A cabal of tech-billionaires is creating an entirely new media landscape.
A cabal of tech-billionaires is creating an entirely new media landscape.
A cabal of tech-billionaires is colluding with once-idealistic journalists to create an entirely new media landscape.
Matt Taibbi used to take on the rich and powerful, but today, his reporting is crafted to please grievance-addicted American conservatives. Glenn Greenwald, whose reporting on the Snowden leaks arguably changed the course of history, has similarly taken a hard right turn. Yet these political transformations of journalists formerly associated with the left did not happen in a vacuum. The new mouthpieces of the right are paid and disseminated by an emerging "alternative" media ecosystem, funded by a cohort of billionaires whose goal is to censor critics, so these new plutocrats can pursue their businesses-and personal vendettas-entirely unimpeded. Owned is the story of the underreported collaboration between the new wealth and the new journalism. Right-wing billionaires like Marc Andreessen, David Sacks, Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk use their wealth to fund journalists-like Taibbi and Greenwald-who exploit the failings of traditional journalism and social media. This unholy alliance has undermined the very idea of an independent and fact-based press while ostensibly standing up for principles of liberty and free speech.A biting expose of journalist greed and tech-billionaire ambition, Owned follows the money, and offers a chilling portrait of the future social media and news landscape, empty of all critique, except for newly empowered right-wing commentators.
"Over the last three decades, Big Tech has disrupted many industries, not least the media, a transformation that is as much about ideological push to the right as it is the creation of new platforms and business models. In Owned, Eoin Higgins expertly, carefully, and devastatingly traces the career trajectory of two prominent and important journalists, Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi. Their decades-long journey from the world of blogging and alternative journalism into the snug patronage of billionaires is a story with profound and troubling implications for the future of journalism and unfettered thinking. Never pulling any punches but always hitting fairly, Higgins has written an important book."
--Jeet Heer, the Nation
"Owned is a vital account of the deeply troubling influence tech moguls wield over the news industry. Higgins expertly tells the story of how thin-skinned hostility to scrutiny and criticism led a clique of right-wing billionaires to subvert journalism by capturing or silencing critical voices. Anyone who wants to understand the media landscape of the 21st century needs to read this book. They want us to live in a world where we only hear what they want us to hear. But in Owned, Higgins does what really fearless independent journalists do best: tells us what we need to know."
--Mike Duncan, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning podcaster
"Owned is an impressively researched look into the decades long partnership between tech oligarchs and the authoritarian right that have a vested interest in keeping us all less informed and perpetually agitated, and some of the key players who have benefited most from our collective loss."
--Luke O'Neil, author of Welcome to Hell World and A Creature Wanting Form
"This book offers a dogged accounting of how prominent left-liberals joined an ascendant choir of far-right voices, providing insightful analysis of how a group of reactionary tech billionaires have backed this transformation. We can only escape this nightmare if we understand how we got here--Owned shines some much needed light into the darkest recesses to today's mediascape."
--Edward Ongweso, podcast co-host of This Machine Kills
"With rare brilliance, Higgins documents a crucial political shift, and lucidly explains how it has happened."--George Monbiot, Guardian columnist
Eoin Higgins is a journalist and historian from New England. His work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Intercept, The New Republic, The Nation, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), Common Dreams, The Outline, Splinter, Deadspin, and many others. Additionally he writes for Morning Brew's tech newsletter, IT Brew, with an audience of nearly 100,000. He can be found at his Twitter account (@eoinhiggins_, nearly 80,000 followers), where he engages regularly with a large audience on tech and U.S. and world politics.
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.