CNN創(chuàng)始人的精彩人生:特德·特納
特納是位擁有數(shù)十億家財(cái)?shù)?2歲富翁、美國有線新聞電視公司(CNN)的創(chuàng)始人、從前的出色水手、面容酷似白瑞德而且還是一個(gè)打破捐資記錄的慈善家。
The walls of Ted Turner's international headquarters,14 floors above downtown Atlanta,are lined with Oscar statuettes.If you try to pick one up,for example,the actual best-production award for Casablanca,you will discover that they are all firmly bolted to their glass display shelves,and Turner's aides will break their frowns to laugh at you.
CNN的創(chuàng)始人
--特德·特納
在特德·特納的位于亞特蘭大鬧市區(qū)14層樓上的國際總部,沿墻陳列著一排排奧斯卡金像。假如你想拿起一個(gè),比如《卡薩布蘭卡》的最佳影片金像真品,你會發(fā)現(xiàn)它們都被用螺釘固定在玻璃陳列架上。這時(shí),特納的助手會松開皺著的眉頭,沖你一笑。
Turner is the 72-year-old multibillionaire founder of CNN,former champion sailor,Rhett Butler lookalike and record-breaking philanthropist.
Turner has just emerged from the worst two years of his life -- years that he has said left him feeling"suicidal".In spring 2000,he was suddenly sidelined from the broadcasting company he had built from scratch.Then his wife of eight years,the actress Jane Fonda,came home one night and informed him that she was now a born-again Christian;they divorced last year.Two of his grandchildren developed a rare genetic disorder,and one died.Turner's friends said he was inconsolable.Then,just when he felt it could get no worse,he brought the wrath of America upon himself by a speech in Rhode Island saying that the September 11 hijackers had been"brave".
特納是位擁有數(shù)十億家財(cái)?shù)?2歲富翁、美國有線新聞電視公司(CNN)的創(chuàng)始人、從前的出色水手、面容酷似白瑞德而且還是一個(gè)打破捐資記錄的慈善家。
特納剛剛從一生中最糟糕的兩年走出來。他說這兩年讓他想自殺。2000年的春天,他突然在這個(gè)自己白手起家創(chuàng)立的廣播公司里靠邊站了。隨后,與他共同生活了8年的妻子、演員簡·方達(dá)一天晚上回到家,告訴他自己如今是已轉(zhuǎn)信新教的_。他們于去年分手。他的兩個(gè)孫兒得了一種罕見的遺傳疾病,其中一個(gè)已經(jīng)離開人世。特納的朋友說,他傷心至極。然后,就在特納覺得情況不會變得更糟時(shí),他又讓自己成了憤怒的美國人的眾矢之的。他在羅德島一次演講中說,"9·11"事件中的劫機(jī)者很勇敢。
Then he threw himself into his charity work.Turner's UN Foundation,the biggest of his three charities,recently spent $22.2 in one month combating intestinal parasites in Vietnamese children,reducing China's greenhouse-gas emissions and helping women from Burkina Faso start businesses selling nut butter.
特納轉(zhuǎn)而投身慈善事業(yè)。特納的3個(gè)慈善機(jī)構(gòu)中最大的聯(lián)合國基金會最近在一個(gè)月內(nèi)出資2220萬美元,用于在越南兒童中消滅腸寄生蟲,減少中國的溫室氣體排放量和幫助布基納法索婦女起動銷售堅(jiān)果醬的業(yè)務(wù)。
Nigel Pritchard,CNN's head of international public relations,who is sitting beside me,has prepared a memo outlining some things his boss might like to consider not saying.It politely suggests that he might steer clear of talking about AOL Time Warner,and,specifically,he might like to avoid reference to that Rhode Island speech.Turner is notorious for doing as he pleases.Early in his career,he made a pitch wearing no clothes to advertising executives;later,he went to Cuba to get Fidel Castro to tape a promotional slot for CNN.
He has various worldsaving projects:from preventing the extinction of the Chiricahua leopard frog in the wilds of New Mexico to founding an influential nuclear non-proliferation institute.Turner really does seem to see himself as locked in a personal battle against apocalypse.He doesn't just give money:his staff are sometimes taken aback to see him skulking in the streets nearby,picking up litter.
坐在我身邊的CNN國際公共關(guān)系負(fù)責(zé)人奈杰爾·普里查德準(zhǔn)備了一份備忘錄,提醒自己的老板最好留意不要涉及的一些事情,該備忘錄委婉地提醒老板避免談及美國在線-時(shí)代華納公司,特別是不要提及羅德島的那次演講。特納的我行我素是出了名的。在事業(yè)的早期,他曾經(jīng)赤身****作宣傳。后來,他又跑到古巴,讓菲德爾·卡斯特羅為CNN錄制一檔宣傳節(jié)目。
從防止新墨西哥州野外的奇里卡瓦豹蛙滅絕,到創(chuàng)立一個(gè)有影響力的核不擴(kuò)散協(xié)會,特納有各種各樣的拯救世界的計(jì)劃。他似乎真的認(rèn)為自己身處一場阻止大災(zāi)難的個(gè)人戰(zhàn)斗中。他不只是出錢,有時(shí)他的下屬會吃驚地發(fā)現(xiàn)他在附近的街道上偷偷摸摸地?fù)炖?/p>
When Turner gave his first billion to the UN,he dropped 67 laces on the Forbes 500 rich list,out of the top 10 for ever
It isn't hard to see how Turner's childhood might have instilled this sense of permanent crisis,of desperate insecurity,behind the frenzied activity that is his trademark.His father,from whom he inherited an advertising business that he turned into CNN,was prone to fits of rage,and beat him with a coathanger;he committed suicide when Turner was24.Even before that,his younger sister had died from an immune disease when she was 12,and Ted was sent to a boarding school he hated.His father,he has said,not without admiration,believed that instilling insecurity in his son would help him to achieve.All in all,Turner seems to have been a well-qualified candidate for total psychic collapse."But when everything goes wrong,"he says today,"you can either give up or you can try to fight.I tried to fight."
特納向聯(lián)合國捐助了第一筆10億美元后,就從《福布斯》雜志評出的全球最富有的500人排行榜上下跌了67個(gè)位置,從此永遠(yuǎn)與前10名無緣。
從特納的早年經(jīng)歷可以看出,在他那些標(biāo)志性的狂熱行為背后,隱藏著的是一種永久的危機(jī)感和極度的不安全感。特納的父親--他后來從父親那兒繼承了一個(gè)廣告公司即CNN的前身--時(shí)不時(shí)地大發(fā)脾氣,然后用衣架打他。父親在特納24歲時(shí)自殺了。在那之前,他的妹妹在12歲時(shí)死于一種免疫系統(tǒng)疾病。父親把特納送到一所他不喜歡的寄宿學(xué)校。特納不無欽佩地說,他的父親認(rèn)為,讓兒子有不安全感有助其成功。從各方面說,特納都似乎成了一個(gè)十分典型的精神全面崩潰的病例?“當(dāng)一切都出了問題時(shí),你要么放棄,要么努力抗?fàn)?。我努力抗?fàn)??!碧丶{說。
After a brief spell in the armed forces,he ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business,purchasing a radio station and using empty billboards to advertise it.His radio empire grew,and expanded to local television.By 1980,he was launching CNN,although it was not until the Gulf war that the often-derided channel came into its own.He created the Cartoon Network,and bought hundreds of old MGM films,which he recycled on another lucrative channel,Turner Classic Movies.His firm eventually merged with Time Warner.But then came AOL,and Gerald Levin,the chief executive of the new giant,decided he didn't need Turner -- or perhaps couldn't tolerate his unpredictability.Levin is gone now,and his replacement,Richard Parsons,has brought Turner back into the fold in a new vice-chairman position.The line from corporate communications is that Turner is back in the saddle.But this is not how Turner sees it.
在軍隊(duì)中短暫地呆了一段時(shí)間后,特納把精力投入到父親的廣告牌業(yè)務(wù)中。他購買了一家廣播電臺,然后利用空閑的廣告牌為電臺做宣傳。特納的廣播王國發(fā)展壯大,后來擴(kuò)展到當(dāng)?shù)氐碾娨晿I(yè)。到1980年,特納創(chuàng)辦CNN,不過這個(gè)經(jīng)常受到嘲笑的頻道在海灣戰(zhàn)爭后才進(jìn)入全盛時(shí)期。特納創(chuàng)立了動畫片頻道,還購買了米高梅影片公司的數(shù)百部舊影片,在另一個(gè)贏利的頻道--特納經(jīng)典影片回顧重復(fù)播放。他的公司最終與時(shí)代華納公司合并。但是隨后美國在線又加入了,而這個(gè)新巨頭的總裁杰拉爾德·萊文認(rèn)為自己不需要特納--也可能是他無法容忍特納的變幻莫測。如今萊文已經(jīng)離開了,接替他的理查德·帕森斯把特納接了回來,安置在一個(gè)副董事長的新位置上。公司傳達(dá)的消息是,特納重新掌權(quán)。但是特納卻不這么看。