Schlockmeister versus the sly old Fox

TED TURNER and RUPERT MURDOCH A COUPLE of years ago, CNN-founder Ted Turner gave an interview to a British newspaper in which he - perhaps only half-jokingly - commented that he wished rival tycoon Rupert Murdoch would die before he does, so he could spend his last years in peace.

In a riposte typical of the love-hate relationship between the bosses of two of the world's most glittering media dynasties, Murdoch sent Turner a note saying: 'Dear Ted - let's have lunch before it's too late.' It's not known whether the two have put aside their squabbling enough to ever have lunch tete-a-tete, but they certainly shared a table last week - at the White House no less - when they were among the top TV executives who turned up to talk with President Clinton about their plans for a ratings system for sex and violence. For once, Murdoch and Turner were united on something: the need to implement such a system before the US Government made the industry do it.

One wonders whether, on bumping into each other in the White House men's room, they took some time out from talking shop to discussing what Murdoch had said about his rival just three days before. In a speech at the National Press Club, the Australian-American was as blunt as ever in taking a colourful swipe at Turner's hypocrisy.

Referring to the Atlantan's earlier remarks calling him a 'shlockmeister', doling up down-market trash on his Fox network, Murdoch retaliated in kind. He cited Fox's achievements, such as winning rights to NFL football and its educational programmes, and added: 'We do, however, draw the line at professional wrestling and brown-nosing foreign dictators. You'll have to turn to one of Ted's channels to see that.' Then, quoting Benjamin Disraeli, he said of Turner: 'It's true that I am a low, mean snake. But you, sir, could walk beneath me wearing a top hat.' Murdoch's comments won almost as much coverage as the intended headline from the speech - an initiative to give free time on Fox to the 1996 presidential candidates to counter the growing role of expensive TV advertising in American politics. And they were imbued with a little hypocrisy of their own; even though Turner's cable channels do broadcast the cheesy professional wrestling circuit, Murdoch thought nothing of paying US$10 million (about HK$77.30 million) to promoter Don King for rights to show Mike Tyson's most recent heavyweight boxing match.

Curiously, a CNN spokesman could find no record of when Turner made the 'shlockmeister' remark attributed to him by Murdoch, but that hardly matters. What the week's events once again displayed was the growing tensions within the media industry, brought on by all manner of social and technological changes and government deregulation - and encapsulated in the head-to-head clash between these two egos.

It is not clear just how much (if at all) Turner and Murdoch dislike each other, but they certainly have always exchanged harsh public words. In a 1994 interview with Turner by the South China Morning Post, the CNN chief spent some time talking about Murdoch, and making it clear he disapproved of his aggressive plans for global supremacy. He said: 'He tries to dominate everything out there. It's not enough to have one newspaper in London, he wants all the newspapers, so all the information comes from him.' Turner, who has tried to keep his cable channels family-orientated and free of the kind of 'shlock' he sees on Fox, is also committed to using them to advance his liberal views on the environment and social issues - and seems to have a distaste for Murdoch's tireless devotion to the bottom line.