Brash CNN founder Ted Turner dies

On June 1, 1980, Ted Turner launched CNN at a converted Jewish country club in Atlanta. Rick Diamond//Archive Photos hide caption toggle caption Rick Diamond//Archive Photos Ted Turner — the bullish founder of CNN and a suite of other cable channels, not to mention a bison steakhouse, a non profit designed to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and an international sports competition — died Wednesday at the age of 87. He had announced just before his 80th birthday that he had Lewy Body Dementia, a degenerative disease that causes dementia and muscle failure. Turner never seemed at a loss for brass or chutzpah. "If Alexander the Great could conquer the known world, why couldn't I start CNN?" Turner once told Oprah Winfrey. He launched the Cable News Network — the nation's first continuous all-news television station — on June 1, 1980 at a converted Jewish country club in Atlanta . The network broadcast news 24/7 from that point on and indeed built a global array of bureaus. Former CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan says Turner took inspiration from 24-hour radio stations that relayed news headlines, and endless sports highlights on ESPN. Turner remained baffled why the broadcast giants — ABC, NBC and CBS — hadn't launched cable stations. "To him it was just the most logical thing in the world and he couldn't understand why nobody else was doing it," Jordan says. …