CNN founder says he was mis-diagnosed as manic depressive

CNN founder Ted Turner, who was famously erratic during his career as a television industry pioneer, said he was misdiagnosed as being manic depressive and now says he is suffering from Lewy body dementia.

Interviewed on 60 Minutes by Ted Koppel in a segment airing Sunday, Turner says Lewy body dementia is like Alzheimer’s, but not fatal. It leaves him tired and forgetful, he says. In fact during the interview, he can’t recall the name of his condition.

Turner says he does not watch much news these days, but tunes in to CNN occasionally.

“I think they’re stickin’ with politics a little too much,” Turner tells Koppel. “They – they’d do better to have – a more balanced – agenda. But that’s, you know, just one person’s opinion.”

He also says he nearly ran for president.

“The closest I came to running for office was when I was married to Jane Fonda. And when I discussed it with her – she was married to one politician,” Turner says. “And she said, you know, ‘If you run for, for office, you run alone.’”