Paul Hardart, Guest Columnist

The Ted Turner I Knew Bet on What Others Missed

May 7, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC

Paul Hardart is director of the entertainment, media & technology program at NYU's Stern School of Business and founding director of the Graduate Program in Media Management at The New School. He was previously an executive at Universal and Warner Brothers.

A disruptor.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America

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Ted Turner died Wednesday at 87, and the world feels a little less interesting, a little less imaginative and a little less fun without him in it — but also a lot better off because he was here.

After hearing the news of his passing, one moment came to mind that embodied how he moved through the world: a very drunk Turner giving an interview after winning the America’s Cup in 1977. The yachting world was aghast. How did this uncouth, mouthy Southerner find his way into their patrician club … and win?

He had a way of wandering into spaces he wasn’t invited into and then changing them forever.