Wolf Blitzer Remembers Friend Ted Turner Who Hired Him: ‘An Idealistic Guy’

Sara Boboltz Wed, May 6, 2026 at 2:52 PM UTC

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CNN’s Wolf Blitzer recalled his close friendship with the network’s founder, Ted Turner, after reporting the news that Turner had died at age 87.

Turner hired Blitzer in 1990, around a decade after CNN’s founding, which kicked off the 24-hour cable news era.

"When he hired me," Blitzer said, "he also said something that has always stayed with me. He said, 'CNN will be seen in the United States, but it's also so important that it's seen around the world.'"

"And that's why he created CNN International, because he felt — and he was an idealistic guy — he felt that if people all over the world were seeing the same news, maybe the world would be a little bit more peaceful and a little bit better,” Blitzer said. "And that's why he created CNN International and CNN in the U.S., so that people all over the world would be watching the same news."

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One of the first major moments for CNN came with the launch of Operation Desert Storm, which was carried live by CNN reporters in the field.

Blitzer, then the Pentagon correspondent, said he was getting calls from then-Defense Secretary **** Cheney and others warning CNN to get its reporters out of a hotel the U.S. was planning to bomb.

"And they all said, 'We want to stay and report the news from Baghdad,'" Blitzer said of the reporters on the ground. "This war is beginning. It's important that our viewers in the United States and around the world actually see what is going on. So they stayed. They risked their lives."

"But it was Ted Turner who said to them, 'If you want to stay, we'll support you. We'll do whatever we can to help you.'"

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”