In the wake of Ted Turner’s passing, a haunting video intended for CNN to air at the world’s end has reemerged. This clip, once meant to be a final broadcast, has captivated audiences once again following the death of CNN’s visionary founder.
The network announced that Turner, a media pioneer, passed away at the age of 87 on Wednesday.
Originally discovered in 2015, the 53-second video embodies Turner’s commitment to a 24-hour news cycle, promising continuous coverage until the very end of days.
As news of Turner’s death circulated, the video gained traction online, resurfacing across various social media platforms.
Turner, always anticipating the inevitable, reportedly prepared this segment for the network’s ultimate sign-off, envisioning a scenario where CNN would be the last source of information.
The poignant clip, designed for the channel’s final moments, features a rendition of the 19th-century hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” performed by military marching bands, symbolizing a solemn farewell to its viewers.
Red Letters and Hidden Files
It is said to be stored in the network’s MIRA archives, having initially been made in the 1980s.
The file is believed to be kept alongside bold red letters which read: ‘HFR (hold for release’ till end of the world confirmed.’
Michael Ballaban, who was an intern in 2009 for Wolf Blizter’s program Situation Room, said back in 2015 he was first told about the video by a college professor who had worked at CNN for 20 years.
According to an article he wrote in Jalopnik in 2015, the clip turned up on a database when he searched for ‘Turner Doomsday Video’.
He since managed to get hold of the footage and posted it online.
Rumors of the doomsday tape’s existence have been reported many times over the last 25 years.
In 1988, it was included in an article published in the New Yorker, and as late as 2001, in the New York Daily News.
He told the New Yorker: Normally, when a TV station begins & ends the broadcast day, it signs on & off by playing the National Anthem.
Beyond the 24-Hour Cycle
‘But with CNN – a 24-hour-a day channel – we would only sign off once and I knew what that would mean. So we got the combined Armed Forces marching bands together –the Army, Navy, Marine & Air Force bands–& took them out to the old CNN headquarters & we had them practice the National Anthem for a videotaping.’
‘Then, as things cranked up, I asked if they’d play “Nearer My God, to Thee” to put on videotape just in case the world ever came to an end. That would be the last thing CNN played before we–before we signed off.
‘I can’t watch this without getting tears in my eyes.’
‘I keep this tape around because when the world ends it’ll be over before we can say what we wanted to say. Before we can leave any final messages.’
Born as part of Ted Turner’s Turner Broadcasting System, in 1996 it became a part of Time Warner.
In 2000 America Online bought Time Warner for $164 billion, and in 2006 Ted Turner himself left the Time Warner board.
In 2009, AOL was spun off from the company it once attempted to dominate.
The billionaire died on Wednesday, according to the cable news network he founded.
The Giant Behind the Screen
Turner had four children and was famously married to Hollywood star Jane Fonda between 1991 and 2001.
Nicknamed the Mouth of the South for his outspokenness, Turner built a media empire that spanned several cable and satellite sports stations. For decades, he also owned the Atlanta Braves.
Turner founded CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel, in 1980.
He was named Time’s Man of the Year eleven years later for the station’s live coverage of current events.
CNN Worldwide CEO Mark Thompson acknowledged his death in a statement.
A cause was not given, but Turner was known to have had Lewy body dementia.
‘He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN,’ Thompson wrote of Turner.
‘Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.’
The High-Stakes Gamble
Thompson further touted the TNT founder as an ‘intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgment.’
Turner officially resigned from Turner Broadcasting System – which includes CNN – in 2006.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in November 1938, took over a faltering family billboard business after his father’s suicide before launching his television career with purchases of several radio stations and a struggling Atlanta station in 1970.
Within ten years, Turner managed to turn the channel around. He used the profits to help launch CNN, which quickly gained traction in the United States and later internationally.
The launch came as viewers were shifting from broadcast to cable, with CNN subsequently surfacing as a key source of news during the Persian Gulf War in the early 90s.
The channel’s success inspired the creation of several other 24-hour news channels since, including Fox News.
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