There are lining with Oscar statuettes on the walls of Ted Turner’s international headquarters， 14th floors above downtown Atlanta. If somebody tries to pick one up， such as the actual best-production award for Casablanca，he will discover that they are all firmly bolted to their glass display shelves， and Turner’s aides will break their frowns to laugh at him.
As a 63-year-old multibillionaire founder of CNN， former champion sailor， Turner looks alike Rhett Butler in the Goes With The Wind and is also a record-breaking philanthropist①.
In spring 2000， Turner was suddenly sidelined from the broadcasting company he had built from scratch. Then his wife， who has been eight years living with him， the actress Jane Fonda， came home one night and informed him that she was now a born-again Christian， so they finally divorced. Even unluckily， two of his grandchildren developed a rare genetic disorder， and one died. Turner’s friends said he was inconsolable at that time.Then， just when he and others felt it could get no worse， he made a speech in Rhode Island saying that the September 11 hijackers had been brave through which he brought the wrath② of America upon himself.
Then after this he threw himself into charity work in the world．Turner’s biggest of his three charities UN Foundation， spent lots of money in one month combating intestinal parasites in Vietnamese children， reducing China’s greenhouse-gas emissions and helping women from Burkina Faso start businesses selling nut butter.
Turner who is notorious for doing as he pleases， such as early in his career， he made a pitch wearing no clothes to advertising executives and later， he ever went to Cuba to get Fidel Castro to tape a promotional slot for CNN， contributes a lot in saving projects. From preventing the extinction of the Chiricahua leopard frog in the wilds of New Mexico to founding an influential nuclear non-proliferation③ institute， he really likes to see himself as locked in a personal battle against apocalypse④．He doesn’t just give money； his staff are sometimes taken aback to see him skulking in the streets nearby，picking up litter．
It is easy to see behind the frenzied⑤activity marking him implies a sense of permanent crisis，and desperate insecurity. He inherited an advertising business turned into CNN latterly from his father， who was prone to fits of rage， and beat him with a coat hanger； then when Turner was 24 he committed suicide. Even before that，his younger sister had died from an immune disease when she was 12， and Ted was sent to a boarding school he hated. His father， he has said， not without admiration， believed that instilling insecurity in his son would help him to achieve.
All in all， Turner seems to have been a well-qualified candidate for total psychic collapse， as he says today “But when everything goes wrong， you can either give up or you can try to fight. I tried to fight.”
① philanthropistn. 慈善家
② wrathn. 愤怒，狂怒
③ non-proliferationn. 防止核武器扩散
④ apocalypsen. 启示
⑤ frenziedadj. 狂乱的，疯狂似的
泰德·特纳
在泰德·特纳位于亚特兰大闹市区14层楼上的国际总部，沿墙陈列着一排排奥斯卡金像。假如某人想拿起一个的话，例如《卡萨布兰卡》的最佳影片金像真品，他会发现它们都被用螺钉固定在玻璃陈列架上。这时，特纳的助手会松开皱着的眉头，朝这人一笑。
作为一位拥有数十亿家财的富翁、美国有线新闻电视公司 CNN 的创始人、从前的出色水手，特纳的面容酷似《飘》中的男主人公白瑞德，而且他还是一个打破捐资记录的慈善家。
2000年的春天，他突然在这个靠自己白手起家创立的广播公司里靠边站了。随后，与他共同生活了8年的妻子——演员简·方达一天晚上回到家，告诉他自己如今是已转信新教的基督徒，最终他们结束了这场婚姻。更加不幸的是，他的两个孙儿得了一种罕见的遗传疾病，其中一个最终先他而去离开了人世。特纳的朋友说，那时候的他伤心至极。然后，就在特纳以及其他人都觉得情况不会变得更加糟糕的时候，他又让自己成了愤怒的美国人的众矢之地，在罗德岛一次演讲中他说，“‘9·11’事件中的劫机者很勇敢。”
之后不久特纳开始投身世界上的慈善事业。特纳的3个慈善机构中最大的联合国基金会曾在一个月内出资巨额资金，用于在越南儿童中消灭肠寄生虫、减少中国的温室气体排放量和帮助布基纳法索妇女起动销售坚果果酱的业务。
特纳以我行我素而著称，例如在事业的早期，他曾经赤身裸体作宣传，而且后来，他又曾跑到古巴，让菲德尔·卡斯特罗为CNN录制一档宣传节目，但是在挽救世界的各种工程中，他做出了巨大贡献。从防止新墨西哥州野外的乞瑞卡瓦豹蛙的灭绝，到创立一个有影响力的禁止核扩散协会，他似乎真的认为自己置身于一场阻止大灾难的个人战斗中。他并不仅仅是提供金钱，有时候他的下属会吃惊地发现他在附近的街道上偷偷摸摸地捡垃圾。
从特纳的早年经历中人们不难看出，在他那些标志性的狂热行为背后，实际上隐藏着的是一种永久的危机感和极度的不安全感。他继承了父亲的一个广告公司——今天的CNN，其父亲经常大发脾气，然后用衣架打他，之后就在特纳24岁时自杀了。在那之前，他的妹妹在12岁时死于一种免疫系统疾病。父亲把特纳送到一所他不喜欢的寄宿学校。特纳不无钦佩地说，他的父亲认为，让儿子有不安全感有助其成功。
从各方面说，特纳都似乎成了一个十分典型的精神全面崩溃的病例。正如他所说：“当一切都出了问题时，你要么放弃，要么努力抗争。而我则选择努力抗争。”
