TED TURNER, the billionaire founder of CNN, has accused the 24-hour cable news network of dumbing down its coverage, suggesting it should run more international and environmental news and fewer stories about “the pervert of the day”.

Mr Turner, who no longer controls CNN, having sold it to Time Warner in 1996, told staff on its 25th anniversary that there was too much “trivial news” being covered by the network, which has been overtaken in the US by Fox News.

He told an audience of journalists outside the Atlanta mansion from which CNN was first broadcast that he had conceived CNN as a network on which global events would be emphasised ahead of local news, such as rapes and murders.

“I would like to see us to return to a little more international coverage on the domestic feed and a little more environmental coverage, and, maybe, maybe a little less of the pervert of the day,” he said.

“You know, we have a lot of perverts on today, and I know that, but is that really news? I mean, come on. I guess you’ve got to cover Michael Jackson, but not three stories about perversion that we do every day as well.”

CNN first broadcast on June 1, 1980, and was available in fewer than two million US households. The brand now runs across 24 networks and services, reaching more than 2 billion people in 200 countries.

It launched an international network in 1985 and came of age as a global force in news during the first Gulf war, when millions of viewers watched pictures of smart bombs penetrating Iraqi bunkers.

It also pioneered the use of satellite phones, allowing its reporters to remain in remote locations.

However, in the past decade CNN has faced a growing number of rivals, including the BBC, along with Sky and Fox News, which are both owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times. It will face more competition from Al Jazeera’s English language network.

Mr Turner admitted that CNN occasionally dipped into lowbrow news while he still ran the network. “We followed OJ Simpson . . . It was pretty trivial, but high interest,” he said. However, he added: “Somebody’s got to be a serious news person. Somebody’s got to be the most respected name in television news, and I wanted that position for CNN.”

A CNN spokesman said the network had recently started to show more global news in the US by broadcasting shows from its international network. “We welcome Ted Turner’s endorsement of CNN US’s decision to begin simulcasting parts of CNN International in the US,” he said. He declined to comment on the other remarks.

Mr Turner, whose fortune is estimated at $2 billion (£1.1 billion), expressed regret for giving up control of CNN by selling his broadcasting empire to Time Warner, which was then headed by Gerald Levin, who fired him from his executive position shortly after the deal.

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