Return to Transcripts main page

The Amanpour Hour

The Life and Legacy of CNN Founder Ted Turner; Interview with Former CNN Chairman/CEO and Author Walter Isaacson; Interview with Sir David Attenborough. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired May 09, 2026 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:41]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. And welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR.

Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: We remember when giants strode this earth, the life and legacy of CNN founder Ted Turner, who launched a media revolution for America and the world.

TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER: There's not one blemish on my honor in my entire 76-year career, not once.

AMANPOUR: First, our conversation at his Montana ranch, where he told me about the uphill battle to make 24-hour news, his fight to conserve the planet and banish nuclear weapons, and his difficult relationship with his father.

Then, memories from journalist and author Walter Isaacson about his years as CNN president under our founder. In his new book on America's founding fathers, he talks about the greatest sentence ever written.

WALTER ISAACSON, FORMER CNN CHAIRMAN AND CEO AND AUTHOR, "THE GREATEST SENTENCE EVER WRITTEN":: We have to realize, go back to that Declaration, we're all in this together.

AMANPOUR: Also ahead, Britain's broadcasting legend, the beloved David Attenborough celebrates his 100th birthday. He brought the wonders of our natural world into our living rooms in color for the first time.

From my archives, we hear about that great gift he gave us all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour, anchoring from home this weekend for a special show dedicated to Ted Turner, our extraordinary founder and fearless leader, the visionary who died on Wednesday at the age of 87. So this week, we show you what made him so special, a savant ahead of

every curve. The man who launched a global media revolution with CNN and 24/7 news. The man who actually did change the world.

The quintessential American entrepreneur. The handsome, swashbuckling, daring America's Cup champion. The peace activist who wanted to eradicate nuclear weapons and break down barriers between people and nations.

The first of the modern-day American philanthropists and, of course, a passionate conservationist, one of the largest single private landowners, which he would not develop but preserve forever, and even restored the almost-extinct American bison.

In nearly 43 years at CNN, I met Ted many times, including on his Montana ranch in 2015, where he told me so many stories of life, love, loss, and his commitment to family, community and always, always to CNN.

In today's sharply partisan, and weaponized media, and political environment, it's important to remember that he created this network 46 years ago not to hammer any political agenda, but simply to bring the truth about the world we all live in, to make us care about community and about our role and responsibility in it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: You are somebody who's known for your phenomenal success. I mean kind of mind-blowing success and the cutting-edge reforms that you've been doing.

How much do you look at success in context with failure? What does failure mean to you? How do you look at failure? How you deal with it?

TURNER: Tried to avoid it and I've been successful in doing that. I knew I didn't have enough money to get CNN to break even, but I figured, I said -- how am I going to get around it?

I thought it -- I thought it through real carefully and I figured if I get on the air and people see just how helpful it's going to be, I'll be able to raise the money later on. And I was able to do just exactly that.

It was hard to cover the financing. The first year, the budget -- we were 100 percent over the budget on expenses. It cost us twice as much to run as we had projected. And the income was half as much as we predicted.

[11:04:46]

TURNER: So, the bottom-line was one-quarter of what we -- what we projected and the bankers just said, Ted, we're sorry, this is not a bankable deal. You've got to give us our money back.

I said, give me a little time to get somebody else to lend it to me.

It was really fun. I mean it -- and it was scary. It was just as scary or scarier than the wind in the Fastnet race.

But all storms have a lot in common, you know. You're in danger. You've got to be a cool head.

Timing is important in everything that you do.

The first ten years, we lost money. And then we broke even in the 11th year and now we're making a decent profit.

AMANPOUR: When you were very young, your father told you to be sure to set your goals so high that you can't possibly accomplish them in one lifetime. That way you'll always have something ahead of you.

Did you set your goals high enough?

Most people would say yes, and you've accomplished --

(CROSSTALK)

TURNER: Yes.

AMANPOUR: -- them all.

TURNER: Well, I haven't accomplished them all. We haven't gotten rid of nuclear weapons. And we haven't got -- we're headed in the right direction -- but we haven't gotten far enough along with fighting global climate change. That, after nuclear weapons, is the greatest danger that we face.

And it's preventable. That's the good thing, is almost everything is preventable. The bad things, all you've got to do is just do them.

AMANPOUR: And CNN was also a major challenge. I mean, it wasn't -- it wasn't an easy thing to start, right? It was --

TURNER: No. Everybody -- just about everybody that had an opinion didn't think we could do it.

AMANPOUR: And what did you say to them? What did you say to that?

TURNER: Take a look at it. In retrospect, now you can see that we did do it, obviously. And it was a huge success. Huge.

AMANPOUR: How did you convince them and did you ever feel that if all these experts are telling me I can't do it, well, maybe there's something to it.

TURNER: It didn't bother me at all.

AMANPOUR: Were you trying to create a revolution with 24/7 news, or were you just trying to find another brilliant business opportunity? What was your motivating impulse?

TURNER: Both.

Both. I thought it through very carefully. That's what I did. I studied the situation and I knew what I was doing. Well, at least I felt like I knew what I was doing. And it turned out that I did.

AMANPOUR: And then after you created CNN in the United States, which already created a revolution, do you remember what it was like when you were shut out? When CNN was shut out of the White House, for instance?

TURNER: It wasn't for very long. We sued the president.

AMANPOUR: You sued the president.

TURNER: And the government, and the Supreme Court had heard the story right quick and voted in our favor.

AMANPOUR: So then CNN cameras could go and cover the White House like everybody else.

TURNER: Right. That's all we were asking. It's equal access.

AMANPOUR: You've said that of all the things you've done and you've done a lot, that CNN is the business achievement of which you're the most proud.

TURNER: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Ten years later was the Gulf War, when CNN really exploded into the international consciousness, into the global.

TURNER: We're the only ones that were covering the war live from behind the lines.

AMANPOUR: Do you remember all the pushback you got from the president of the United States, from the chairman of the joint chiefs, from all these people who called you up and said, Ted, get your people out of Baghdad.

TURNER: Well, the president didn't call me. He called Tom Johnson. But the word got to me.

AMANPOUR: Did you ever think of obeying those orders?

TURNER: I couldn't do it because it was too important. And I said, as long as we have people that volunteer to stay. And Peter Arnett volunteered.

AMANPOUR: And Bernie Shaw and John Holliman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNARD SHAW, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let's describe to our viewers what we're seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated. We're seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TURNER: Bernie really got caught there. He got out the next day. He was only there the first day. AMANPOUR: But its legendary what they did that night.

TURNER: Oh, yes. Yes, that that was it.

AMANPOUR: And then everybody else took CNN.

TURNER: Right.

AMANPOUR: Fast forward all these years to now. There's a lot of politics that's involved, even in news coverage.

And people can criticize. They can say, well, you know, were you on the side of the Iraqis? Why weren't you, you know, patriotic Americans? What were you doing in the enemy camp? Why were you behind enemy lines?

What do you say today to people who still ask that question? Not just --

[11:09:49]

(CROSSTALK)

TURNER: They don't ask it.

AMANPOUR: -- not just about this story.

TURNER: It's -- we changed the way things were done. It wasn't, uh, we weren't anti-American. We were just pro-truth.

AMANPOUR: And were you pro-truth when you took up the invitation from Fidel Castro decades ago to actually go to Cuba and see what this guy was all about? What made you go there? Was that about --

(CROSSTALK)

TURNER: Curiosity. That's what made us go everywhere. That's what people watch the news for, because they're curious about what's going on.

AMANPOUR: Did you have an idea of Fidel Castro?

TURNER: I thought he was pretty colorful.

AMANPOUR: And did you change your opinion when you --

TURNER: And he had -- he had a lot of courage to tackle the United States. You know, being so close to us.

AMANPOUR: Did you change your opinion at all when you got down there? I mean, your father was very strongly anti-communist, like most Americans.

TURNER: I was too. You don't have to agree with somebody politically on everything that feel like they have -- that they have worth. AMANPOUR: And you also said, "After this eye-opening trip to Cuba, I

flew home with a whole new desire to understand more about other cultures and political systems and to do what I could to increase communication and dialog between nations.

TURNER: Yes. What's wrong with that?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: At first derided as chicken noodle news, Ted and CNN had the last laugh.

Coming up later on the program, more of my conversation from Montana about Ted the globalist -- bison, sailing and world peace. A deeper look into the man who was so much more than just a media mogul.

[11:11:35]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program, where we are continuing with our special coverage of the late media pioneer Ted Turner, who died earlier this week.

Never one to rest on his laurels, he was passionate about using CNN's unprecedented global reach. He was also a bit of a diplomat, founding the Goodwill Games in the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War.

It was an international sports competition specifically designed to dial down the temperature between the United States and the Soviet Union with thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at each other.

Grandiose, maybe, but he meant it. And indeed, in the USSR, communism did collapse a few years later.

Here's some of our conversation about that part of his life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Your whole ethos was about trying to build bridges between nations, especially with the Goodwill Games, when you tried to build bridges between then-Soviet Union and the United States.

(CROSSTALK)

TURNER: Yes. During the 20 years of the Goodwill Games, we never had better relations with Russia.

AMANPOUR: And just remind me, who was your guide then? Wasn't it the young Vladimir Putin?

TURNER: Yes, vice mayor of St. Petersburg. We had the games there. I forget what year it was but it was when he was there.

AMANPOUR: And what was -- what did you think of him at that point?

TURNER: He seemed like a pretty capable, competent guy.

AMANPOUR: Does it surprise you that now that he's president all these years later, there is real antipathy between him, Russia and the United States?

TURNER: It's terrible. I'm the guy that believes that we should learn how to get along, particularly the countries that we cannot afford to get into conflict with -- Russia, and because of their nuclear weapons, and China.

AMANPOUR: So during this crisis between Russia and Ukraine and the raid against the West, something that I thought was unthinkable happened.

President Putin has, one way or another, raised the specter of quote, unquote, "the nuclear option".

And I certainly never thought in my life, particularly after the Cold War, that this would be a possibility. And you, who spent so much of your life trying to secure nuclear weapons with the Nuclear Threat Initiative, can you believe that this is actually happening in 2015?

(CROSSTALK)

TURNER: It's hard -- it's hard to believe, but we're both guilty. The only thing that we can do is have total nuclear disarmament. Either we all have nuclear weapons or we all don't have them.

And I'm in real favor of not having them. We should get rid of all of them. And sign a treaty that will never mess with them again.

We don't want to destroy the world. It's a very dangerous situation. Those bombs are so powerful that just a few of them will kill life on earth. And we've got thousands of them on hair-trigger alert.

AMANPOUR: Do you worry that there could be an accident?

TURNER: Yes. There have been numerous accidents, but fortunately none have triggered an explosion yet. But it could happen at any time.

It's just like having dynamite in your basement. We ought to work on the things that make our lives better. Not the things that make our lives worse.

And weapons and armies and aircraft carriers are just a waste of money and a waste of time.

[11:19:47]

TURNER: It's time to put war behind us. But that we've made enough progress where we can say goodbye to war and say hello to cooperation and working together.

AMANPOUR: You seized cable before cable was cool as the ad went. What would you say to people today? What is the most important area of business endeavor? TURNER: Well, a chance to make a fortune -- energy. Clean, renewable

energy is the biggest single project, because most of the people in the world don't have clean, renewable energy.

AMANPOUR: What would you say to the skeptics who say there may be some climate change going on but, A, it's got nothing to do with us, and B, trying to fix it with alternative energy is just economically not viable? What would you say to them?

TURNER: I'd say, I hate to say this, but I think you're wrong.

AMANPOUR: I want to go back a little bit further. You went to Brown University to study the Classics?

TURNER: No.

AMANPOUR: No.

TURNER: I went there because my father wanted me to go to an Ivy League School, and I got in there.

AMANPOUR: Your father wanted you to go to an Ivy League School, and you got in. That's why you went.

TURNER: I didn't plan to study the Classics when I first went to Brown. I didn't know what I was going to study.

AMANPOUR: You did study the Classics, right?

TURNER: I ended up going -- going that way because it was inspirational for me.

AMANPOUR: In what way?

TURNER: Well, the grandiose plans of the Classics.

Horatio at the bridge. Then step forward. Horatio, the captain of the gate. He said to every man of woman born death cometh soon or late.

And how can man die better than facing fearful odds for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods?

Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may. I, with but two beside me, will hold the foe in play.

On yon straight path, a thousand might well be stopped by three. Now who will stand on either hand and guard the bridge with me?

I like that.

AMANPOUR: I like that too.

TURNER: I signed up for Classics. So here I am, hew down the bridge.

AMANPOUR: This letter from your dad when you declared Classics your major, he said, "My dear son, I'm appalled." TURNER: I know.

AMANPOUR: "Even horrified that you've adopted Classics as a major."

TURNER: I know.

AMANPOUR: "As a matter of fact, I almost puked."

TURNER: "On the way home today."

AMANPOUR: You remember the letter? "I think you're --

TURNER: Of course, I remember.

AMANPOUR: Rapidly becoming a --

TURNER: An asshole.

AMANPOUR: No, it was a jackass.

TURNER: Damned as I sent you there.

AMANPOUR: What did you think when you got that letter from your own dad?

TURNER: I was more amused than anything because I saw the value in Classics.

AMANPOUR: Can you do Shakespeare?

TURNER: A little bit?

AMANPOUR: Do you have anything you'd like to declaim?

TURNER: This is, I think, Richard III. Anyway, it's one of the Richards.

"Oh, my honor is my life. We live in one. Take honor from me, and my life is done. Then pray, my liege, my honor let me try. For that I live and for that will I die."

And I lived with that. There's not one blemish on my honor in my entire 76-year career, not once.

AMANPOUR: What do you most want to be remembered for?

TURNER: The good things I've done.

AMANPOUR: What's your proudest achievement?

TURNER: My family first and outside my family, CNN.

AMANPOUR: And what advice would you have for any young person who came to say, "Ted, you've done it all. What can you tell me?"

TURNER: Clean energy. AMANPOUR: Ted Turner, thank you very much.

TURNER: You're quite welcome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Next up, Ted loved America, its unique history and its enduring promise.

Now, as the nation prepares to celebrate 250 years of independence, we ask whether it's forgetting its founding principles.

I asked veteran journalist Walter Isaacson.

[11:24:20]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the show.

Now from our founder to America's founding fathers, it's 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the United States, as we know it was born. A massive milestone for sure, but also a necessary reality check right now.

The U.S. is blowing past so many of its founding principles under the Trump administration, especially pushing the very extremes of executive power, which means weakening constitutional checks and balances, starting wars of choice, and trampling the very alliances around the world that have made America uniquely powerful and influential.

This week, veteran journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson was here in London with his new book on the Declaration and "The Greatest Sentence Ever Written".

[11:29:51]

AMANPOUR: He joined me here at home to reflect on this moment in America and on his time as chief executive of CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Walter Isaacson, welcome to the program.

ISAACSON: Thank you, Christiane.

AMANPOUR: And my former boss as president of CNN.

ISAACSON: Well, colleagues. We were all together back then.

AMANPOUR: No, you were the boss then. Now, we're colleagues.

Let me ask you, of course, the passing of our great founder. I mean, it's really an irreplaceable loss and he was a unique individual.

You have written so much about the geniuses of our era in every field and I think you count Ted as a genius.

ISAACSON: Totally. A total innovator. I always write about innovation, which means thinking out of the box and this notion that you do a 24- hour cable news around the world, global -- it changed geopolitics. It changed our world.

It was partly because Ted was crazy but he was crazy like a fox and we all loved him.

AMANPOUR: It's the kind of crazy that's very good crazy.

ISAACSON: Exactly. It makes you march through walls for him. But also, to see things that people couldn't see. People told him he was crazy to try to start a satellite news network type thing, but the world is so different because of it.

AMANPOUR: And when you were asked to be president shortly before 2001 -- 9/11, it had been called chicken noodle news for a long time. What did you think you were getting into?

ISAACSON: Well, I knew that it cared, with you there and Nic Robertson and all these people, about international coverage.

AMANPOUR: Wolf. Oh, yes.

ISAACSON: Wolf Blitzer and others, that it was kind of problematic back then, you know, before I came because there was no big news. We were covering shark attacks or O.J. Simpson car rides or something but then when it really mattered and 9/11 happened.

I'll tell you a story, 9/11 happened, I'm in that newsroom in Atlanta. It's about 7:00 a.m., Eason Jordan and all the people you know were there, were watching the plane. The plane's hitting.

And Ted Turner was not really involved with CNN much then because the Time-Warner people had kicked him upstairs. But --

AMANPOUR: And the disastrous AOL kicked him further upstairs.

ISAACSON: Yes, and they didn't want him involved. So, he didn't come to the newsroom much.

But when that Twin Tower started to come down, I said to Eason and others, wait a minute. I went up to the fourth floor at CNN Center and Ted was in his office. I said, Ted, can you come down to the newsroom? He said, well, I'm not.

I said, Ted, we need you. And he was watching this and he grabbed a sword from the wall of his office and he came down to the newsroom and he said, this is why we created this network. Cover this war right.

AMANPOUR: Now, let's get to your book and let's get to where we are in America right now. Not just the media but American society, civil society, the respect for constitutional precedent and norms. It does seem, as America is about to celebrate 250 years of the Declaration of Independence, that this is a moment of massive identity crisis and a crisis of -- almost a constitutional crisis. Is that too dramatic?

ISAACSON: No, I think it's right although we've been here before. And if you remember 50 years or so ago, we had gone through Watergate, the resignation of the president, the assassinations of Kennedys and King, urban riots. And then we had our Bicentennial and rang the Liberty Bell, the tall ships came in and we healed. We came together as a nation.

I was hoping this would happen for our 250th because we are so polarized and it's why I wrote this book which is let's go back to the Declaration.

"We hold certain truths to be self-evident." Let's remind ourselves and when I say ourselves it's not just America but now more than half the world has that sense of democracy, of individual rights and freedom and that's what they stood for 250 years ago and we really should try to celebrate it this July 4th.

AMANPOUR: Celebrate and try to restore it because it seems to be --

(CROSSTALK)

ISAACSON: Defend it.

AMANPOUR: Defend it. I mean, I'm watching from abroad but the great values that the Declaration gave to the world not just to America and the rule of law and all the norms, just do seem to be under attack by this current Trump administration who makes no bones about it.

They believe in the maximum extension of executive power at the expense of all the other branches of government -- legislative, judicial, media.

ISAACSON: I think what you've seen though is it's longer than that. It's the past 20 or 30 years where globalism and free trade were great at creating wealth but it hollowed out a middle class, a working class, whether it be in Europe or the United States, and you had a backlash and sometimes we didn't fully understand it.

I mean, we who lived in Washington or New York and others, and I think we have to get back to that notion of common ground where if we're going to have wealth in a society, whether it's A.I.-driven or technology-driven, we have to make sure everybody participates and that we all share certain common values and common services.

[11:34:49]

ISAACSON: That got a bit lost. So you've had a populist revolt, whether it's here, with Brexit, whether it's in Hungary, but you also see the pendulum starting to swing back. So, I'm optimistic.

AMANPOUR: And one final question because now there is a conscious rollback of civil rights, a conscious rollback of any minority rights in the United States. How will that resolve itself?

ISAACSON: The great strength of America is it has people from all over the world, different races, different religions. And we weave together when we're the best.

That helps in my hometown of New Orleans, create things like jazz and wonderful food, because the diversity becomes part of our strength.

When we start getting more tribal, when we divide ourselves, when we do us against them, and whether it's the politicians doing it or the algorithms of social media doing it, where we're saying, ok, those people got too many rights, or those people took things from me, that's where we lose it as a nation.

We have to realize, go back to that Declaration. We're all in this together.

AMANPOUR: Even if it was all men, they didn't count on us women.

ISAACSON: Yes. And eventually, eventually -- Abigail Adams said.

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: Eventually.

ISAACSON: Remember the women? And when they have the Seneca Falls Declaration for the Rights of Women about a century later, they invoked that sentence in the Declaration.

AMANPOUR: Good old Abigail.

ISAACSON: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Abigail Adams.

Walter Isaacson, thank you so much.

ISAACSON: Christiane, thank you. Great to be with you again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And Walter's book, "The Greatest Sentence Ever Written", is out now.

When we come back celebrating the life and work of broadcaster and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough, who turns 100. Our conversation is next.

[11:36:28]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

He is officially a national treasure, a knight of the realm, and single-handedly brought Britain a love and respect and just sheer wonder of our natural world. Sir David Attenborough turned 100 years old yesterday.

Famous for his wildlife documentaries, this broadcaster has taken us on adventures around the world for decades. From tracing the story of evolution in the 1970s with the groundbreaking BBC series "Life on Earth", he has romped and cavorted with animals great and small.

I've been most privileged to have interviewed Attenborough a few times, but here's just a snippet of our conversation from the last time he celebrated a milestone when he turned 90.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: You turned 90 this year and you are still going gang busters. What is the secret of your passion and you energy still today?

SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, NATURALIST: Well, I think it helps to be interested in what you are doing. And, of course, an awful lot of people including me would actually pay for what I'm doing to be truthful. and so why stop?

AMANPOUR: But you have so much energy. You are so active.

And people have come to know and love you in your programs because of the way you relate to the animals, and you never seem to lose that whoa -- that wow factor. What if, you could, would be your biggest wow factor in terms of the animals that you have met and frankly communicated with?

ATTENBOROUGH: Well, I mean, you can't -- I can't communicate with a tiger, you know. I can't completely communicate with a jellyfish. We are primates. And we can, but -- and we can communicate with other primates.

AMANPOUR: Well, you say primates. And, of course, there is that classic footage of you with the gorillas, where you were doing a presentation to camera and all of a sudden, the gorilla sort of took over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ATTENBOROUGH: This is how they spend the rest of their day, lounging on the ground, grooming one another. Sometimes, they even allow others to join in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: It never gets old, Sir David. It never, ever gets old.

ATTENBOROUGH: Well, it couldn't have happened, of course, except for an amazing, amazing woman called Dr. Dian Fossey who habituated those. So, they were accustomed to it.

Again, you know, I get all kinds of unjustified credit and reflected glory. People think how clever. Dian Fossey made that possible, not me.

AMANPOUR: And you had this amazing moment also with a baby rhino, and literally you got on all fours and you started to make rhino noises, or tried to imitate the noises that the rhino was making.

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: But, you know, you don't often see a grown man on all fours communicating at the animal's level.

ATTENBOROUGH: Well, naturally. I mean, yes, not terrifically clever to be on all fours. I mean, I would do it if you like.

AMANPOUR: I don't want you to do it. Let's listen for a second.

I mean, it is amazing.

Do you ever worry after six decades of doing this, that, you know, this great planet, this great wildlife is in deeper danger than even the most dedicated conservationist can prevent?

[11:44:46]

ATTENBOROUGH: Yes, I do. Of course, I do. The awful thing is that we know how to fix it, you know? It isn't magic. I mean, we know the steps that could be taken. And we need to get the world's nations to agree to do it.

That's the problem. It can be done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: In his later years, Sir David went from being just a journalist recording these wonders to a committed campaigner for the preservation of our environment and our wildlife.

Next up, we return to Ted Turner, the champion yachtsman who risked his life and limb at sea. That's next.

[11:45:27]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

Throughout this hour, we're remembering CNN founder, Ted Turner, who died earlier this week at 87 years old.

And we now bring you a deeper look at this renaissance man and his global impact from climate to diplomacy to sports.

Let's take a look at even more of what he's achieved.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TURNER: I dedicate the news channel for America.

AMANPOUR: Ted Turner, the man who changed the world by creating CNN in 1980. It was the first on-demand global television news channel. But Ted Turner's accomplishments have an even wider reach than the

global network he built, a lifetime of work that put him ahead of the curve with every chance he took.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ted Turner.

AMANPOUR: A true renaissance man, Ted Turner defied labels. Yes, he became a billionaire businessman, but he was also a philanthropist, a conservationist, a sports champion.

TURNER: Aren't they cool? I never get tired of them.

AMANPOUR: And an optimist, as he told me when I visited him on his Montana ranch in 2015, surrounded by his beloved bison, a species he had nearly singlehandedly brought back from the brink of extinction.

TURNER: Remember, I'm supposed to be shooting for something that's impossible to have happen in my lifetime.

AMANPOUR: And he had the Midas touch every time he dreamed the impossible dream.

In 1997, he donated $1 billion to help support the United Nations by creating the United Nations Foundation. It was a jaw-dropping gift that stunned the world. But like many of Turner's endeavors, it made perfect sense to him.

TURNER: As of January of December 31st, I was worth $2.2 billion.

And I looked at it that morning real quick because I don't have a lot of time to look at my own statement. And I was up to 3.2 because the stock went up so much during the year.

So, I made it in nine months, I'm only giving up nine months earnings. It's not that big a deal. I'm no poorer than I was nine months ago, and the world is a lot better off.

AMANPOUR: Turner sold CNN to Time-Warner in 1996 and stayed on as vice chairman. By 2000, his fortune and his influence at CNN were waning after the disastrous Time-Warner merger with AOL.

But still, he pursued his causes. He avidly fought for the eradication of nuclear weapons. In 2001, he co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative, an organization that has worked to corral loose nukes and aims to reduce the weapons of mass destruction in the world.

He was a man who pushed boundaries. He met with dictators like Fidel Castro. He founded the Goodwill Games, which helped to ease tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

SHAW: The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated.

AMANPOUR: He insisted CNN must be behind enemy lines in Baghdad to report that side of the First Gulf War, cementing the network as the global leader in breaking news.

Before spearheading the media revolution, Ted Turner was a champion sailor, winning the prestigious America's Cup.

Later, he bought his adopted hometown baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, and its basketball team, the Atlanta Hawks. A career that wasn't linear but radiated in so many different directions, a one of a kind.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And we won't see the likes of him again.

The love of his life when we come back, when Ted Turner met his match. Former wife and Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda told me what she thought awaited Ted, yes, in heaven. That's after a break.

[11:53:52]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: AMANPOUR: And finally, as we look back on the remarkable life of Ted Turner, his influence on the media landscape will never be questioned or matched. Yet, as we have been showing, it was far from the only measure of his life.

During a conversation with his ex-wife, the Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda back in 2017, she spoke to me about his deep commitment to conservation. Remember, in America, he was way ahead of that curve on that vital and existential issue too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE FONDA, ACTRESS AND FORMER WIFE OF TED TURNER: Under the radar, less known, unless you've read the books about him, he has saved huge swaths of land, both in the United States and in Patagonia and in Tierra Del Fuego.

He has brought back species that were extinct in the wild. I mean, think of that.

I have this vision of Ted dying and going to heaven, and there's this chorus of animals, of critters, bees and birds and animals that are all singing and praising him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: I mean, it's a beautiful vision. Now, if all of this sounds like post-life hero worship, it is. There is such a thing as greatness and goodness despite the flaws and the stumbles.

[11:59:50]

AMANPOUR: There is such a thing as being the best boss in the world. And we had it. Long after Ted left the building as chief executive, we all still clung to his vision and his example. His motto, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." And he did the first. And it was the privilege of a lifetime for us to do the second. As for the rest, they had to get out of his way. That's all we have time for this week. Don't forget, you can find all

of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/audio and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you all again next week.