Murdoch is a leaf on the river compared to technological change. Traditional journalism became endangered because the internet exposed a lot of what they do as vapid misinformation and opened up better options to do research. If I want to know about a politician's platform I can re-watch their debates and read their policies on demand. If I want to know about a subject, I can go straight to relevant technical reports. If I want to know about Cardinals being arrested for pedophilia then the newspapers are the only places that don't carry the news. Reading a newspaper article generally has negative value add, journalists usually don't capture the nuances.

But the bigger picture of authoritarianism is more to do with the technology needed to enable it. It is very cheap and efficient to run an authoritarian state with improved surveillance/computer vision and the ability to control people's purchasing with the electronic banking system.

We're already seeing early attempts at exercising this control in Australia with the cash ban bill this year. It'll ratchet up as time passes.

> Traditional journalism became endangered because the internet exposed a lot of what they do as vapid misinformation and opened up better options to do research.

Traditional journalism became endangered because the internet eroded the revenue stream that supported much if the good high quality journalism out there and opened up a world where chemtrails and anti-vax are the result as 'better options to do research'.

If I want to know about Cardinals being arrested for pedophilia then - you should thank papers like the Boston Globe for thei heavyweight investigative resources and guts.

The technological change exists in many countries, and Murdoch's influence does not, so I'm not content to dismiss his corrupting influence. Consider the counterexamples of Germany, Sweden, New Zealand etc.

All of the new media analysis speakers are disappearing behind pay walls. The Murdoch properties will be competing on roughly even ground against other paywalled off media properties, something his companies can plausibly succeed at outperforming their competitors.

The old media has been losing out hand over fist against free analysis, but that is disappearing. Repackaging the news into analysis for a world view is becoming walled off again, how it used to be.