Passing conversation: Turner backing for Moyers productions

Originally published in Current, May 28, 2001
By Karen Everhart Bedford

Wishful posters of imaginary Time magazine covers decorate the walls of the PBS Board's conference room--"PBS on Top: American Culture Catches Up," for instance, and "Turner Contributes $1 Billion to PBS."

In fact, it turns out that Ted Turner, whose relationship with PBS President Pat Mitchell extends beyond business ties to family connections, does want to contribute substantially to PBS, though not as generously as in the fantasy headline.

A New Yorker profile of the internationalist, environmentalist executive, published in April as a "business obituary," recently laid bare the CNN founder's anxieties about how to spend the rest of his life without a media company to run. Last year, following the Time Warner/AOL merger, Turner lost his supervisory role at the company's Turner Broadcasting unit. This and other changes, including cutbacks of Turner's pet documentary projects, led him to look at other means of producing and distributing the work he cares about.

"I'm very close to making an announcement of a personal partnership through our foundation with public broadcasting to fund important documentaries that Turner Broadcasting has dropped," Turner reportedly told a Harvard audience. One potential project was described with some specificity--a Turner Foundation-backed Bill Moyers series on "world issues."

These projects and partnerships do exist as ideas, according to several sources, but haven't reached the stage of active, specific proposals.

Robert Wussler, a former Turner broadcasting executive, began working full-time with Turner early this year to develop his interests in documentaries, which Wussler described as wide-ranging. "We've had preliminary discussions with public broadcasting, Discovery, National Geographic and the National Wildlife Foundation," Wussler said. "We're interested in doing work with lots of people." Turner is also considering projects for theatrical release. "We expect to be very active over the next several years."

Turner plans to produce and/or fund documentaries through entities separate from his foundation that have yet to be established, Wussler added. "Some would be not-for-profit, and some for-profit."

Mitchell said she had introduced Turner to Moyers, but was not involved in the talks.

The proposed partnership with PBS--and the world issues series by Moyers--appear to be vague ideas based on casual conversations, according to Wussler and others. "It's just been loose conversations that are so preliminary I don't even want to characterize it," said a spokeswoman for Moyers.

Wussler acknowledged that "nothing is set yet" in Turner's deal with PBS. One idea under consideration is to establish a special fund through which PBS and Turner or his representatives would make green-light decisions jointly.

"That discussion is occurring, but there's nothing to report," confirmed John Wilson, co-chief programmer for PBS. He said the amounts Turner would contribute to PBS would be "less than $1 billion."

"Ted and Pat have a very special relationship," explained Wussler. "She's worked for him, they're very much on a first-name basis." They even share grandchildren through Mitchell's recent marriage to Atlanta plastics executive Scott Seydel, whose son is married to one of Turner's daughters. Wussler anticipates that the proposed PBS/Turner relationship will gel through these personal connections and conversations.

 

	.	To Current's home page
	.	Earlier news: PBS hires Mitchell, the first producer to be its president, from Turner Broadcasting.

Web page posted June 1, 2001
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