Ted Turner’s eerie CNN ‘doomsday video’ resurfaces – Business News
Ted Turner made sure CNN would by no means go quietly.
The late media mogul — who died Wednesday at 87 — secretly commissioned a chilling “doomsday video” many years in the past that was meant to air solely when the world got here to an finish, in keeping with resurfaced footage and archived experiences.
Ted Turner commissioned the haunting “doomsday video” shortly after CNN launched in 1980. Ted Turner
The eerie clip, long handled as a legend inside CNN, featured navy bands from the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines solemnly performing the Christian hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” outdoors the community’s unique Atlanta headquarters.
Turner ordered the recording shortly after CNN’s launch in 1980, insisting his fledgling cable community would stay on the air till civilization itself collapsed.
“Barring satellite problems, we won’t be signing off until the world ends,” Turner declared on the time.
“We’ll be on, and we will cover it [the end of the world] live, and that will be our last, last event.”
He added: “We’ll play the National Anthem only one time, on the first of June [1980], and when the end of the world comes, we’ll play ‘Nearer My God To Thee’ before we sign off.”
The weird tape remained buried for many years in CNN’s archives underneath the all-caps label “TURNER DOOMSDAY VIDEO” with instructions studying: “HFR [hold for release] till end of world confirmed.”
Military bands carry out “Nearer, My God, to Thee” in Ted Turner’s notorious CNN “doomsday video.” Ted Turner
It solely turned public in 2015 after former CNN intern Michael Ballaban leaked a copy he had stumbled throughout during a 2009 internship on the community.
The haunting footage rapidly developed cult standing online, with YouTube commenters describing it as “chilling” and “terrifyingly sad.”
One commenter wrote: “It actually sent chills through my body knowing what this video means.”
The eerie tape was meant to air solely after “the end of the world” was confirmed. Ted Turner
Another identified the hymn’s grim historic connection to the Titanic catastrophe, writing: “The chilling thing is that what’s being played is ‘Nearer My God To Thee,’ which is also supposedly the same song that was played whilst the RMS Titanic went down.”
The resurfaced tape emerged simply as tributes poured in following Turner’s death Wednesday.
Turner, the hard-driving founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting, revolutionized tv information by creating the primary 24-hour cable information community in 1980.
Known as “The Mouth of the South” and “Captain Outrageous,” Turner constructed a sprawling media empire that ultimately included CNN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies.
CNN founder Ted Turner constructed the primary 24-hour cable information community into a media empire. REUTERS
He additionally owned the Atlanta Braves and famously skippered the yacht “Courageous” to an America’s Cup victory in 1977.
Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, known as Turner “the presiding spirit of CNN” in a assertion Wednesday.
“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement,” Thompson stated.
Turner had revealed shortly earlier than his eightieth birthday that he suffered from Lewy physique dementia, a progressive neurological dysfunction. He was reportedly hospitalized in early 2025 after a bout of pneumonia.
President Trump additionally weighed in on Turner’s death, calling him “one of the Greats of All Time” and lamenting what CNN turned after Turner offered the community.
