Ted cordially greets old friends and well-wishers at a reception in his honor prior to his funny, touching, and instructive Medallion speech.

"It's not how big you are, it's how good you are that really counts," Turner said in commenting on the ratings of the Fox News Channel, a CNN rival he once vowed to "squash."

Turner tries to encourage those reluctant souls who want to keep nuclear weapons to raise their hands after many in the audience "voted" to ban nuclear weapons from the earth.

Asked if he could comment on the ongoing federal investigations into AOL Time Warner, Turner said, "I can say one thing. As the largest shareholder and the biggest shareholder (of the company), it's been brutal." Turner also acknowledged his personal philanthropic efforts, in response to the kind reference in past-President Joe Epstein's introduction.

"The media is too concentrated, too few people own too much," Turner said. That's especially true now that he doesn't own any media outlets anymore, he noted, a remark met by uproarious laughter.
"I'm in the restaurant business now," he explained, as he tried to entice the audience members into trying buffalo steak.

"He's a warmonger,. . . .Rupert Murdoch [and the Fox News Channel] promoted the war [with Iraq]." But Turner noted wryly that he made a fortune from the first Gulf War, which his network, CNN, was almost able to cover as an exclusive. Turner also took a more light-hearted shot at war correspondent Peter Arnett, late of CNN, late of MSNBC, late of National Geographic Explorer. All war correspondents are a little bit crazy, he said.

Ted Turner, the man who twice revolutionized cable television, first with the Superstation and then by founding CNN, winner of the America's Cup Yacht Race, and former Vice-Chairman of AOL Time Warner, accepts the Commonwealth Club Medallion.

"My epitaph? I said all I have to say."