Turner Has Shown Obsession for Both Hitler and Murdoch

In a bizarre way, Ted Turner may have been giving Rupert Murdoch a backhanded compliment last week when he compared his longtime rival to “the late Fuhrer” at a meeting with journalists in New York.

Though much is being made in the press about the potential for Turner’s accusation to escalate the cable news feud into all-out warfare between his new employer, Time Warner Inc., and Murdoch’s News Corp., the name calling may have little long-term business consequence, serving only as the latest reminder of how the “Mouth From the South” himself uses the media to posture and rattle his saber.

At the same meeting last week, Turner accused Murdoch of yellow journalism and of using his media properties, with Hitler-like obsession, to attack his competitors and carry forth his business agenda of controlling the global media landscape.

But in fact, Turner has been obsessed--perhaps even awed--by both Hitler and Murdoch for years.

According to “Citizen Turner,” a 1995 book by Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg about the media tycoon’s rise, Turner “simply admired people with enormous power, people who had the ability to get things done.”

Turner, the book says, startled friends over the years with “talk of his interest in the Fuhrer, even reading passages aloud from ‘Mein Kampf.’ ” In another passage, the authors write, in college Turner “defended the ruthless 20th century social Darwinism favored by Hitler’s National Socialists, and he delighted in the shocked reaction of his Northern liberal classmates. He even seemed to have a soft spot in his heart for the Nazi leader himself. ‘Hitler,’ he told a classmate, ‘was the most powerful figure of all time.’ ”

*

Presumably, it was not lost on Turner that both he and Hitler were named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” (Turner in 1992, Hitler in 1938).

Apparently, Turner’s colleagues were also puzzled about his onetime defense of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, according to “Citizen Turner,” which cites a time when, after returning from a trip to Cuba, Turner jumped to Castro’s defense, saying: “Castro’s not a Communist. He’s like me--a dictator.”

Turner, known for his liberal political views, and Murdoch, an archconservative, have often clashed on ideology. Last year, Turner said at the opening session of the Western Cable Show that with the powerhouse merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System Inc., he was “looking forward to squishing Rupert like a bug.” The well-publicized quote came in response to Murdoch’s plans to launch a news network to compete with what he contended was Turner’s liberally slanted outlet CNN.

Last week, Turner stunned a group of journalists at a lunch in New York with executives from Time Warner and TBS when he likened Murdoch’s media-controlling tactics to Hitler’s.

“I don’t think he really understood what he said,” said a close associate of Turner’s. “As mean as it was, it was just a good metaphor for someone who is a menace taking over the world.”

Indeed, the media have taken Turner’s comment somewhat out of context. One journalist who heard the remark said Turner was comparing Murdoch to “the Fuhrer” in the sense that trying to resolve a conflict with him is futile.

Indeed, there are many industry analysts who think too much is being made of the so-called feud between Turner and Murdoch, which is more a fierce rivalry than anything else. They say the ongoing public bashing of each other stems primarily from the loose-lipped Turner shooting off his mouth at his favorite rival. “And,” as one source who knows both moguls says, “Murdoch is always up for a good fight.”

Don’t forget, it was just last year that Turner was publicly critical of Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin, his soon-to-be-boss.

Two years ago, he slammed Time Warner, a shareholder in his company, at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington for stymieing his efforts to buy a television network, and at one point compared obstacles placed in his way by TBS shareholders to the treatment of Jews in Germany during World War II.

While Turner may be a loud mouth, someone who knows him well suggests that “he doesn’t hate anybody. He’s just a voracious competitor who feels it’s us against the world.”

Privately, Turner has told associates in the same breath how much he dislikes Murdoch and how much he respects his business acumen.

When Murdoch bought a controlling interest in Star TV, Turner was quoted in one newspaper as saying, “He’s hard not to like--but on the other hand, as a competitor, he’s hard to like.”

As for Turner’s chronic public outbursts about Murdoch and other rivals, one source said, “It’s all noise.” Journalists often bait him at public forums because he almost never grants interviews and they know what he says is bound to make good copy.

*

There’s no question that historically, Turner and Murdoch have envied each other’s success in building powerful empires. Turner, who will become the biggest shareholder of Time Warner after the merger closes, had a big say in his new company’s decision to carry MSNBC on its cable systems, rather than Fox’s 24-hour news channel.

Though Murdoch has threatened to retaliate with all his force, including a possible lawsuit contending that Time Warner reneged on an agreement to carry his news channel, many sources say there’s too much at stake for either company to try to sabotage the other.

For instance, Home Box Office airs films made by 20th Century Fox, and Fox Broadcasting Network carries such Warner Bros.-produced shows as “Party Girl” and “Living Single,” as well as the syndicated talk show “Rosie O’Donnell.” HBO is carried internationally on News Corp.’s satellites.

As one senior Warner Bros. executive noted Monday, “We need each other.” Another executive said that while on the Time Warner/News Corp. cable side “there could be a battle royal,” on the movie and television studio side of Warner Bros. and Fox, “we expect business as usual.”

What’s more, neither side may want to escalate the battle at a time when regulators are reviewing media deals consolidating the industry into fewer hands. “Regulators were afraid that the concentration of power would allow conglomerates to use their leverage to cut off competitors’ access,” said one Fox source.

Though their rivalry dates back many years, Turner and Murdoch haven’t always been at each other’s throats. In fact, in the mid-1980s when Turner got into financial trouble with MGM, Murdoch went to Atlanta with then-Fox Chairman Barry Diller to discuss bailing him out.

*

Conversely, when Murdoch was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1980s, Turner “laid off him because he no longer perceived him as a threat,” recalled a source. The two even went skiing together at Turner’s Montana ranch.

The source also recounted the time Murdoch clipped an article from his New York Post newspaper quoting Turner saying he would be much richer than either Murdoch or Sumner Redstone since he was so much younger than them. Murdoch sent Turner the clipping with a note: “Before it’s too late, let’s have lunch.”

No doubt when the needs of their businesses demand it, the two will go skiing again.

* Times staff writer James Bates contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Bears Challenge, but Bulls Win Again

The stock market suffered its deepest sell-off since 1994 in the third quarter, hurt by worries over rising interest rates and slowing corporate profit growth. But share prices quickly rebounded in August and September as interest rates pulled back and earnings concerns receded. Strong merger and corporate share buyback activity also helped. The Dow Jones industrial average, daily closes since June 3:

* June 28: End of second quarter; Dow at 5,654.63. 30-year T-bond at 6.89%.

* July 5: Dow plunges 115 points as bond yields soar on strong jobs report.

* July 12: Hewlett-Packard and Motorola report poor earnings.

* July 23: Market hits six-month lows on profit worries.

* Aug. 2: Stocks resurge as moderate economic data send bond yields plunging.

* Sept. 13: Dow hits record after modest inflation report.

* Monday: End of third quarter; Dow at 5,882.17; 30-year T-bond at 6.92%.

How Key Indexes Fared

Buybacks Flourish

Companies have pledged share buyback plans of $108 billion so far this year, a record. Dollar volume of buybacks announced each year, in billions:

Sources: TradeLine, Securities Data