former president george w. bush. >> i want to stay connected to the veteran community. i'm not going to be a very public person. this is a rare interview for me. >> his remarkable mission for wounded warriors and keeping america great. this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening. two interviews tonight. the first with ted turner, a tv pioneer. also a very outspoken man. he'll let us know what he thinks of television, america and his life today. plus a rare interview for president george w. bush. if anyone knows about keeping america great, the former president tonight talks about the cause close to his heart. counseling veterans. >> after 9/11 millions volunteered. and they said, i want to serve my country. and i'm -- i don't view it as anything personal. i view it as that we were all serving together. we were all part of a great cause. the cause of securing our country. and the cause of liberty. >> an exclusive interview with president george w. bush coming later. but first, someone who i think literally needs no introduction. he's the man who created cnn. the reason that i'm here and others are here working here. ted turner. welcome back, ted. >> good to be here. >> how does it feel to be back? >> good. >> does it? >> yeah. >> are you still proud of cnn? >> absolutely. >> do you still watch cnn? >> i watch it, you bet. >> do you like what you see? >> i like most of what i see. >> you always said about cnn the news should be the star. >> well, that's -- that was the philosophy that we started with. but it really was the only place open for us, because all the other news networks, cbs, nbc and abc, they emphasized their stars. and we didn't have any stars. we were lucky to have employees. >> if you had the competition that's around now in cable when you first started, in other words, if there had been a fox news with right-wing star anchors, msnbc had rachel maddow and the others, would you do anything differently? >> i'd have to really give it a lot of thought and a lot of study which i have not done, because nobody has asked me to do it. and i -- i -- i value my time greatly. and i'm working on nuclear weapons, trying to get rid of them, and i'm working on -- on the climate and clean -- clean energy, getting us to change over to clean energy. and stabilize the population before the world's just so overcrowded we can't turn around. i'm working on things where i can -- where i can make a difference now. i really don't have any input on a regular basis here. >> do you think cnn should become -- you're the guy that started this whole business. an amazing innovation at the time. then others began to do similar versions. >> sure. >> but do you think that cnn should remain the impartial observer of news? >> yes. yes. and -- and -- and cover the -- the substantial news. and that doesn't mean you don't cover hollywood and don't cover kidnappings and the sensational, too. but the emphasis should be on hard news. i -- i wanted cnn to be "the new york times" of the news business. not -- not the daily news. i wanted it to be "the new york times." and i thought that for the long term, that would be the best position to be in. even if the ratings weren't the greatest. if you had the most prestige and you were the network that everybody turned to in times of a crisis, that that was the most important position in the news business to hold. >> it's still true, there's no question, i've been here 16, 17 months now. when there's a big story -- when i first got here there were an avalanche of huge stories. when that happens, it is very gratifying that the cnn ratings soar. the issue, i think, everyone wrestles with is what happens as you've had recently when there's a lengthy period of not much news. >> there's always -- the world's a big place. and i'm out of the country a good bit traveling internationally. and i've watched cnn international all over the -- all over the world. i probably see it as much as or more than cnn domestic. and i think they're doing an excellent job with their programming for the world. and i can understand the -- the difficulty programming for the u.s. audience here. it's a real challenge to do. >> let's talk about some news. what do you make of america right now, today? what do you think of your country? >> i think it's terrible that politics have gotten so money oriented with this supreme court ruling that corporations can give unlimited amounts. that the moneyed interests are taking over the country. and -- and there's too much disagreement and argument between the parties. i believe in pulling together to make the country better rather than tearing it apart for partisan reasons. i think the country comes first. >> i mean, you're a guy who historically, when you've had a rival, you haven't hesitated to give them a verbal whack or two. >> well, only if it was deserved. >> what do you think of president obama? how is he doing? >> i like him. i like him. he's had an extremely difficult job. and i think he's done -- done amazingly -- amazingly well. and he's got his spirits up. he never gets discouraged, which is really important in a leader. particularly a leader that's leading us in times of great difficulty. >> if you were advising him, and he can do a lot worse than ask you right now, what would you tell him to be more forceful about? where do you think he's not being strong enough? >> well, i -- i -- i would have liked to see him be -- his positions are good on the environment. but he -- he -- he put health care ahead of the energy bill. if he'd have put the energy bill first when he was first elected, it would have gone through without the kind of animosity that the health care bill did. so that was a mistake. but it was good to get the health care bill through. i mean, i supported -- i supported that as well as the energy bill. >> when you see american troops coming out of iraq and coming out of afghanistan, a set timetable has been laid down by the president, i assume you're pleased with that. >> i am. i was against the wars before they started. i've studied history a lot. and wars are not a good way to get things done. and they've been a disaster for us. they've cost us, you know, iraq a trillion dollars a year. afghanistan another trillion dollars a year. a trillion dollars over the period. afghanistan a trillion. it's just crazy. >> when you look at the way afghanistan's gone, many say it's become a sort of counterterrorist operation. is that really what america should have done rather than going in with men on the ground, large troops actually saying we're going to tackle the terrorists through intelligence, special forces and so on? >> i think war should be avoided at all costs and we should do everything we can to get the united nations to deal with conflicts before they get -- before people start resorting to violence. because violence just begets violence. and it's easy to start wars and very difficult to stop them once they've gotten started. i -- i think we ought to renounce war and -- and have -- let the courts handle it. have arbitration at the united nations. let them handle it. and then be -- be bound by what those decisions are just like we do with the courts here in the united states. i mean, if everybody started shooting everybody that they had a disagreement with, all we'd be doing is shooting each other. there's enough of that anyway. but that doesn't accomplish anything except gets people shot and escalate into -- into war. >> what would you do about iran if you were the american president? >> well, first of all, i believe in total nuclear disarmament. that's the only way we're ever going -- we all got to play by the same set of rules. we have 2,000 or several,000 nuclear weapons. iran has none at the current time. it's okay for israel to have 100. but it's not okay for iran to have two. that's -- that's -- they're not treating everybody equally. and you -- you have no strong position except force. only by force can anything be done. i think we've already voted at the u.n. and the security council to get rid of nuclear weapons. let's get rid of them. let's get rid of ours and then iran will stop, i believe, and so everybody else will because if everybody doesn't have them, then -- then we're safe. at least safe from a nuclear attack. if we have full-scale nuclear exchange, it's going to destroy life on earth. all life. maybe there'll be a few cockroaches left, but that's all. i find that crazy. this is such a nice world. and most of the people are really nice here. you know, if you treat people with dignity, respect and friendliness like i did with the russians and the soviets before them, at the goodwill games, if you try and make friends, you can make friends. and you can do that even with former enemies. look, japan bombed us at pearl harbor and now we're good friends with the japanese. we fought china in the cold war. but now we're -- now we're good friends with the chinese, most of us are. >> ted, let's take a break. i want to come back and talk to you about your favorite cnn moment. everything we said about the superstation, we are also looking into the creation of a new alternative for cable subscribers. this news service will be calmed a cable news network and will program continually updated half our segments of national news, business news, sports and features 24 hours a day. i know that we will succeed, and i pledge to you that we will not let the american public down. "ññ meineke's personal pricing on brakes. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. standby. ready, three. take three. my cue at three. take three. ready, camera three. >> good evening. i'm david walker. >> i'm lois harp. now here's the news. >> that's from cnn's very first newscast on june 1, 1980. back with me now, the man who created cnn, ted turner. what do you feel, ted, when you see that clip again? >> it feels good. it was a great idea and it was well executed. >> what was the great ambition for you? what did you really want to achieve with cnn? >> i wanted to better inform the world. >> do you feel you succeeded? >> yes. you know how many news networks there are now? 24-hour news networks in the world? >> how many? >> over 100. >> is that right? >> that's right. every country's got one. you're not a country if you don't have one. people nowadays want instant information. they don't want to have to wait eight hours for it or overnight. they're used to getting information right now that they need. >> there were three memorable moments that you highlighted, which i want to remind you about and talk about. one was in 1987. baby jessica being rescued from the well. which resonated with you very personally. tell me why you love that story so much. why does that resonate? >> i could have picked any one of 1,000 other stories. that one really resonated and captured the imagination of america. everybody was pulling for jessica. it took -- i think she was down there for over a day. >> is it also one of those examples where good news can often be just as big a story and rate just as well as bad news? there's always the perception that for news to rate it's always about disaster or something. >> right. >> come to the gulf war. the reason i like this, i was a young reporter in london. i remember watching in 1991, peter arnett and those guys from cnn literally on the front line. missiles firing over their heads, reporting live. it was the most incredible, dramatic thing. >> and explosions. the rocket's red glare. bombs bursting in air. >> amazing. >> it was. >> let's play a clip from that coverage. >> we are just in the process of getting tape fed to us from a location in jordan. this is the videotape shot by the cnn crew during the opening hours of the allied assault on the city of baghdad. air force general retired harry smith is with us in atlanta. general smith, please comment on what you can see. this is the first time we've seen this tape. this is our camera crew shooting out the window from the ninth floor of the el rashid hotel in baghdad. >> was that the story, event, that made you realize just how big cnn could become? >> yes. that was the biggest story that -- in my opinion the biggest story that we ever had. >> you defied the president. you kept your people there. >> we kept freedom of the press. i reminded everybody we had freedom of the press. and we had volunteers, peter arnett, who had volunteered to stay. and we didn't make anybody stay. and i just said, we're going to stay. >> you also said at the time, look, i don't care what it costs. >> i said, spend whatever it takes. i didn't say i don't care what it costs. i did care, but i didn't want to be pinching pennies on this story. >> what was the difference having cnn's cameras on the front lines of a war like that? what do you think the difference that decision, that capability made to the way the war was covered? >> you know, all we did was televise what we saw. >> did it bring a greater truth do you think to war coverage, the fact that you were there? >> i think so. >> your third story that you singled out, 9/11. the cnn coverage of that. what did that do to america? that moment? >> well, it shook us up. it was unbelievable. and watching it, i was in my office, and i glanced up and just after the first plane had gone in, and the building was on fire. and i sat there stunned. and while i was just sitting there just watching it, the second one came. and i saw it live. and i ran down to the newsroom. walter isaacson was running it at the time. he had come over from "time" magazine. a good man and a good friend of mine. and headline news had stayed with its regular format, which gives the ball scores and the stock market. its half hour rolling format. and a couple times, we had preempted that format when there was a big enough news story to want both cnn and headline news televising the same news because the story was so compelling. i mentioned that to walter. i said, walter, have you thought about switching over headline news? the last thing i did at cnn. he said, no, that's a great idea. within seconds, they switched over to the live coverage of the world trade center. and a few minutes later, the buildings collapsed. you know, it was like pearl harbor, only being televised. >> what do you think it did to the american people in the aftermath? do you think the american people rallied in the right way to what happened? >> well, the american people did all they could. there's not really much you can do when something like that happens except try and make sure that it doesn't happen again as best you can. and i think the best way to avoid violence is to treat everybody with respect, dignity, and friendliness. because if -- your friends don't bomb you, it's only enemies. why have we made so many enemies? particularly when we have the large amounts of money that we donate to charity. why don't we have more friends and less enemies? we do have more friends than enemies, but we have too many enemies. and i'd work on trying to be more popular. >> talking about being popular, let's take a break and come back. i want to talk o to you about some of the great loves of your life. women, sailboats, sports teams. anything else you can think of. the great passions of ted turner, after the break. >> yeah. stupid sun. 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[ female announcer ] get the travelocity guarantee anywhere when you book with our new app. you'll never roam alone. we had a great time for ten years. i just am so happy that i got to spend ten years with him. >> that was jane fonda speaking about ted turner on the show a few months ago. jane fonda, was she the great love of your life? >> probably. >> have you ever quite got over her? >> no. >> do you think you ever will? >> no. when you love somebody and you really love them, you never stop loving them. no matter how hard you try, you can't stop. there's nothing wrong with that. that's good. that's why people love their countries. they love their planet. you know, i basically -- i'm basically a happy person. >> you're a man used to winning. and you lost jane. >> i lost jane. i lost my job here. i lost my fortune. most of it. i have a billion or two left. you can get by on that if you economize. but i was worth $7 or $8 billion at one point. but you carry on. and i found other things to do. i'm working trying to help the united nations causes, both with my philanthropy and with my personal efforts. i'm going to spend all day tomorrow in a meeting to try and save the oceans. i'm on the committee to save the oceans. i'm on the committee to abolish poverty. the millennium development goals at the u.n. i've got plenty of tough jobs. >> which of the three things that you lost, your fortune, most of it, jane fonda, or the job here? >> you want me to rank them? >> yes. >> i love them all so much. >> which upset you the most? >> they all broke my heart. but i just, you know, i just rallied. winners never quit and quitters never win. i just made a comeback. >> are you a better man for having experienced loss? >> i'm a more experienced man because those -- you know, the aol merger and the subsequent, basically, destruction of -- of my wealth, they hurt at the time. but i just toughed it out and you have to keep going. you can't give up in life. >> i saw you once say that one stage after that aol merger, you saw your fortune dmining by $20 million a minute. >> no, no. $10 million a day for three years. >> what does that feel like? >> it felt bad. but i stayed at the company and stayed on the board of directors to try and mitigate the losses as much as i possibly could, to do what i could to help. and, as a result, i lost even more because when the stockholders sued the company, i wasn't part of that suit. because i was on the board. that cost me several hundred million dollars. but i have my honor. i had my honor at the end of it, which is -- not everybody in the media business can say. >> when you had a guy look you in the eye and effectively fire you from the company that you created -- >> that's right. >> -- how does that feel? >> it really hurt. because we were making our budget. and i was loyal to the management of the company. you've read my book, i'm sure. i didn't do anything -- didn't do anything wrong. i think if it had been put to the employees, they would have voted to keep me. but they didn't -- they didn't do that because -- i'd done a pretty good job. i had been "time"s man of the year or "time's" person of the year. i was the only person that worked at "time" ever that got that -- got that honor. that's about as big an honor as you can -- as you can get. i think i was doing a good job. we were making a fabulous amount of money. >> you replaced, jane, for all intents and purposes, with a new system. which is you have four girlfriends at any one time. >> hopefully they won't all leave me at once. >> most men watching this will be going, come on, ted. how do you get away with that? >> with great difficulty. >> you must have a complicated schedule? and the women must be very tolerant. >> first of all, they are good friends with me. most of the time. >> are they good friends with each other? >> some of them are and some aren't. it's complicated. it's much easier to have one wife, but when you have one wife and she leaves you, and i've been divorced three times, my life was so hectic it was really hard to -- hard for them to keep up. it's much hard -- i travel all the time. >> you said very movingly that after you and jane split up, you cried for