The Highwaymen

April 28, 1997
In his new book, Auletta (Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way) collects 16 of his New Yorker articles published since 1993, adding afterwards and updates where necessary and even restoring paragraphs pruned by the magazine editors. (Most of the piece on William Bennett's battle with Time Warner over rap music, for example, did not appear in the original version.) In general, the theme binding the pieces is the new booms in the electronic communications business, and in particular, the figures--usually colorful--who have dominated, however fleetingly, its rapid growth. Included are Barry Diller, who dabbled profitably in a cable shopping network, Ted Tuner of CNN, John Malone of TCI, Rupert Murdoch (who came to regret taping "fifteen or so hours" of interviews with Auletta and giving him almost complete access for a week--more exposure, Auletta notes, than Murdoch had ever allowed before), Herbert Allen, master arranger of mega-mergers and Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg together (briefly) at Disney. There's also a corporate history of Viacom, a look at the move into show business by the new generation at Seagram's, and a discussion of the "synergistic" superhighway's distrust--and fear--of traditional journalism, the craft Auletta practices so skillfully. For those who haven't kept abreast of what's been happening in the big-bucks communications world over the past half-decade, here's an ideal way to catch up.

January 1, 1997
From communications expert Auletta, a staff writer at the New Yorker, comes portraits of the "highwaymen"--Gates, Ovitz, Murdoch, et al.--whose daily decisions shape our electronic future.

April 15, 1997
From 1992 to 1996, Auletta's ringside seat as media columnist for the "New Yorker" magazine allowed him to witness the information revolution from the inside. In the 16 articles of "Highway," Auletta displays his considerable knowledge of the major players in network and cable television, movie studios, the press, publishers, computers, and telephone companies. With so many powerful media people and their interests tied to each other's communication business, you need a scorecard--or this book--to keep them straight: After Rupert Murdoch assumed control at Fox, Barry Diller used an Apple laptop to free him "from secretaries, meetings, memos, press leaks" and find himself a new job; Diller joined the QVC cable shopping network, which is owned in part by John Malone of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI); TCI, the largest cable operator in the world, worried Sumner Redstone at Viacom and Michael Eisner at Disney, neither of whom wanted to miss out on any pay TV action; Seagram's Edgar Bronfman bought a 15 percent share of Time Warner, which went on to acquire Turner Broadcasting; and Michael Kinsley left the security of Washington, D.C., to become editor of "Slate," a brand-new online magazine whose parent company, Microsoft, has television ties via an alliance with NBC. Although a major drawback of this collection is the inherently dated nature of the articles, it can be easily remedied with news items in the "Wall Street Journal," "Forbes," "Business Week," or "The Economist." ((Reviewed April 15, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)