ctful of the challenge"), a weakness for Krispy Kreme donuts that increased in direct proportion to the length of negotiations, and he seemed to own a single navy blue pin-striped suit, which he wore whenever he was not racing one of the stock cars he owned. Even off the racetrack, he was constantly in motion, flying between his home base in San Francisco, where his wife and teenage daughter lived; a condo in Denver, where TCI's headquarters were; and a com- pany apartment in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria, where he camped out when he was doing deals or schmoozing media moguls in con- templation of one. FedEx packages of paperwork chased him around the country, and during the brief period when he attended Arm- strong's day-long Monday meetings, he would stay only long enough to sort through one such package. Then he had to either "take a phone call" or "get to a meeting in the city." In our first conversation that Sunday afternoon, he wanted to dis- Don't Let Plugging Leaks Become an Obsession cuss media strategy for the announcement. "I'd like to give the story to Leslie Cauley at the Wall Street Journal," he said, "but I know John Keller covers your beat, SO I propose we give it to the two of them." Cauley covered the cable industry for the Journal, and I knew her from her earlier assignment writing about the Bell companies. She was smart, very aggressive, and highly opinionated. But I also knew some- thing else about her: Keller didn't trust her. He had once been her boss, and he had been convinced that she was going easy on Bell At- lantic because one of its executives was leaking information to her. Keller had no problem accepting leaks-they were his stock in trade- but he had a schoolmarmy abhorrence of playing favorites, especially when it reflected on his coverage of the industry. So he had her moved off the beat. Knowing this, I didn't think Hindery's plan of a joint leak would work, but beyond that, I was troubled about leaking a story this big to anyone. If the Journal wrote anything that was halfway 