Clash of the Titans: How the Unbridled Ambition of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch Has Created Global Empires That Control What We Read and Watch
CLASH OF THE TITANS By the author of the highly acclaimed national bestseller Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters. The two most influential media moguls of all time: two billionaires, two fascinating stories that often intersect. Ted Turner is the brash, outspoken and unpredictable vice-chairman of AOL Time Warner who jockeyed a small firm into a $3 billion cable empire that includes-but is not limited to - CNN, super station WTBS, and Turner Network Television. Rupert Murdoch is...
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\ Publishers WeeklyIf information is power, then whoever controls it holds the world in his palm. In this terrific dual biography, Hack's follow-up to his bestselling Hughes, Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner are the titans who clash over global dominance of information's flow. Hack begins in 1996, with a rift between Murdoch and Jerry Levin of Time Warner, which had recently absorbed Turner Broadcasting, over Time Warner's refusal to carry Murdoch's Fox News Channel in addition to Turner's CNN. The refusal leads to a barrage of "back stabbing and name-calling" between Turner, now Time Warner's largest stockholder, and Murdoch that highlights the bitter enmity between the two men. The chapter spotlights all the virtues that make Hack's work a model of entertaining business writing: his ability to dramatize financial dealings whileproviding hard facts and figures; his keen understanding of the psychology of those of towering ambition; his easily read and clever prose ("Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch are two storm fronts colliding.... Turner-the high front that swings erratic.... Murdoch-the low front that appears at rest, then moves with amazing speed, absorbing all in his path"). The remainder of the book flows chronologically, following Turner and Murdoch as they established their empires in the 1980s, Turner primarily via cable, Murdoch mainly via newspapers and then satellite TV; as their personal lives took surprising turns, with Turner the rake settling down with Jane Fonda while Murdoch the family man ditches his longtime wife for a much younger woman; and as they crusade for opposing political beliefs, Turner the liberal environmentalist, Murdoch the arch-conservative. Hack's vision of megabusinesses as a reflection of the personalities of those who run them is gripping and exceptionally vivid, and if he occasionally veers into melodrama ("They will clash and they will win, with the power to determine what is seen, how it is received... "), he has produced here, as he did in Hughes, a sparkling, immensely enjoyable portrait of extraordinary men. First serial to Variety. (Jan.) Forecast: Business readers will snap this up, but, like Hughes, this bio, with its superb mix of the public and the personal, crackles with general interest as well. This title should climb bestseller lists. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalMention the names Turner and Murdoch, and the term media mogul is automatically added. These two contemporaries and rivals have had a tremendous influence on what we view, hear, and read, both in news and entertainment. Hack's parallel biography compares and contrasts their professional and personal lives. Both were born into affluence-Turner in the South, Murdoch in Australia. Their empires were built in the 1980s from different approaches: Turner went from billboards in Georgia to cable television; Murdoch's one newspaper in Australia grew to tabloids in Britain and the United States. Turner gambled that the world would watch 24-hour news; Murdoch bought more print outlets and expanded into broadcast media. Turner bought a baseball team, a motion picture archive, and an Internet/publishing conglomerate; Murdoch bought his own motion picture studio that included television, radio, and satellite. Their personal lives both include early marriages and children, then high-profile divorces and remarriage. Turner is the outspoken patron of liberal causes while Murdoch is extremely conservative. Hack clearly differentiates between the two threads of the story. Narrator Scott Brick uses annoying, fake accents for his subjects-Turner sort of Southern, Murdoch sort of British-but the work is sufficiently interesting to warrant purchase.-Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \
