Media magnate Ted Turner famously got the idea for CNN International from Fidel Castro, and he remains unabashed in his admiration for the dictator.
Turner made his debut on The O'Reilly Factor last night, and for once we are actually agreeing with Bill O'Reilly. Turner says he admires the bearded one, before O'Reilly is all like, 'Uh, Ted, he's killed a bunch of people. He has political prisoners. People are poor. He's a power hungry fascist. Communism sucks.'
Turner finally retreats with, "Hey, listen, I didn't say I wanted to live in
Cuba. And I didn't say that I was buddy buddies with Fidel Castro. I
just said that I respected certain things that he's done."
Listen Ted, we respect Castro's awesome ability to cultivate facial hair, but on the whole he's a bad apple. So when some one asks you point blank if you admire him, maybe you should think before you simply reply, "Yes."
Read the entire exchange behind the cut.
--Kyle Munzenrieder
O'REILLY: Fidel Castro, do you admire the man?
TURNER: Yes.
O'REILLY: Now he has murdered people. He's imprisoned people. There are political prisoners now. He won't let his people use the Internet. Nobody can use that. And you admire the guy?
TURNER: Well, I admire certain things about him. He's trained a lot of doctors, and they've got one of the best educational systems in the developing world. And you know, he's still popular with a lot of people down there. He's unpopular...
O'REILLY: But he's a killer. He's a killer. He's a guy who...
TURNER: But that has never, to my knowledge, that's never been proven. I mean...
O'REILLY: He's executed political prisoners. I mean, he enslaves people who don't see it the way he sees it. Come on. He's a dictatorship. If you admire him, then why wouldn't you admire Mussolini? I mean, what's the difference? Mussolini put people back to work. There was order. The educational system was fine. See, I'm not getting this. This is what I don't understand about it.
TURNER: Well, OK, well, if you don't see the difference between Castro and Mussolini, you know, then you know, I likened some aspects of FOX News to the Nazis, so, I mean, you know, it works both ways.
O'REILLY: But you just admitted to me that that wasn't a very good thing to do and wasn't accurate.
TURNER: Hey, listen, I didn't say I wanted to live in Cuba. And I didn't say that I was buddy buddies with Fidel Castro. I just said that I respected certain things that he's done.
O'REILLY: All right, well...
TURNER: What's wrong with that?
O'REILLY: Well, you said respect the man. And I just don't -- I can't possibly see how you could do that, but...
TURNER: Of course not.
