Turner calls Fox network 'propaganda voice' for government
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Cable news pioneer Ted Turner used an appearance before a group of television executives to criticize the Fox network as a "propaganda voice" of the Bush administration and to compare Fox News Channel's popularity to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany before World War II.
Turner, 66, in a speech Tuesday before about 1,000 people at the National Association of Television Programming Executives targeted "gigantic companies whose agenda goes beyond broadcasting" for timidity in challenging the Bush White House.
"There's one network, Fox, that's a propaganda voice for them," Turner said. "It's certainly legal. But it does pose problems for our democracy when the news is 'dumbed-down.'"
Fox News in New York issued a statement Tuesday saying, "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind - we wish him well."
Turner stepped down as vice chairman of AOL Time Warner in May 2003.
During a wide-ranging hour-long question-and-answer session moderated by former CNN anchorman Bernard Shaw, Turner called it "not necessarily a bad thing" that Fox ratings top CNN and other cable news networks.
"Adolf Hitler was more popular in Germany in the early 30s than ... people that were running against him," Turner said in remarks videotaped by conference administrators. "So, just because you're bigger doesn't mean you're right."
Convention spokeswoman Michelle Mikoljak said the association had no comment about Turner's comments and that Turner was no longer in Las Vegas at the conference that continued Wednesday at the Mandalay Bay Event Center.
Turner heads an Atlanta-based philanthropic and business empire that includes restaurants serving buffalo steaks and other American dishes.
He wrote an article published last summer in the Washington Monthly magazine titled "My Beef With Big Media" in which he focused on what he called a loss of quality, localism and democratic debate.
