Ted Turner

Ted Turner is the founder of the Cable News Network (CNN) and other cable networks. His large media properties were acquired by Time Warner (later AOL Time Warner) in 1996, where Turner served as vice chairman until 2003. The following viewpoint was written shortly before the Federal Communications Commission issued a major decision to relax government regulations restricting media ownership. Turner argues that the growing consolidation of media ownership within fewer and larger corporations is bad for the state of mass media in the United States, in part because it would prevent the rise of future entrepreneurs such as himself. Large media corporations will seek profits at the expense of the public interest, will be more risk-averse and less innovative, and may perhaps even abuse their power by slanting their news coverage and cutting...