Morgan Neill sobre los almendrones en La Habana

Por lo demás, todo bien en el mejor de los mundos posibles, creado hace medio siglo en la Isla de Cuba por el influyente amigo del fundador y uno de principales inspiradores del alumbramiento de la poderosa CNN en 1985: Fidel Castro Ruz.

Aunque por vergüenza en la entrevista no lo haya mencionado por su nombre y apellido, el inefable Ted Turner

Inside edge in first Gulf War

Turner made his comments at a conference attended by CNN employees and contributors to the network's World Report program, which he credited with helping CNN gain its exclusive coverage of the first Gulf War.

Before the war, Iraqi journalists attended the annual conferences in Atlanta, Turner said.

"We made friends with the Iraqi television people like we've made friends with everybody in the room," he said, pointing to the crowd.

In 1990, as war clouds gathered, "We had the position where we were liked over there and we were also known as being fair, and the Iraqis kind of chose us -- if there was going to be anybody broadcasting out of there."

CNN 'was about an adventure'

Turner, 66, said he had no doubt in 1980 that the network would succeed. "Failure was not an option," he said, despite the fact that it was undercapitalized.

"I figured, if we just got on the air and got started, when people actually saw how important it was going to be to have news available any time of the night and day, that I'd be able to raise more money later on, which is what I was able to do."

But a desire to get rich was not his sole motivation, the billionaire said.

"It was about an adventure. I really thought that the world would benefit having lots of different information about all different parts of the world," he said.

Turner said that at the network's inception he was not worried about the competition posed by the Big Three broadcast networks.

"We put our focus from the very beginning on national and international news," he said. "That really wasn't available from CBS, NBC and ABC, because they were too busy covering the trivia."

In 1985, the network launched CNN International, an idea Turner said he got three years before when he met Cuban President Fidel Castro.

"He said, 'Ted, the whole world needs CNN. I use it all the time and it's very important to me.' So I said, 'Well, if Castro needs it, certainly the capitalists around the world could use it, and perhaps some other communists too.' "