As we noted yesterday, the lead in-studio guest on “Piers Morgan Tonight” last night was CNN founder Ted Turner. Turner, who has criticized CNN in the past for eschewing certain types of news (science, international) for other types (politics), said that he still holds the network in the highest regard:

“I wanted CNN to be the New York Times for the news business, not The Daily News. I wanted it to be The New York Times. And I thought that for the long-term, that would be the best position to be in, even if the ratings weren’t the greatest. If you had the most prestige and you were the network that everybody turned to in times of a crisis, that that was the most important position, in the news business, to hold.”

WATCH:

Turner also told Morgan about the experience of being fired from the company he founded, and losing upwards of $10 million a day: