Ted Turner Wants to Reclaim CNN

Ted Turner says he'd like to regain control of CNN to make the cable news network focus on "less talk, more news," Bloomberg News reports.

Turner told the news outlet if he was in charge, "there'd be less fluffy news and more international news" focusing on countries such as China. "I feel like a dummy," Turner says about selling the channel in 1996. "You let the big one get away."

Read more about former media mogul Ted Turner

Turner founded the cable news network in 1980 and handed the reins over for CNN, as well as TNT, TBS and Cartoon Network, to Time Warner in 1996. The deal made Turner the largest individual shareholder of the media conglomerate. However, Turner lost $7 billion after the company merged with AOL in 2001. He stepped down from Time Warner's board in 2006.

In the Bloomberg interview, Turner compared losing a significant part of his multi-billion dollar fortune to "having my heart ripped out." Because of his significant decline in wealth, Turner is no longer involved in the media industry, but works on projects related to causes such as women's rights and climate change.

"I've had the experience of being on top and riding the roller coaster down again, nearly to the bottom," Turner told Bloomberg News. "You know, if you economize and don't buy new airplanes or long-range jets, or that sort of thing, you can get by on a billion or two."