The Men Who Killed the News

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.

About the Author

Eric Beecher has had a long career in journalism, media and publishing. He started his career as a reporter on the Melbourne Age, spent periods at The Sunday Times and The Observer in London, and at The Washington Post; he was appointed as the youngest-ever editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and later as editor-in-chief of the Melbourne Herald. He then became an independent media owner, launching several media and publishing start-up companies, initially in print and then in digital news publishing. He is currently chair and the largest shareholder in Private Media, owner of several Australian news websites, including Crikey.