'It's official. God has slipped in the Nielsen ratings. We know this because Ted Turner himself has said so.
Turner, who is chairman of the Turner Broadcasting System, creator of the Cable News Network and the owner of two Atlanta sports teams, recently told members of the National Newspaper Association that the biblical Ten Commandments are obsolete.
'You might guess that Turner would want to edit the Ten Commandments into a three-part mini-series... or maybe colorize them... but who would expect he'd opt to cancel them like a 'Beverly Hillbillies' rerun?
' 'We're living with outmoded rules,' said Turner, who for good measure proclaimed himself 'news king' of the land. 'The rules we're living under is the Ten Commandments, and I bet nobody pays much attention to 'em, because they're too old. When Moses went up on to the mountain, there were no nuclear weapons, there was no poverty. Today, the commandments wouldn't go over. Nobody around likes to be commanded. Commandments are out.' 'Not surprisingly, Turner has an alternative. Something called the 'Ten Voluntary Initiatives,' which he believes relate more closely to modern problems such as overpopulation and the arms race.
'Still, the image of Ted Turner as a latter-day Moses needs work. Maybe if the Mount Sinai scene was reshot at Six Flags Over Georgia, and instead of stone tablets he used copies of TBS viewer guides, and...'<
Wisconsin State Journal editorial, Oct. 31, 1989
CAPTION(S):
Associated Press photo
Turner in 1993.
