The Men Who Killed the News
eBook - ePub

The Men Who Killed the News

The inside story of how media moguls abused their power, manipulated the truth and distorted democracy

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Men Who Killed the News

The inside story of how media moguls abused their power, manipulated the truth and distorted democracy

About this book

Readings Best Books of 2024, Non-Fiction
Nominated for the 2025 Sperber Prize

Never before has the media played such an active part in our politics, with Elon Musk using X to affect world elections and direct US government policy. But as Crikey owner and ex-News Corp executive Eric Beecher shows, media moguls have a long history of abusing their power …  

What’s gone wrong with our media? The answer: its owners. From William Randolph Hearst to Elon Musk, from the British press barons to colonial upstarts Conrad Black and Rupert Murdoch, media proprietors have manipulated the news to accumulate wealth and influence as they meddled with democracy.

Eric Beecher knows the news business from bottom to top. He has been a journalist, editor and media proprietor (of Text Media and Crikey), with the rare distinction of having both worked for and been sued (unsuccessfully) by the Murdochs.

This book reveals the distorted role of the media moguls of the past two centuries: their techniques, strategies, behind-closed-doors machinations, and indulgent lifestyles. It explains how they have exploited the shield of the freedom of the press to undermine journalism – and truth.

In an era of fake news, AI and misinformation, this is democracy’s chillingly important story: how a small coterie of flawed and narcissistic moguls created a shadow of power that has contributed to making the media an agent of mistrust.

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Yes, you can access The Men Who Killed the News by Eric Beecher in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Media & Communications Industry. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Why this Book?
  4. The Moguls
  5. Introduction
  6. Moguldom
  7. Power
  8. Malfeasance
  9. The Future
  10. Afterword
  11. Acknowledgements
  12. About the Author
  13. Notes
  14. Index
  15. Copyright