the most logical choice.” In truth, I’m a libertarian, believing in minimal government intervention, free markets, and personal freedom—but I could not argue the nuances to Ted. Few can."

"I don’t think Ted was or is anti-Semitic at his core. He was a stranger in a strange land, with instinctive southern prejudices. He was also a loudmouth who would say anything to make his point. Deep down he was really a humanist, and over the years I gained great respect for Ted as one of the media world’s great characters and visionaries. He was funny, sizzle smart, and somewhat crazy, and with his solid journalistic values he built CNN into the first international twenty-four-hour news service. If only his good, humanist, and bombastic self were running it today."