[dijit]

Sadly, it's true in some cases.

Most notably Rupert Murdoch- while I do not wish death on the man, it's certainly true that he has a grip on the hearts and minds of people and often uses his media empire to convince people to go against their own interests.

He will be replaced by someone similar, but seldom are people as effective as their predecessors.

[rainworld]

>uses his media empire to convince people to go against their own interests

Well, yes, that’s his job. Do you think that news media exists to inform you?

[dijit]

The fact that you would even make this joke shows how absurdly far we have fallen.

Obviously they exist for that purpose, studying the foundations of news media and journalism... for even a day... shows concisely that it was painfully created for this reason.

[roughly]

> He will be replaced by someone similar, but seldom are people as effective as their predecessors.

I'm not a real believer in the "Great Man" theory of history - I think the ground needs to be set for an event for it to happen, I don't think the will of one person is truly sufficient to bend history - but there are certain people who you would have a very, very hard time replacing in a given scenario.

Rupert Murdoch is definitely one, and Donald Trump is another - without getting into specific judgements of the man, there's nobody else within easy reach who could do what he's done, and I don't really see his movement surviving him. He's a particular person for a particular moment, and it's hard to see anyone else doing what he has.