The CEO Retort with Tim El-Sheikh Peter Geoghegan: How The West Sold Democracy to The Corrupt Rich
Peter Geoghegan is an award-winning investigative journalist and broadcaster whose work has fundamentally changed the conversation around transparency in British public life and Western politics.
He is the founder and editor of Democracy for Sale, an independent investigative news outlet that recently secured the Specialist Journalism prize at the 2025 British Journalism Awards.
Peter is the former Editor-in-Chief of openDemocracy and the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics — a book that exposed how untraceable cash is warping our political systems.
From his deep-dive documentaries for BBC Radio 4 to his latest revelations on lobbying and 'black hole' campaign finances, Peter is one of the most tenacious voices in the industry today.
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) – Preview
(00:02:49) – The state of modern journalism in a corrupt political and digital ecosystem
(00:09:48) – Ad to help you navigate media bias
(00:11:54) – Why does Tony Blair and his TBI institute want to build an AI company like Palantir?
(00:02:49) – How Big Tech influences politics worldwide today?
(00:19:16) – The rise and influence of "oligarch politicians"
(00:24:42) – How 2016 and the pandemic were the turning point of the West selling democracy to broligarchs
(00:32:01) – How Trump's AI and Silicon Valley became the political media pumping up the AI bubble
(00:45:37) – Can real journalism and independent media survive against oligarch-driven media
Episode Notes & Citations:
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