For more information, visit www.fema.org Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. speech. And when you hear it, you're going to wonder, you know, who's more crazy, Ted Turner or Harvard Law School? And why are they subjecting their students to this kind of insanity? But this is one of the reasons why, ladies and gentlemen, the income tax is foisted upon us, because lots of people in this country and lots of people in government are just as nuts as Ted Turner. This is the guy that married the communist Jane Fonda. And I can tell you a big story about that. I was on a patrol boat on the Quaviet River in the middle of the night when I heard her telling me over Radio Hanoi to surrender because I was a terrible war criminal. Hey, hang on to your hats, folks. Get ready to just, you know, this is going to make you laugh in a few spots. The guy's nuts, no doubt about it. But you need to hear this so you know what we're facing. This man is powerful. He gave as a gift one billion dollars to the United Nations to help bring about one world government. That's one billion with a B as in boy. One billion dollars. Not a dollar, not a hundred dollars, not a thousand dollars, not a million dollars, not five hundred million dollars, but a thousand million dollars. One billion dollars he gave as a gift to the United Nations to help destroy this country and bring about world government. You have to have a topic. I was asked to come up here and speak. I'm going to a dinner tonight where I'm also speaking. And I like to use the title, Our Common Future, because I really do, while I really do, while strongly feel that it is our common future. I mean, when just a few hundred years ago, mankind didn't know this new world existed. And we've had such an incredible growth in technology and in knowledge over the past few centuries, which has been vastly accelerated since the start of the Industrial Revolution. And even more so in my lifetime and in yours, when I was born in 1938 and when I was a boy growing up, it's really hard to believe there was no television. There were no computers. There were no jet airplanes. There was no atomic or hydrogen bombs. I mean, there was a lot of things. There were no electronic games. We used to play games with pieces like chess and checkers. You know, it wasn't just dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee with your thumbs. You had to use your mind, not your reflexes. It was a totally, totally different world. And then there was television. And then there was cable television. There was news on television. Then there was satellite. There was global television. And I was there. I was part of it. CNN was the first global network. And the most widely distributed network in the world even today. Although the Cartoon Network now, which we also started, runs at a close second. I'm not sure, I am sure which one gets the most viewership. The Cartoon Network by a wide margin. But I'm not sure which one is more important. I certainly, I know which one is most enjoyable. So, what, where do we stand here in 2001? Where do we stand and what kind of a future? And what challenges does the next generation have? Which is you. I mean, it's, mostly we're students here. I mean, I can see that. And what challenges do you have? One reason that I've thought a lot about that is when, in the late 70s, when I was thinking about CNN. And when I first thought about it, I didn't think that I would be the one to do it. Because I didn't have any money. And I didn't have any journalistic credentials. And I didn't have any news infrastructure. I mean, CBS, ABC, and NBC all had everything they needed to do a 24-hour news network. Except they didn't have vision. And at that time, they looked at cable television as a threat. And they didn't want to do anything to help it. They saw it as something that they would fight to the end. Or as long as they could. And try and restrain it. Because they had a very cozy situation. The audience was split in three parts. Between ABC, CBS, NBC. With a tiny little sliver for public broadcasting. And very small, localized audiences. For the few independent stations that there were around the country. That ran reruns of Red Sox games and so forth. They didn't have a network. So, the years passed and no one did it. And so, I decided to do it. So, then I had to do... So, I said, well, if I'm going... At that time, I had an entertainment network, the Super Station. And we ran Braves games and old movies. And Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith. It was reruns of situation comedies like a typical independent station does. But I... And I knew a lot about entertainment. I knew Andy Griffith was the highest rated show we had. And the Braves games had appeal when there was no other baseball on for baseball fans around the country. But I didn't know anything about news. I didn't know much about news. Except what I'd consumed as a general citizen. You know, reading the newspaper. Watching occasional television newscast. Listening to the news on the radio at the top and bottom of the hour. But I thought that having 24-hour news would be a good thing. And I said, well, if I'm going to have the responsibility for this, I'd better find out what's going on in the world. Because I had... You know, in school, I'd studied history and the history of the media barons, William Randolph Hearst and others who had newspapers. And I... Back in the days when newspapers were the main source of news before radio and television. And they crusaded for things. They had issues. Newspapers did. The newspapers here wanted to... And in New York wanted that there was corruption in the government. And the newspapers went against the corruption and got the citizens all excited. And they voted out the corrupt people in City Hall. And reformers were brought in and so forth. So it was... So we had to... I said, what's wrong? What are the... What are the problems in the world? This was now 1979. And we started June 1st of 1980. And it became very... What are the greatest problems that the nation and the world faces? Well, number one by a mile was the Cold War and the hair trigger of the nuclear arsenals. The United States... The East and West. The United States and Soviet Union mainly. But France, China, Britain, they all had nuclear weapons at that time too. That was number one. And I thought it was the second problem... The second and third problems. And hard to figure out in which order. Not really necessarily do they have to be. You could give them a tie. Was the ever-increasing population of humanity. The increasing numbers as we kept exponentially multiplying. And the concurrent threat to the environment. That an ever-increasing number of people with ever-sophisticated, more sophisticated technology. Was the pressure that that was putting on the natural world in which we lived. In which we depend upon for our sustenance. And so, hey, I had something to go with. I said, what I'm going to try and do with CNN and with our documentary programming. And with everything else that I do in my life. Is to try and be... Try and get us to focus on these three, what I call the survival issues. And deal with them in time. Before there's a catastrophe. Because, you know, I think there's a strong sense of self-preservation in all of us. The first thing we want to do is stay alive. And the second thing we want to do is keep our loved ones alive. And if we have children, or plan to have children, we want to have a world that they can grow up in. That would hopefully be as good or better as the one that we lived in. And so, it seemed like a pretty simple, worthwhile plan. And I got on the plane and flew over to Russia with the Cuba. And I just opened my own dialogue with the Russians. And I went to China, same thing. And I made a lot of friends in that part of the world. And it turned out they were concerned about some kind of miscalculation that would lead to a nuclear war. Because they didn't want to die either. And in my travels around the world, first both in sailing, racing boats, and meeting people from other countries through international sport. And then, through business with CNN and my other initiatives, the Goodwill Games and a lot of documentary programming. And so, I really said, let's see if we can't end the Cold War. And I went around and spoke at almost every university in the United States in a five or six year period. I accepted every speaking engagement that I had an opportunity to. And I went to peace meetings and Rotary International meetings in Germany. I went around the world. I spoke at Moscow University. I spoke wherever I could and called for an end to the Cold War for stabilization of the population and for an emphasis on preserving the environment. And, you know, in 1980, the world population was only four billion. And in the next 20 years, it increased from four billion to six billion. It's increasing a billion every ten years. I mean, when I was born in 1938, the world population was around two billion. And if I live to be 80, I'm 62 right now, it's going to be close to eight billion. It'd be a little less than that, seven point whatever. It could really. But so in my lifetime alone, the population of human beings in the 80 year period will have been is already in triple. And it will have quadrupled. Those are just gigantic figures. And particularly when the average person that's alive today uses over twice as much stuff. Packaging, automobiles and so forth. As people did in 1938. The average person. So we're actually with four times as many or three or four times as many people. We're using 12 times as much stuff as we were using when I was born. And that stuff that we're using is what's causing global warming. The CO2 buildup in the atmosphere because of more electricity generation and more automobile exhaust because there's more automobiles. And there are bigger automobiles and more powerful automobiles. I've got a great new automobile. I've got one of these little Honda cars. One of these little hybrid cars. It gets 48 miles to the gallon. What am I driving? A billionaire in a little tiki filled car like that. The only thing that's bad about it is not much more than a motorcycle with a top on it. Or a motor scooter with a top on it. And if I get hit by a truck, I'm going to be squashed like a bug. But on the other hand, I'd rather do that than feel guilty driving a larger gas guzzling automobile. So those are the three things that I'm most concerned about. And obviously, the most dangerous one of all is the nuclear weapons. And I thought in 91, when the Cold War ended, the wall fell. The Soviet Union broke apart. Russia adopted a democratic capitalist regime, which they're trying to make work, having a very difficult time of it. Because making that kind of a transition is very traumatic for a nation. The Chinese have taken a go-slower approach. They're working towards democracy. They've already adopted capitalism for or a form of capitalism. And they're headed in that direction because a state-run economy does not work. I mean, they've experimented with it. Lenin's type and Stalin's type of communism is a failure. And when something fails, people replace it with something that works. Everybody wants to have a government and a society that works. But we still have, we still have, each of the United States and Russia, have approximately somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 nuclear warheads on hair trigger alert. And a lot of those are hydrogen bombs that, if they ever drop, they make a hole in the ground 10 miles across, kill everything within 50 miles. And, of course, one of those bombs on Boston would kill everybody out to the Cape within seconds. And why do we have these weapons still on air trigger alert? We're not even enemies with the Russians. You know, I mean, they want to be our friends. It's absolutely insane. And it's just because of inertia. It's too hard to do. And it's just easier to deal with health care and the state taxes and so forth than to deal with these more complex issues. So the Russians and Americans just let them sit there. And they tell us they're safe. Now, let me tell you something about the armed forces and how safe things are, okay? Yesterday, we dropped a bomb on our own troops over in Iraq, okay? Remember that? And this, a couple of weeks ago, the submarine came up and sighted the Japanese. I mean, our military is causing more damage to ourselves and to our allies than it is done. And besides, who are our enemies? North Korea? They have an economy that's smaller than the city of Detroit. I mean, they pose about as much threat to us as an ant does to an elephant. I mean, anybody that's worried about North Korea is really, really sick. I mean, I'm not even worried about Iraq, to tell you the truth. We could blow them away any time we want to, you know? And that goes for any other country in the developing world, you know? I mean, I remember I was in California hiking in the woods one day, and I came upon a small cabin that was uninhabited. And I walked inside just to see what was in there, and they had a picture of Ronald Reagan when he was young. We own all his movies. He worked for Warner Brothers. And he was in a World War I outfit, you know, like they looked like Smokey the Bear, you know, with his little World War I Army Sergeant Hatter with his hands on his hips. Y'all don't remember this, but the caption on the bottom of the photograph was, The Conqueror of Grenada. You know, we invaded Grenada about 20 years ago when Reagan was president. I don't know why. They thought some students were dangerous because they had a Marxist government in Grenada. You know, I don't know, a population of about 200 people or something. I'm telling you, we're pretty powerful, you know, with the 7th Fleet against a country that has, you know, when you watch the Palestinians with the Israelis, mostly they've got rocks, you know? I mean, we're basically prepared to knock anybody over. They can only throw rocks at our smart bombs. And we, in the Gulf War and in Kosovo, we didn't lose anybody or hardly anybody. The only troops that were killed were in accidents, you know, when we had our own troops running into each other. And we killed hundreds of thousands of the enemy. I mean, it's because we've got such sophisticated armaments. But at any rate, and I kind of like that. I mean, if you're going to have weapons, you might as well have the best ones, you know? I mean, we've got the best television programs and the best of almost everything else. Why shouldn't we have the best weapons? That's what Madeleine Albright, who was Secretary of State, said during the Kosovo engagement. She said, what's the point of spending all this money to have this great military if we don't use it every now and then, you know? And it's hard to argue with that, you know? Normally, you know, use it or lose it, you know? I mean, but let me tell you, with these big bombs, these nuclear weapons, you don't want to use them. And the Russians, remember, their submarine sank in 300 feet of water, the curse. And we couldn't all, them and us together couldn't get those sailors out before they all died, when there was no more oxygen left down. They were only in 300 feet of water. And I don't know where this figure is exactly right, but I heard it, and it may be right, because I've really been studying this nuclear situation, and I've been really bringing myself up to date. But I think that I read somewhere that in the 50 years since nuclear weapons were invented and deployed, that something like 40,000 American servicemen have been fined or disciplined from the nuclear armed forces for using excessive alcohol or drugs used while on duty. Okay? You know, man, a little stone, I just push that button. You know what I mean? People were stoned on duty, you know, I mean, in charge of the nuclear forces. And God knows what the statistics are for the Russians, because according to the statistics, 50% of all Russian men are alcoholics. I mean, you know, and I don't know what it is in the army, you know, but probably higher than that, you know. Okay. So, well, that's number one, and all it takes is a little family planning. I mean, you can have all the sex you want and still have one or two children. You know, it's not like you have to have children to have sex, like it was 200 or 300 years ago when people didn't even know what caused babies. You know, they weren't sure. They thought the stork brought them. Remember that when you were a little kid when your parents told you about the Easter Bunny, the Santa Claus, and the stork? Where did my little brother come from? He came and the stork brought him. You know, that's right. Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the stork. Well, okay, so that's easy enough to take care of, and the environment's easy enough to take care of. 20 years ago, you know, there weren't people, there were some people concerned about the environment, but we didn't know near as much about the environment, and we didn't know near as much about our impact. We didn't have satellite photographs of how the rainforest is being destroyed and all endangered species. We knew a lot, but we know a lot more today. And the way I figure it at the end of the day is if we don't straighten out these three things, we will not be around or we'll be a very sad human race 100 years from now of when the next century comes around. And it all would be avoidable if we, for instance, one-third of all the emissions in the atmosphere are caused by power generation around the world. And we already have fuel set technology. It works in the laboratory. It's virtually ready to be deployed. And it causes zero emissions. And if we stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and had carbon taxes, if we taxed pollution and gave the tax breaks to clean alternates, to solar energy, to wind power, and put some serious government money into getting fuel cell technology working quicker rather than later, and we went ahead and used a portion of our military budget and our federal surplus to rebuild our power plants, we cut out all the... In 10 years, we could, if we made it an important top priority and really worked on it, we could replace all the coal-burning and oil-burning power plants in the world. And that would reduce the emissions in the atmosphere by a third. And if we all just got cars like I've got to get 48 miles to the gallon, instead of the average car in the United States, just about 20 miles to the gallon, we could... The other third of all... Of the emissions in the atmosphere is caused by transportation, most of it by motor vehicles. We could cut those emissions in half. And we could do that, and the next to those cars are already here. And we could... And that would cut the emissions in half, and that's before we do anything else, like more efficient light bulbs, which some people are putting in and so forth. There's... If we do not... If we do not make it, it won't be because we didn't know better. I mean, we know better. And I think it's worth doing. I mean, what... What are we living for? I mean, shouldn't we try and be as good and as smart and as intelligent as we can possibly be? And just because people did things like the Holocaust only a little over 50 years ago, you know, while 20th century was the darkest century in the history of the world. We had World War I and World War II. Just more horrible things. More people were killed. I mean, the Tilla the Hun was bad, and so there was a lot of dark, dark times in human history. But I thought, hey, we got the third millennium coming up, year 2000. We got a new century. You know, we can start over again. We got a new lease on life. You know, go back and start over again. You know, and just say that the kind of conduct and the stupidity that we started, you know, at the beginning of the 20th century, far less than half the people in the world were literate. And today, the vast majority of the people in the world are literate. And in 1900, almost no women in the world had equal rights with men 100 years ago. And today, over half the women in the world slightly have equal rights with men. But still, half the women in the world don't have equal rights with men. I mean, I think it's unacceptable. I mean, you know, how much longer is it going to be? I mean, those bozos over in Afghanistan, they'd blow up the Buddhist. You know, they've been there for thousands of years. You know, 1,700 years as those Buddhist statues had been. They know they were like blowing up the pyramids because you don't believe in the ancient Greek gods of blowing what's left of the Parthenon up. We blew up most of it by storing weapons in it during various wars in history, but knocked down the rest of the Parthenon because it was a temple to a Greek god, and those gods aren't worshipped anymore because they'd fallen into disfavor several thousand years ago. That's crazy. Anyway, that's what I'm basically calling for that. I hope that you will, as you live your lives, and that you will, you know, join in the effort to try and straighten these things out before it's too late. And now we'll go to questions and answers. And if there are no questions, we'll all go home. The young Dan in the yellow shirt. I'm a little out of hearing, so please stand. And actually, if you think, this is the reason why we want to do all this, you know, for the little fellow here. So, if you could please line up behind the microphone down there, and perhaps the man in the yellow shirt can be the person to recall about it. Yep. Good evening, Mr. Turner. Sorry. My name is Vladimir Datlov, and Vladimir is a participant of Russian ES Young Leadership Program and a representative for Russian Rotary and Skritiou. And actually, I have a question. In Russia, we have a lot of news that you're participating in negotiations about buying NTV. Buying a piece, sir. Yep. And actually, it's very new that these negotiations are almost finalized. I just would like to know your intents from the first hand. Thank you. Okay. Like you said, I'm hard of hearing, and I know you're Russian. When you said one word, I knew that. Okay. What my intentions are, what my intentions are if we're successful in buying a piece of the Russian television network NTV, and I am trying to do that, and it's too early to tell whether it's going to happen or not. But if I do get it, I'll be trying to preserve as best I can to help the Russian partners that we'll have keep a free press in Russia, number one. And number two, run the network so it'll be as much benefit as possible and provide entertainment and news for the Russian people and the country of Russia, which I happen to have a lot of very fond feelings for. I haven't spent a lot of time there and done the Goodwill Games and so forth. Okay? Dobry Uthra. I know a little Russian. Ha, ha, ha. Very little. Muy poco. That's Spanish. I know a little of that, too. Bonjour. I know a little of French. I know some Chinese. Mei Wen-ti. That means no problem. Okay, what do you... Yes, young lady? I'm wondering, would you describe yourself as a feminist and why or why not? I was married to... I'm still married to Jane Fonda. I don't know... She was one of the founders of the... I've had dinner with Gloria Steinman. I don't know. I mean, Jane wasn't really sure. I believe, but I believe this. I believe women should, whether they're feminists or masculinists, that they ought to be equal with men and be able to do whatever they want to. Is that good enough? I have a question. How have you blended into the culture of Time Warner following the Time Warner-AOL merger? As best I can. How would you evaluate how well you've blended? Well, I can't. That's enough. I mean, we've just been merged two months. I mean, I'm doing the best I can. Yes, sir. The man with a yellow shirt is here at last. I'm back. I was curious. You mentioned that media bands like Randall First and so forth have these ideologies behind their papers and so forth. And I was curious if you have used any of your media properties to kind of further these visions you have about the environment and nuclear weapons. And I know you have the money and you contribute to the U.N. and so forth. I was more curious about specific things. Like, I know you drive the fuel cell car. If you'd encourage CNN to run a lot more ads for fuel cell cars, for instance. So, first of all, you know, we sell the ads to whoever pays for them, unfortunately. We just don't select that we can run ads. You know, in a free country, you've got to have everybody have to have an opportunity to be heard. Even the polluters should have an opportunity to be heard. I mean, you can't silence free speech, in my opinion. And if you watch it, watch CNN. When I set the editorial policy for CNN at the very beginning, I said, I want us to tell the truth. I mean, that's pretty obvious. You know, in Russia, the newspaper there was Pravda during the Soviet years, remember? Pravda, and that means truth, right? But it wasn't the truth. But it said it was the truth. Okay, so the point is, just because you say it's true doesn't always mean it's true, right? Okay, and also on controversial issues, I said, I want us to get both sides and let the viewer make up their own minds. But we would not try and make up the minds of people like William Randolph Hearst did or like Rupert Murdoch tries to do. I mean, and that's what, that was our policy. As long as I was running the network, and I think it pretty much remains the policy till this day. So we try and present both sides. If you watch, and I'll tell you, when you get the situation like the Israeli-Palestinian situation, both sides are mad at us. They don't think that the Israelis say that we're favoring the Palestinians. The Palestinians say that we're favoring the Israelis. What we're trying to do is present an unbiased picture. And remember, there's a lot of bad blood between the two of them. So if you let anything go through, it's going to make somebody mad. You understand what I'm saying? It's not an easy thing. I realize that. I mean, you definitely, I mean, that's the integrity of your media property. Beyond that, I'm just curious if you just have, your whole approach has been you have to be completely hands-off along those lines and, you know, essentially just relegate yourself to contributing money to those, you know, endeavors that you feel strongly about. I mean... Well, that, that, that, that, that, I think I understand. I'm a little hard here, but I think I, I think I get you. Okay? Appreciate it. Next. I'm doing the best I can. That's all. Thank you for coming, sir. You have empathized with the Chinese government after Tiananmen. You've called Christianity a religion for losers. You've said that the Pope should get with it, that the United States... Well, you didn't know that stuff. I did, I did do all those things. And what else? I mean, what's the point? That the... That the... That the bottom line. Okay, what, what, what else did I do? That the United States of America has some of the dumbest people in the world. The Americans were some of the dumbest? That Fidel Castro is one hell of a guy and that the First Commandment is obsolete. Okay. And I'm just wondering, sir... What, what, wait a minute. What about I supposedly said about Castro? That he's one hell of a guy. What, what was the other thing? You said more than that, didn't you? Yes, the First Commandment is obsolete. The First Commandment... I don't think I ever said that. Commandment. I can't imagine I said that unless I was under the influence of something. That's, that's not the amendment, sir. The Commandment. I'm wondering, sir, if you're, if you consider those to be mainstream American opinions. No, I don't think so at all. But I mean, I didn't, uh... Well, the idea of replacing the coal-burning plants with, uh, fuel cell and solar and wind technologies not mainstream thinking either. It would have been done already. So do you stand by all of those opinions? Uh, more or less. But basically, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I let my mind wander and I say what I really think at the time. And, uh, and when I, when I offend people, I apologize. And I apologize, uh, for saying Christianity was a religion for losers. Because I, first of all, I used to be a Christian. And, uh, I was saved seven times, in fact, once by Billy Graham. Uh, and I was going to be a missionary when I was, uh, 17 years old. So, and, and, and, and, and, and, and it was, those, every one of those quotes was taken out of context. Every one of them was in a presentation like today, and I was trying to keep people from going to sleep. You know what I mean? You know, I try to be an interesting, fun speaker, but I, I, I put my foot in my mouth sometimes. I realize that. And I've apologized to almost every group in the world. I really have. I apologize to Pope, too. And if I've ever offended, offended you, I apologize, too. And to everyone else that I haven't apologized to, I apologize now. Next. I'm just doing the best I can. Cashier is a hell of a guy. Have you ever met him? You'd like him. I mean, he's, he is now, he has been leader of Cuba for 40 years. He's the most senior leader in the world, and most of the people that are still in Cuba like him. It's the last place when there's communism. Communism is an endangered species. You know, I mean, you know, even when we have black-witted spiders that are endangered, we, we keep them. I mean, I don't think, I think it's good to keep a couple of, there's only three countries left that are communists. Vietnam, and they're not really. They're going capitalist. You know, China a little bit, and North Korea and Cuba. Four countries out of 210. You know, I mean, communism is an endangered species. Yes, sir. Hello, my name is Hans from Aranso. I'm in the college, and I'm from Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Buenos dias. Buenos Aires. I personally support independence, and I would like to know what are your feelings about countries that are still in U.S. territories that don't have the right to participate in U.S. politics, but despite that, are directly governed by the U.S. government and have to abide by U.S. federal laws. So I'd like to know what do you think about territories like Puerto Rico, like the Virgin Islands, like Guam? Do you want a congressman? Excuse me? Would you like a congressman? I'm a president of the United States. You could have a congressman. Taxation without representation is tyranny. Pour the tea in the harbor, you know, start a revolution down there. No, don't do that. I think Puerto Rico is like Taiwan is with China. No, I mean, do you want independence for Puerto Rico, or do you want a congressman? Okay, well, whatever you want, I think you should have. Okay? I believe everybody ought to hit what they want, man, you know? That's right. Secede. I belong to part of the country that tried to secede to the United States and we got conquered, you know, in 1861. The U.S. Civil War was done and they burned Atlanta to the ground. You know, I know what it is to be beaten and part of a country you don't want to be part of. Yes, sir. But I don't want to be part of this one. I mean, I gave up on that. Yeah. A lot of former slaves were real happy about that. I have two questions. One is about the program that the Clinton administration kept alive and now the Bush administration says it's promoting they want to do more research, development, and deploy what's now being called national missile defense. Oh, I don't like that. And I'd like to hear why. And there's a sophisticated, perhaps, fallback position which I understand people like Senator Biden may be willing to make a deal around which would keep it alive but not necessarily in the form of moving ahead with deployment. And there's this smaller version of it called theater missile defense if you have a comment about that. my second question is a very important topic which you're in a very good position to address which is a significant problem in our country which is the consolidation and the ownership and control of the media. And I think this is a problem that is perhaps of equal importance or approaching equal importance to some of what you've talked about if only because it gives us access to the solutions which you're advocating more quickly. I would argue. What do you think about that problem? Well, I mean, that's a lot. First of all, you could spend a whole hour or even more on missile defense. First of all, if you want to be safe from nuclear weapons, the best way to do it is very simple. Let's just get rid of them. Let's get a treaty together. Let's have the nuclear powers or all the countries have to debate at the United Nations and vote to get rid of them and then let's get rid of them. That's how to be safe from nuclear weapons, not building this nuclear missile defense. I mean, first of all, I mean, if a rogue state or a terrorist is going to bomb the United States with their one nuclear weapon, they're going to bring it in a van through Canada. They're going to, you know, like Timothy McVeigh did with the Oklahoma City deal. You can put a bomb in a truck or you can put it in a little boat and bring it in New York Harbor and the Boston Harbor, blow Boston and New York up because a missile, a ballistic missile, the only countries that have those are the most sophisticated countries. You can tell exactly where they're coming from. So, you know, it's the dumbest thing I ever heard of. And it doesn't work either. That's the other thing. It's just, you know, we have an administration that's committed to spending more money on defense than they have to have ideas on how to do it. The military industrial complex backed this administration to the hill and they're getting paid back with big contracts with our money, which is being wasted in that particular area, in my opinion. And as far as the concentration of the media is concerned, we will have more voices than we do. In television, for instance, there was ABC, CBS, and NBC and public broadcasting when I started. Now, Tom Warner, has a news operation, and for better or for worse, Rupert Murdoch does, and you've still got CBS, NBC, and ABC. So you have more voices with the Internet. Anybody can put a site up there. The consolidation of the media is a concern, but once the laws of the country were relaxed so that it could happen, it made concentration inevitable because it's very hard for a small company to be able to compete over long term with a large vertically integrated company, and that's why I merged with Time Warrior. I could see that I didn't have enough horsepower to play the game long term, so I bailed out with some regret, I might say, but it was just the reality of the situation. you're welcome. Yes, sir. Mr. Turner, you're a bright fellow. Your industry doesn't do you justice. You're portrayed quite differently in the media than you are in person. Your number one concern, as I understand it, is the continuation of the species, that we don't destroy ourselves. Is that correct? Yes. I ask you, with where we are today, as opposed to what happened with Cain and Abel, have we really changed as a people in any way, with the exclusion perhaps of CNN not being there to ask Adam and Eve how they feel about it? I mean, you just mentioned Rupert, for better or for worse. If, in fact, you and he were leaders of countries with militia, would you, would you, would you, by genetic flaw that perhaps we all have, swear off and throw bombs at him as opposed to words? Only if I thought he couldn't retaliate. Pardon me? Only if I thought he couldn't retaliate. You know what? Does my question make any sense? We have our baser nature that we must overcome, but we have made incredible progress and while the 20th century there was so much darkness there, there was also Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King and they set an example of and a successful one for the civil rights movement and getting the British out of India of non-violent protests. protests and you can accomplish probably as much with that as you can with military force. I mean, at the end of the, but generally, you know, we have to go through a transformation and I think if you don't think that we're capable of it, then what's the point of continuing to live if you have a strong sense of social responsibility? You almost have to be an optimist, hope for the best and work towards it. I remember Captain Cousteau is dead now, but he was a close friend of mine and we underwrote his programming and his adventures for many years. And I was on the Calypso up in the Amazon with him one time, right in the middle of the Cold War, back in the early 80s or late 70s. And I said, Captain, I'm discouraged. I don't think we're going to make it. And he said to me, he said, Ted, you cannot give up hope. He said, because he said, even if we knew for sure that we weren't going to make it, what else could we do but continue to try and make things better? We have no other choice. And he says he's right. And I don't know, we don't know that we're not going to make it. We have, even if the chances are low, even if we only have one out of ten chance, isn't it worth working for? Yes, it is. And I'd say our chances are better than one out of ten. I would say that 50 years ago that humanity was doing things, was taking three steps backwards. We were still pouring DDT all over the place. We didn't realize it was killing the birds and all the, it was killing the good insects with the bad ones. Today we're taking two steps backward and one step forward. That's in just 50 years. I mean, we have the UN. We know about a lot of stuff. There are a lot of institutions and a lot of people that are working to make things better. And I'm not, I'm not, I'm not sure that, and also, ahead of Greenpeace USA, a younger man than Captain Cousteau, when I would tell him, I said, I think that, I think that the situation looks hopeless. And he said, he would smile and he would say, the situation is hopeless, but I might be wrong. You know, and so he kept on doing what he was doing. So, you know, let's be optimistic. You know, there's a chance we might, we might make it. Absent of accident. I'm sorry? Absent of accident. Air figure. Absent of accident. Maybe we'll, you know, we'll go through a mental transformation. That's what we're trying to do here today. That's why I'm here. What did I think I came up here? I'm not getting paid anything to come up here. I came here at my own time and my own expense. I must be crazy. But I'm doing it, you know. We thank you for that. Is it possible? Of course it is. Is it possible to disarm the world? Yeah. Or to put the genie back in the bottle? Put the toothpaste back in the tube. Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something? There are only seven nuclear countries and there are over 200 countries. Less than 5% of the countries in the world have chosen to possess nuclear weapons. There are three countries in the last five years that have given up their nuclear weapons. South Africa, Ukraine, and Belarus have all gone non-nuclear. During that time we picked up to, India, and Pakistan. And there are 30 countries that could build nuclear weapons tomorrow. I've chosen not to. Canada, Mexico, Germany, Japan. I'm just to name a few. So, you know, basically most of the world is nuclear disarmed right now. I don't think you'll have total disarm. Remember this, that you can kill somebody with your bare hands. You know, you can choke them and you can stick your fingers in their eyes. I mean, you can do a lot of harm with your bare hands if you're strong enough. Let's go on to the lady in purple. But thank you. Hi. Listening to your colorful remarks on international politics, I was wondering if you thought about running for national office. Running for office? I did. I discussed it with my wife, Jane Fonda, you know, before the last election. And because I thought I could at least get the issues on the table, picking up a little free airtime. run. But she told me she'd leave me if I ran. So I didn't run and we split up anyway. But it was like, I'm glad I didn't, I don't have enough energy and I'm too old and burned out to, well, that's a job for a younger man. And I was going to say something else, but I won't. But as a guy, you know, you're right, I get in more trouble. I wish I didn't say some of the crazy things I said. I don't like apologizing all the time. Yes, ma'am. Hi, my name is Chantel and I'm from the Ed School. And your wife is pretty popular after giving a $12.5 million endowment for the gender studies area. My question is actually though, if my figures are correct, it took $1 billion to invest in CNN to get it going. No. It didn't. It was closer to $250 million. Okay. And that, I don't know if this is an annual number, but something around $37 million, the profit level. Hey, Rick, how are you doing? What's the time? It was something like one point, I thought it was a billion dollar investment and $37 billion, $370 million. Who cares? Okay. I do. Because my question really is, regardless of the figures, at what point will news executives be satisfied with the amount of profit they are making? At what point will people be satisfied with the profits? Right. Never. Nobody's ever satisfied. Not greedy capitalists. They want more. Whatever they have, they want 20% more next year. And this year, of our division, they want 39% more. I mean, you know, it's realistic growth. I know. It's growth. Growth. Like cancer. We've got to grow real fast and make more money all the time. It's crazy. I agree. But that's the way our system works. Okay. And then what's CNN going to do now that its ratings are slipping against Fox News? I'm hard to hear. What's the question? How is CNN, with this added pressure, to make a 20% profit increase next year? Six years. This year. And annually. We're off budget right now. Okay. Well. Maybe they'll shoot us. Maybe they won't. I don't know. But I'm no longer responsible, so they can't shoot me. I mean, they can shoot me, but it's not making the budget, and people are unhappy about it. Okay. Right now. Hopefully, there'll be a massive turnaround. Yes, sir. Last but not least, we were going to quit a minute or two early. You'll be the last. You are the last person, too. I appreciate the talk earlier on. I'm curious about two things. First, did you give me some advice about what's going to take the successful media industry over the next 20 years, besides a certain level of confidence that you seem to have? And secondly, if you could wrap it up. Okay. Ask me the question again because I couldn't hear you very well. Go a little closer to the microphone and speak distinctly. Sure. What do you want me to answer? See if you could provide me with some advice. Advice? Advice. What kind of advice? To succeed in the media industry. To succeed in the media industry? Yeah, over the next 20 years in the future. You could be a talk show host right now. That's right. I appreciate it. Take a little more distinctly. You know, I mean, the broader level. Hell, I don't know. You don't know? You've got to get a job. You know? Somebody said, what's the secret of success in business? I said, early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise. You know, I don't know. You know. Work hard and be lucky. You're good looking at all. That's not good. Well, thank you very much. What's the last question? I'll try. I think I and the rest of you always would love if you could wrap it up. with a story of your youth. Some sort of crazy things you might have done in Harvard Square and a late evening. Something from my youth? Yeah. That was so long ago, I've forgotten. You might feel long ago. But let's see what. Well, I'll tell you what. I'll end with some lines from Shakespeare. And this was, I think, either Richard II or Richard III. But he'd been defeated in battle and retreated to his castle where he was about. He was a bad king. And he was about to be captured and executed. And he knew it. And a couple of his old cronies were with him. And here at the end, he got some real wisdom and they were trying to cheer him up. And he said to them, he said, No matter where of comfort no man speak, let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs. Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes write sorrow on the bosom of earth. Let's choose executors and talk of wills. And yet, not so, for what can we decrease save our deposed bodies to the ground. Our lands, our lives, and all our bowling ropes. And nothing can we call our own save death and that small model of the barren earth that serves as paste and cover to our bones. For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings. How some have been deposed, some slain in war, some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed, all murdered. For within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king keeps death as watch. And there the antics sits, stalking at his stake, grinning at his palm, infusing him with self and vain conceit as if this flesh which walls about our life were brass impregnable and humored dust comes at the last and with a little pin bores through his castle wall. And farewell, king. Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood with solemn reverence. Throw away respect, tradition, form, and ceremonious duty. I live with bread like you. Feel want, need friends. subject it thus. How can you say to me, I am a king. Thank you all very much. And that's it, ladies and gentlemen. During his speech, he claimed that he is not receiving any payment for this speech. I had listened to the whole thing once during the, when I had previewed it, I, of course, as we all have to do, went to the men's room to do the call of nature. And I must have missed that. So, if he actually spoke at Harvard with no fee, then I sincerely apologize to Mr. Turner. There are some aspects of what he propounds and believes in that I also believe in. For instance, population. I do not believe in population control. I do not believe in setting out to intentionally cause people to die or not to be born or to be aborted. Those things are murder. Those things are murder. But there is a population problem. I agree with Mr. Turner. And I agree with a lot of other people on that issue. But most of, you know, there's other things that he obviously talked about that you and I and all of us would agree with. But the man is obviously demented in his whole outlook toward the world. He thinks the United Nations is the answer. No. The answer is the United States of America. Not the United Nations. Americans. And so I vehemently disagree with him on all of those issues. His assertion that North Korea is not a threat is absolutely absurd. North Korea is a tremendous threat and could bring the world into another world war if North Korea really got an itch to do that kind of thing. So, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you learned something tonight about our opposition. Because Ted Turner is definitely our opposition. And even though and you will never see an opposition that does not have some points that you will agree with. You will never see that. Just as our opposition will never see us having some points that they could not agree with us. So, anyway, that's it. Good night. God bless each and every single one of you. And good night, Annie Poon Allison. I love you. I miss you more than you will ever know. we wow. Good night. Good night. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.