Clash Of The Titans

When Robert Edward (Ted) Turner III started out in business, he owned a small billboard company in rural Georgia. What he has ended up with is the Vice-Chairmanship of AOL Time Warner through the sale of his $3 billion empire, which includes CNN, Superstation WTBS, Turner Network Television, Turner Classic Movies, the Atlanta Braves, the Goodwill Games, and MGM Studios. Risk-taking, careful planning, and steely determination are the hallmarks of this brash, outspoken, and wildly successful media mogul. On the other side of the world, his counterpart, Keith Rupert Murdoch, impeccably dressed, ruthless, and hungry for success, began with one small Australian newspaper and parlayed it into 125 newspapers and magazines around the globe, the Fox, Inc., motion picture and television conglomerate, and news satellites on four continents. These two men, controllers of much of the news and entertainment we receive every day, have long traded barbs and vitriolic attacks, creating an intense race for complete domination of the media. Turner and Murdoch are the major players in the media world today—and both have personal lives as complicated as their business dealings. Family squabbles, public divorces, high-profile romances, huge charitable bequests, and their appearances at the most exclusive gatherings in the world have made both moguls entertainment news in their own papers and news magazine shows. This meticulously researched look at media business is also a dual biography. In great detail, it delves into both the personal and professional lives of these two outsize figures, their fierce competition, and their enormous effect on American daily life.