TED TURNED DOWN AS BAGHDAD BAIT

The New York Post ^ | 3/19/2003 | Paul Tharp

[GAGOPSWEEPTOVICTORY]

March 19, 2003 -- Ted Turner says he tried to go to Baghdad to cover the war live for CNN but wasn't allowed. Turner, the largest shareholder of CNN parent AOL Time Warner, volunteered for dangerous war-zone duty, but said his CNN executives believed he couldn't handle it.

[GAGOPSWEEPTOVICTORY]

Sometimes the punchline is just too easy.

[A Navy Vet]

Yeah, it is...but may I say...what a d*ckhead. Ted Turner/Jane Fonda legacy = putz.

[Timesink]

What's gone unsaid in this article is that AOLTW executives ordered CNN to turn him down because he's manic-depressive. His father was bipolar as well and committed suicide when Ted was rather young, and Ted has himself admitted trying to off himself more than once. They've probably seen Ted adding extra erratic and/or depressed lately and figured he was planning on getting himself killed. Suicide by Saddam instead of Suicide by Cop.

I mean, there's only so many ways you can interpret a statement like, "I'm 64, pretty much financially wiped out, and it would be a dramatic way to exit the world." "I'm 64" in an era when 64 is practically young; "financially wiped out" when he's still loaded beyond belief; and "dramatic way to exit the world," well, that pretty much explains itself.

While vaguely amusing in the grand scheme of decades of public Tedness, for the most part I don't doubt for a moment that a number of AOL boardroom types made a lot of phone calls to Atlanta and issued direct, personal orders on this one. They've probably also got Ted being tagged by a few of Bo Dietl's guys to make sure he doesn't do anything to harm himself.

[Timesink]

By the way, Ted happens to be exactly right about merging with NBC instead of AOL, though the concept does have the slight problem that NBC is not an independent company and hasn't been for, well, forever.

[dalereed]

For Turner to collect a bomb in Bagdad would be a great service to this country!

Let him be a marter for his beloved UN and socialism.

[Wil H]

He's not qualified to stand up there with a microphone in Baghdad because as a broken down, derelict, he would just merge into the backdrop and we wouldn't be able to see him on the screen.

[Freakazoid]

TED! Just put the microphone down and back away!

He's losing it.

[Darksheare]

Hmm.. Ted's suicidal?
Who knew?