Shock of the News

AsRupert Murdoch’s tech advisor and founder of the leading communications journalin the US, Jonathan Miller rode the exhilarating first technology wave of thenews with satellite TV that made Murdoch the Elon Musk/Mark Zuckerberg of hisday. But he was also the founder of Britain’s first news website, Camden Lock,and was a first-hand witness how Murdoch lost the internet revolution by beingunfocused and misunderstanding the nature of the news.Concernedabout the AI revolution and control passing entirely from the journalists toengineers, Jonathan wrote this passionate plea about the function of the newsmachine and how its important function to shock is being squandered in acatch-up chase for traffic by old media companies. There is still time to pullit back if only we understand why news can neither be replaced by AI and whatwe need to do.Theyoung Jonathan Miller had an innate talent to annoy authority as a pupil atBedales school. When he discovered that the news can be like a hand grenade, hehad found his calling.  pursuit ofcreating a stir, he ended up in many different places, from Rupert Murdoch’stech adviser and disruptor-in-chief, to war reporting in Kosovo, the UK’s firstnews site, Piers Morgan’s Uncensored and bare-knuckle reporting on the folliesof rural Britain.Thesespiky confessions trace through the Murdoch empire’s secrets, the techrevolution that preceded the web, Bart Simpson, Margaret Thatcher, the doomedfate of wokeness, and trouble in an era flattened by AI. Tech and the mediaworld will never look the same...