If you have ever doubted or need reassurance about the need for the ABC, you should read Eric Beecher’s new book The Men Who Killed the News. Beecher is a media insider – a former journalist, editor and (now) publisher, so he knows what he is talking about. Here he astutely interweaves his personal history and extensive research into the history of the people who shaped traditional media and journalism over the last 100 years.

The result is a well written and enlightening book, a good read. He dissects the impact of an A-list of thirteen mega-moguls and a B-list of thirteen other moguls over time, across many countries. Over 300 pages he chronicles how “Media Moguls Abused their Power, Manipulated the Truth and Distorted Democracy” (the subtitle) and backs it up with copious notes and a comprehensive index. It is a thorough hatchet job on the mogul’s motivation and their impact as a “species”.

Beecher sums up his analysis with an insightful formula:

titillating journalism = mass audiences = abundant advertising revenue = vast profits = political power

There is some nostalgia for a “golden age of journalism” but little sympathy for most of the media owners under whose employment it occurred. Hearst and Murdoch were the “most aggressive media owners to bastardise journalism to make money” and are also singled out for their attempts to interfere with national and international affairs. Fox News gets its own chapter and is nailed for “monetising bigotry and resentment”. There are constant references to the challenge of how to make money from quality journalism (other than being owned by a mogul), and references to the power and clout that comes with media control. Beecher sees this media power vs politics as a “loophole in democracy”:

This is the paradox at the heart of the free press. The custodians of journalism are entrusted to protect it, yet incentivised to exploit it…. Using their privileged status , they have intimidated governments, invaded personal privacy, peddled mistruths, stirred up sensationalism, dispensed patronage, denigrated their enemies, twisted social values, and in the process accumulated obscene fortunes.

On the positive side, Beecher expresses respect for some current publications, including Time magazine, the Washington Post, The Guardian, The Economist, Le Monde, Haaretz, the New York Times, and the Sydney Morning Herald. But he worries about their future, as social media and artificial intelligence fuel the deliberate spread of lies and misinformation. Elon Musk is singled out as a dangerous (new) media mogul. Beecher is worried that men (moguls) and machines (AI) will kill off trust in the news.

He suggests that the solution to “civic journalism ‘s funding crisis” could come from subscriptions, or other strands of commercial revenue. But he is not confident, and suggests that the three biggest potential sources are “government funding, philanthropic funding, and grants from large digital platforms”. He suggests that government funding can only work if “the funding is systematically apolitical and administered at arm’s length”. In reference to the ABC he is sceptical it can be the answer because:

there is growing pressure on news creators from their government ‘owners’ to practise ‘balanced’ journalism that doesn’t offend political sensitivities.

Beecher concludes:

“It will take a new and different kind of media power to counter the forces that are lining up to kill the news: the power to demonstrate , through performance, that respectable , professional civic journalism, despite its imperfections, is a prerequisite for a decent society”.

To put it another way - democracy depends on a strong independent ABC!

Find a copy

Listen to Eric Beecher talk to Natasha Mitchell on ABC Radio National