I want to be like Ted Turner when I grow up. I just got the sudden urge to edit together various comments from this interview into one long string. Its an effort to capture the essence of Ted..

The invasion of Iraq was the biggest debacle in the history of the world... except maybe the AOL Time-Warner merger. They can't even get Haiti right, how are they going to get Iraq right? Wars may have worked in the past, but now we have pro-football. Before there wasn't anything to be excited about so War was exciting. War isn't fun anymore. 9/11 wouldn't have happened if I had been president. We were having a cold war with Russia when I went to Russia to produce the Good Will Games. A few years later, the Berlin Wall came down. The AOL Time-Warner merger was bullshit. It was good for me. I ended up with 10% of the stock in AOL/TW. I was friendly with two other people who owned 10% each so it was OK for me. Why not? They are the original American cattle. The meat has 1/2 as much fat as beef. I am going into the restaurant business and philanthropy. Rupert Murdoch is is a bad journalist. Sloppy journalist. He runs Britain. I asked Tony Blair why he was allowed to have so much influence and Tony Blair said, "I wouldn't have my job without Rupert." He wants to rule the world. He has Britain, almost has Australia and he would like the US. He has no interest in helping anyone, in charity. He won't even give you an interview. He's not interesting in whether what he is doing is right or wrong. The $1M / yr I was getting as Vice Chairman was just hush money. You also need vision. My vision comes from thinking. I don't watch TV.

Joi Ito's Web: Brainstorms 2004 dinner interview notes - Ted Turner