I read Atlas Shrugged in 1994. It was also in 1994 that I first read about cable television visionary John Malone. He was in the news quite a bit thanks to the growing prominence of cable, but also because Al Gore had formerly referred to him as “Darth Vader.” It’s hard to say why, but Malone was the person I associated Hank Rearden with.
Unhappy that such a prominent doer was routinely under attack by government, but also of the view that Malone must be brilliant if the small minds in government disliked him so much, I made it a point from 1994 on to own shares in Liberty Media, the media investment vehicle that Malone created while CEO of cable giant TCI. Which means today, over thirty years later, I own tiny amounts of the many commercial entities that Liberty has a stake in, which includes AT&T, the Alanta Braves, Warner Brothers Discovery, SiriusXM, and many more. Which makes me think even more of Malone.
You see, Malone is a libertarian. And while it didn’t make it into his excellent memoirs, Born to Be Wired: Lessons from a Lifetime Transforming Television, Wiring America for the Internet, and Growing Formula One, Discovery, SiriusXM, and the Atlanta Braves, Malone was a long-time board member at the libertarian Cato Institute after having been courted by the recently deceased co-founder of Cato, Ed Crane.
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