in Montana, New Mexico and elsewhere. I saw an interview that gave me some faith that the son is going to honor wishes to make these massive lands wildlife refuges.

Ted. You were a good guy. I'm sorry you didn't live long enough to see your CNN accomplishment turn around back to what you intended, but hopefully sometime before it dies under RW ownership...

Be at peace, Ted.

Rec

And it’s a huge ranch that sells hunts to the highest bidder.

Now, a little bit about that land. CF&I Steel owned huge land holdings to mine coal (the deposits here are rich and the coal is low sulfur and high energy. Rockefeller and his heirs bought that land for next to nothing and exploited Italian, Greeks, and Spanish/Mexican laborers to make their millions. The Ludlow Massacre was in response to Rockefeller’s “militia” where among other things, 4 women and 9 children were burned alive.

That land should be turned into a state park so the descendants of these people can live enjoy as well as others. Right now, it’s $20,000 to hunt am elk.

Ted Turner is a rich asshole. Don’t pretend he’s some kind of nature freedom fighter.

And no, I don't doubt there are issues with Vermejo Park--which is not fully endowed like most private lands throughout the West and thus the real room for criticism for catering to the rich to sustain it. I agree, but that is not the case with much of his other land holdings. And you don't need to inform THIS COLORADOAN about the Ludlow Massacre, which was recognized as a national monument in 1985. I joined my late Mother in advocating for this with the CO state legislature in 1983-1984--who then pressed and succeeded in gaining national designation. Did YOU?

Here is a start;
https://www.mountainliving.com/conserving-americas-wildlands-the-vision-of-ted-turner/

Don’t lecture me. This land should be returns to the people who were exploited to acquire it

Your grandfather notwithstanding. So, I repeat. What the hell did YOU do beyond castigating anyone and everyone around you for no reason?

Start with this to widen your tiny aperture about the works of Ted Turner--no saint assuredly, but DID do a tremendous amount of good that will live beyond him:

And sells hunts to the highest bidder. Lol

Because he did not do EVERYTHING as you would like (and yes, I would like) but you choose to ignore EVERYTHING else he did. That is beyond narrow-minded in my book. So, any self-sanctimony you claim for Ludlow and by extended claim of your grandfather's sacrifice is lost for that reason.

I don’t need to read your CNN story

his efforts in the rest of the country where he has property deeded to wildlife refuges or similar endeavors. I already indicated my own qualms about Vermejo Park and that I agreed largely with your views on that. But if you were to judged on one action you took in your lifetime while ignoring decades of good actions I'm sure you have undertaken, I would decry that too if in a position to know and to do so. I should think you would want others to do so for you as I would likewise hope you could do for others.

*Given Vermejo Park Ranch stretches over two counties of New Mexico and two in Southern Colorado you could conceivably live in New Mexico, but given your comments on Ludlow Massacre, I'm assuming it is Colorado.

That land was stolen from the Criollos and then used the blood of immigrants to acquire wealth. Turner wildlife ranched and managed it for maximum antler growth for maximum profit.

The land on the Colorado side (ironically owned by. Frenchman billionaire) was donated to the state to be made into the second largest state park in Colorado. The French guy’s family understands better than the Turners. He’s a rich guy who exploits Colorado and New Mexico wildlife selling premium hunts to other millionaires. Glad you drank the Kool Aid. My family has been here since the 1500’s. I go back to the Criollos. I’m not drinking it.

Ranch and its long history that should have been rectified long ago. I do believe it was the states of NM, CO and the Federal government specifically who should have done so, but nonetheless...

And you don't damned well get to tell ANYONE here to STOP posting. Take your own advice but I don't tolerate bullying by you or anyone--especially since you refuse to read my or others' comments before wrongly posting your own derisive and simplistic take. Turner has altruistic efforts in at least 8 other states that will live on beyond Vermejo Park and its sad history that he was not able or did not try to rectify. Ignore those efforts as you will. As I stated earlier I would doubt that YOU (or anyone else) would want to be remembered for one action you took in your life that could rightly be criticized as opposed to a lifetime of good.

Of the world for 500 years. I knew this land BEFORE Turner bought it. My grandfather worked in the mines associated with this land. My uncle’s, friends, and cousins did too. I have personally suffered losses because of men like Turner exploiting this land and its people. I don’t NEED to read your stories. I LIVED this history so how about you quit telling me how the cow ate the cabbage?

Are you ineptly trying to create a strawman that doesn't exist?

I am talking about your failure to recognize the work Turner has done throughout much of the rest of the country--outside of NM, CO and the ranch created from that land. Arguably there is a tremendous amount of land that should still remain with Native Americans in the West and into Alaska-- and elsewhere-- but no, it was not up to one man to reverse that process. The issue is the evidence of his good works outside CO and NM that others have provided to you from linked video documentaries, interviews, and linked reporting evidence from a multitude of sources that you refuse to even consider, read, watch. Fine, you hate Ted Turner. We get it. But, others get to consider those other works and the entire life presented before making an assessment.

A billionaire who bought up huge tracts of land and then locks the native people out and sells hunts to his millionaire friends?

You think he’s special? There are hundreds of ranches just like that in this part of the world? It’s a BUSINESS model.

You like him? Great? In my world he’s an asshole.

Oh, and come Columbus Day I would expect you to remain conspicuously silent. Kind of the same deal…

that to his efforts across the entire country. You have an ally in me (and others here) that you refuse to even see. No, on Columbus Day, I will NOT be silent as I have not been for decades--nor about the Ludlow Massacre 40 plus years ago when I worked with my Mother in an ultimately successful effort to get that land recognized as a National Landmark--something you are conspicuously silent on YOUR efforts to do anything remotely similar. All you seem to want to do is create strawman arguments on DU--against your natural allies. Smite your own face to do so to others... what a strategy... Do you really want to extend your resentment to all of us?

Because he owned the butcher shop and snuck food into the miners at night during the strike. He and my great uncle had to go into hiding. Our ranch is in Berwind canon.

Thanks for recognizing the memorial. Now how about preserving the old jail, the coke ovens, and the company housing?

You have no idea what it is like to live here. I can remember emptying our freezer to feed our friends when the miners went on strike. I remember not being allowed to go to school because the teachers were on strike and this was a union town.

I live this. This is my history.

Those who would most support you in making a difference are, instead, the subjects of your disdain and overt contempt sans any effort to distinguish from those who truly are your opponents, enemies, or foes.

Ted Turner did NOTHING for Raton, Trinidad, Clayton, Springer, Aguilar, etc. He was just another billionaire buying up the land and exploiting the wildlife for profit. He did shit for the communities surrounding the lands he profited from.

If I started a thread here and took a poll how many on DU oppose trophy hunting- what do you think the response would be?

Ted Turner used trophy hunting to fund his ranches (he didn’t need to) and everyone here is singing his praises. He’s just another billionaire exploiting the poor. Sorry.


IMO he needs to turn Vermejo into a state park like the Crazy Frenchman did and provide an industry for southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.

See my post above. He didn’t protect shit. He wildlife ranched.

I know how this land was acquired. Touch grass.

but you can't make him drink. Take a drink, Sparky.

What do you think Turner did that is so special? He bought land stolen from the Criollos by Rockefeller and ranched for wildlife. He sells elk hunts for $25,000 a piece. He sells bison hunts (not really bison though because all bison have been contaminated by cattle DNA) a little less. He locks down huge tracts of land that only millionaires who can afford the fee get to access.

It’s a business model around here. Quite a few billionaire Texans do it too. The only guy who was decent owns the Colorado side of Vermejo, was a French billionaire, and donated it to the State for a park upon his death.

Glad you like him. He’s just another rich asshole exploiting the land and wildlife for his millionaire friends around here.

Always memorable. Probably the most interesting person I ever met in person. RIP Ted.

in the late 70s when Turner Outdoor Advertising was a big deal and he was just getting started with the UHF stations.

What a character! I learned lessons from him that I practice to this day!

Rec

and so is everything else - we have the trifecta- post Melissa, our idiots and your monsters😀

I waited on him. He was quiet and unassuming. Good guy.

She was lovely.

He can't be all bad.

I remember when his TBS station was the pioneer in cable broadcasting. Everybody wanted access to his movie channel.

Even after divorce.

1. this is a nice piece, quoting jane fonda
Jane Fonda Shares Heart-Wrenching Message on Ex-Husband Ted Turner's Death
https://www.eonline.com/news/1431724/ted-turner-dead-jane-fonda-breaks-silence
and this article
Jane Fonda mourns Ted Turner – revisit their legendary relationship
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2026/05/06/jane-fonda-ted-turner/89965770007/

2. my parents got cable because a door to door salesman talked to me and my mother and handed me a schedule of upcoming TBS movies and i saw that the 1970 version of wuthering heights was coming on in a couple of weeks and i wanted to see that movie again.

i had only seen that movie once before, on mother's day of 1971 at a local theater with my parents, aunt, and nana. i was 12 years old. i loved the movie and timothy dalton! i remember i fought back tears because i was sitting next to my dad and i didn't want him to see me crying.

so we signed up for cable on the condition that it would be installed in time for me to see that movie again. i think they installed it one day before air time -- just in time. but i finally saw that movie again (and recorded it on our beta machine).

and i watched that movie ad nauseam for a couple years. thanks turner broadcasting system! LOL

One of the good guys.

Fonda recalled how she cried when Turner told her about his childhood on their second date. They were driving around his 60,000-acre ranch in Montana, and he was passing the time, talking as he drove. Tears ran down her face.

“He literally couldn’t understand why I was crying when he told me stories about what his father did to him,” she said. “Children can’t blame their parents. ‘It’s always my fault; it’s being done for my own good. I must not be good enough.’”

“Given his childhood,” Fonda said, “he should’ve become a dictator. He should’ve become a not nice person. The miracle is that he became what he is. A man who will go to heaven, and there’ll be a lot of animals up there welcoming him, animals that have been brought back from the edge of extinction because of Ted. He’s turned out to be a good guy. And he says he’s not religious. But he, the whole time I was with him, every speech – and he likes to give speeches – he always ends his speech with ‘God bless.’ And he’ll get into heaven. He’s a miracle.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death

RIP Ted.

Ted Turner wanted to make a trilogy about the Civil War.
He only made two movies: Gettysburg and Gods and Generals.
The last film was never made due to poor box office of Gods and Generals.
The film was criticized by some for promoting "Lost Cause"

Not to mention him colorizing classic B&W films.
Many of the classic B&W films were made by immigrants from Europe and were influenced by German expressionism.
Some American directors, like John Ford, were influenced by German expressionism.
To colorize those films loses something.
Ted Turner and his colorization was spoofed in Gremlins 2.

It was straight forward showing the military actions from both sides. I don't recall it taking the side of the Glorious South or the other lost cause crap that Hollywood trafficked in.
It should have been better but had barely serviceable direction.

...was Lost Cause/Neo-Confederate agit-prop.

And a crappy film compared to Gettysburg.

Whenever there was a rain delay or rainout Ted had live pro wrestling ready to go.

is that maybe he couldn't fully comprehend the wasteland that his creation of cable news had become. Although, it doesn't take many functioning brain cells to perceive that.

RIP to an independent thinker and pioneer.

will continue his father’s legacy on caring for his land holdings. I have a bison skull from his Montana ranch. He was one of the good ones. Cross gently Ted.

He went to HS with one of my best friends from college. Small world-ish.

... however briefly, at Ted Hood's boatyard in Marblehead, Massachusetts fifty-odd years ago. I touched up the transom lettering on his sloop, Tenacious.
Sorry to hear of his passing.

for not only the bison, but for having made, however briefly, the Atlanta Braves "America's Team" by putting their games on TBS, the "superstation". I hate what the courts did by taking those superstations away!

RIP Ted.

Pisses me off that we’ve got to dick around with the MLB app (thank dog T-Mobile offers it free—until playoffs) to watch the Cubbies. (Grew up in Iowa but stuck in fkg Florida for years now, and I am NOT swapping my team for Tampa Bay! )

I used to watch the Cubs too! They were my "other" team (I grew up in southern WI). I also used to watch WGN for the Midnight Mass on Christmas Ever. Actually my late friend Sheila, my late ex, and I would come home from doing our own at the Episcopal Church, split a bottle of wine, and watch it together, and occasionally trash the Cardinal's sermon. I remember one Christmas Eve years ago (and several Cardinals ago!) when Sheila turned to me after the sermon and said, "Did he say something?" and we all dissolved in laughter because it was the most pointless sermon any of us had heard in a long while. It might have been Cardinal Bernardin.

I gave up TV over a decade ago when I called DirecTV to ask why I couldn’t just pay for the handful of channels I actually watched a la carte (seriously, there were over 1000, and most of those were crappy music channels!) Then laughed in my face and I said FU, then, I’m not buying your crap at all.

And then I had to actually do it. I was only 2-3 seasons into Vikings, too, which really pissed me off. *eyeroll* Florida is so flat that we can’t even get our local TV station, so it was quite an adjustment.

So yeah, I’ve been out of the loop for a few damned years. I *do* read a shit ton, though, and can’t say I miss the constant background noise that surrounded every waking moment…

I had written him to thank him for his vocal support for women's reproductive rights.

It's sad that the latter part of his life was taken by dementia.

When I worked there, they were referred to as “Chicken Noodle News”. I worked with a guy whose last name was Weiner (VERY well-named!). How do you forget circumstances like that?

* a nickname given to him in the 80's by an admirer who marveled at his innovations after he took over control of Turner Advertising and started buying UHF stations which became Turner Broadcasting System.

However, like most famous and influential people his legacy is mixed.

Ted Turner, RIP.

— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) 2026-05-06T18:05:02.337Z