The Highwaymen - Softcover

"Sweeping in its scope and definitive in its detail, Three Blind Mice will tower over all other accounts as the new bible of the broadcasting business."
-- Chicago Sun Times

"The book's fascination and fun lie in the detail -- Mr. Auletta's extraordinary access to the principle players, his eye for color, ear for anecdote and reporter's instinct for conflict."
-- The Wall Street Journal

"A tour-de-force of reporting"
-- Business Week

"Three Blind Mice may be the most thorough probe ever into how the TV industry works."
-- Newsweek

"Ken Auletta tells it all about the television networks. Behind the scenes, on the record, as never before."
-- Ben Bradlee, The Washington Post

Early Reviews for The Highwaymen:

"In his new book, Auletta collects 16 of his New Yorker articles published since 1993, adding afterwards and updates where necessary. (Most of the piece on William Bennett's battle with Time Warner over rap music, for example, did not appear in the original version.) 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 Ted Turner 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, here's an ideal way to catch up."
-- Publisher's Weekly