To the End of Time: The Seduction and Conquest of a Media Empire.

• Author: Ledbetter, James

As if scripted by publicists for Richard Clurman's book,*, the board of Time Warner in late February ousted its co-CEO, Nicholas J. Nicholas in what was widely described as a "coup." The awkward two-chief arrangement that had existed since the companies' 1989 merger finally gave way, and Warner mogul Steve Ross, even as he seemed to be dying of prostate cancer, had won again. By the time Nicholas left the company, he and Ross were no longer even speaking--a feud born, reportedly, of the vastly divergent styles that are described in Clurman's book.

In a gesture of excess that has come to characterize the company, Nicholas will receive somewhere between $24 and $45 million for the privilege of being booted out of the company. That decision prompted a lawsuit from four shareholders who claim, not at all unreasonably, that the payment "would constitute a gift and a waste of Time Warner's assets." A quote from Clurman, whose book details many such greedfests, became mandatory in everybody's account of the Nicholas debacle.

This was only the most recent example of publishing hype that Simon and Schuster couldn't possibly buy. The excerpt in January's Vanity Fair profiling Ross, for all its discussion of his mob-tinged past and obscene $100 million annual compensation, contained very little that hadn't already been published. But it managed to catch the tsunami of resentment rising against American executive perks, prompting tongues to clack in the microcosmos where such things matter--so much so that New York City Council president Andrew Stein was compelled to write a letter to Vanity Fair saying Clurman had done Ross wrong. Stein defended Ross as "a unique human being, a great New Yorker, and a visionary business leader," and thanked him for continuing to employ 7,000 people in the city where Stein hopes soon to be mayor. That Time had, just weeks before, laid off hundreds of employees and that Time Warner has a monopoly on cable television services in New York City were clearly less important to Stein than the fact that Ross had recently co-chaired a $5,000-a-plate Stein fundraiser that helped him circumvent public campaign financing laws.

Add to this a story in March's Equire by former Time writer Robert Sam Anson about the newsweekly's ongoing identity crisis. Even before Esquire had hit the stands, Clurman accused Anson, whom he'd hired at Time in the sixtiies, of stealing from his sallies. This baseless charge came to the attention of...