Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left

by Eoin Higgins

Overview

 A “devastating” (Nation) examination of how a cabal of tech-billionaires is colluding with once-idealistic journalists to create an entirely new media landscape

Owned is the story of the underreported and growing collusion between new wealth and new journalism. In recent years, right-wing billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks have turned to media as their next investment and source of influence. Their cronies are Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi—once known as idealistic and left-leaning voices, now beneficiaries of Silicon Valley largesse. Together, this new alliance aims to exploit the failings of traditional journalism and undermine the very idea of an independent and fact-based fourth estate.

Owned examines how this shift has allowed spectacularly wealthy reactionaries to pursue their ultimate goal of censoring critics so to further their own business interests—and personal vendettas—entirely unimpeded while also advancing a toxic and antidemocratic ideology.

A rich history of the decades-long rise of this new right-wing alternative media takeover, Owned follows the money, names names, and offers a chilling portrait of a future social media and news landscape. It is a biting exposé of journalistic greed, tech-billionaire ambition, and a lament for a disappearing free press.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781645030485
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	02/04/2025
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

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.
 

 

Editorial Reviews

The career trajectory of two prominent and important journalists…into the snug patronage of billionaires is a story with profound and troubling implications for the future of journalism and unfettered thinking.”

The Nation

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.”

author of Welcome to Hell World Luke O’Neil

An eye-opening recap of how Silicon Valley billionaires built a right-wing mediasphere with the help of lefty journalists…The highlight is his sharp reporting…It’s a juicy look at today’s online political landscape.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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…Higgins does what really fearless independent journalists do best: tells us what we need to know.”

New York Times bestselling author Mike Duncan

We can only escape this nightmare if we understand how we got here—Owned shines some much needed light into the darkest recesses of today’s mediascape.”

podcast co-host of This Machine Kills Edward Ongweso

An incisive analysis of the influence of money and big-tech executives in right-wing media.”

Library Journal

A compelling case.”—Max Chafkin, New York Times Book Review

"Higgins sketches deftly the emergence of this elitist ideology."—Times Literary Supplement

“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, Nation

“A cautionary tale of how reactionary tech lords are exploiting a dying media sector.”

—FAIR

“Higgins’ sharply insightful book raises important questions about co-opting of the media.”—Booklist

“Sharp reporting…. a juicy look at today’s online political landscape.”—Publishers Weekly

“Higgins does a phenomenal job chronicling how these civil libertarian, anti-authoritarian voices could both be gradually seduced by power; and also how such a heelturn was always inevitable, because it was always intrinsic to their belief systems, in a way that's made even more clear in hindsight.”
 —Boing Boing

“I'll be thinking about Eoin Higgins’s incisive recent history of tech’s increasingly right turn and its fallout in media... highly recommend to the very online.”—Maris Kreizman, The Maris Review

“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

“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

“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

From the Publisher

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

With rare brilliance, Higgins documents a crucial political shift, and lucidly explains how it has happened.”

The Guardian