Turner Receives Goldsmith Award

Media mogul Robert E. "Ted" Turner sent a packed crowd of students and journalists into hysterics at the ARCO forum last night as he described the beginnings of the Cable News Network (CNN) in the 1970s.

Turner was at the forum to receive the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Joan Shorenstein Center at the Kennedy School of Government.

"That didn't cost you very much," he quipped after receiving the framed award.

Turner said he conceived of CNN, the 24-hour cable news service, in 1970, when his busy schedule kept him from seeing the six o'clock news.

"A 24-hour news channel would really be a great convenience," Turner recalled thinking.

Turner described the process of forming CNN as risky and uncertain.

"I was like Columbus," he said. "I didn't know where I was heading, where I had gotten to when I arrived, or where I had been when I got back."

Turner also commented on the future of CNN, as well as his own plans.

Asked what he thought CNN's future would be, Turner simply responded, "I hope it's bright."

He also addressed a question about the recent layoffs of about 400 field reporters from CNN's staff.

"I think there are all sorts of threats to CNN," he said, "but recent layoffs are not a major blow."

More than CNN, Turner seemed excited about vaguely sketched plans to run a new television network in Russia.

"There's a great danger that freedom of the press could be snuffed out in Russia," he said.

Meanwhile, amidst talk of his past and future, Turner seemed to spend most of last night's address simply entertaining the audience as he spoke apparently without any kind of script.

Turner described himself as "a global citizen."

"I feel like I carry all the problems of the planet," he said. "Nuclear weapons, my fault. Slavery, my fault."

Turner seemed particularly amused that he was speaking at Harvard, since his application to the College was rejected.

"If I had come to college here, God knows what would have happened," he said.

Turner said he has given $100 million to Brown University, his alma mater, and also, last week, to his estranged wife of eight years, film star Jane Fonda.

"I gave my wife $100 million last week," he proclaimed. "$13 million of it went right here [to Harvard], goddammit, to a gender study."

Last week, Fonda announced that she was making a $12.5 million donation to Harvard's Graduate School of Education (GSE) to fund studies of gender and early child development.

The gift was the largest in the GSE's history.

"I want you to know that's my money, goddammit," Turner quipped.

One attendee of last night's ARCO event asked how Turner felt about the Bush administration's plans, announced yesterday, "not to worry about carbon dioxide emissions."

Turner's attention and money have turned recently to philanthropy, including a $1 billion gift to the United Nations and a focus on nuclear weapons proliferation and the environment.

"I just lost my job and my wife," Turner replied. "Do you have any other bad news?"

Turner's award last night comes as religious leaders have attacked him for offensive comments he made at a CNN employee event last week.

Turner, speaking to about 300 employees at a retirement party for CNN anchor Bernard Shaw, reportedly noticed ashes on an employee's forehead in honor of Ash Wednesday.

"I was looking at this woman and I was trying to figure out what was on her forehead. At first I thought you were in the earthquake" that day in Seattle, Turner reportedly said.

"I realized you're just Jesus freaks. Shouldn't you guys be working for Fox?" he reportedly said.

Since the incident, Turner has responded contritely as Christian leaders have criticized him.

"I apologize to all Christians," he has said. "I do not believe in any form of prejudice or discrimination, especially religious intolerance."

Last night, Turner expressed similar feelings.

"I'm not against any religious groups," he said.