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

Journalist Higgins debuts with an eye-opening recap of how Silicon Valley billionaires built a right-wing mediasphere with the help of lefty journalists Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi. Higgins focuses primarily on Greenwald, who grew a liberal following by criticizing Bush-era civil liberties violations, rose to fame in 2013 reporting on Edward Snowden’s leak of classified documents, and cofounded left-wing news site The Intercept—but by 2020 had resigned over editorial differences, become a Fox News regular, and joined Substack. Higgins also follows tech titans Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk, alleging that, , in their irritation at criticism from tech journalists, they sought to push online media rightward—including Substack, which, after investments from Andreessen, became a hub for right-wing politics. Higgins examines developments on other platforms (including Musk’s collaboration with Taibbi on the “Twitter Files”), but the highlight is his sharp reporting on how closely Greenwald came to operate in lockstep with Andreessen in the estimation of many observers (“He was basically Marc Andreessen’s little lapdog,” journalist Taylor Lorenz caustically asserts). Higgins is sympathetic toward his subjects (he calls Greenwald an inspiration), painting a convincing picture of how a combination of libertarian political alignment and financial incentives altered their trajectories; he also gives them space to argue back, leading to some fascinating on-the-page ripostes (“The basic premise of your book is dishonest,” Taibbi proclaims). It’s a juicy look at today’s online political landscape. (Feb.)