Amid falling ratings and negative press, CNN founder Ted Turner is defending his network's attempts to offer straightforward, nonpartisan cable news while the competition -- Fox News and MSNBC -- drifts ever further toward the ideological fringes.
"The emphasis should be on - hard news," Turner, who launched the network in 1980, told CNN's Piers Morgan in an interview that will air tonight. "I wanted CNN to be the 'New York Times' for the news business, not the 'The Daily News.'"
"I thought that for the long-term, that would be the best position to be in, even if the ratings weren't the greatest," he tells Morgan. "If you had the most prestige and you were the network that everybody turned to in times of a crisis, that was the most important position in the news business to hold."
Even with the negative press CNN has received in light of its ratings decline, critics still acknowledge that the network is the most reliable channel among the big three to turn to for unbiased breaking news. But that hasn't won CNN a sustained audience -- especially in primetime, which is where the money is made.
Turner also discusses Mitt Romney -- "I think that he’d probably make a good president... but I'm not endorsing him" -- and his ex-wife Jane Fonda.
A preview of the interview is available here.