Thursday, April 21, 2005
The biggest Swedish daily still doesn't get it
Stefan Jonsson, at the culture desk on Sweden's dominating daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN, with an approx. circulation of + 600 000) is mad. Very, very mad. (His article in Swedish here.) See, there are these despicable individuals out there called bloggers, and they don't do news the way the fancy-pantsy press does. They even have the guts to scrutinize DN when they rip pieces from New York Times (a plagiarism stunt which DN eventually was forced to take responsibility for) or when they are building their reports from the US on a left-wing bias and juggle with facts to promote a slanted political agenda.
Damn those bloggers who are behaving like "the Law west of Pecos", DN fumes. (Namecalling apparently also fits DN like a glove...) They only attack our poor journalistic material because they like to promote their own agenda (i.e they are "right-wing extremists and nuts who agree with the US") - a statement which also reads: Because we, here at cozy DN, we don't have an agenda at all. We are objective. We are "real" (self-aggrandizing, pretentious) journalists in an elite media outlet.
The best comment yet is this insightful remark to the branding-game DN plays with The Spectator:
A number of Swedish blogs have referred to DN's Stefan Jonsson and his agitation. I know it must be hard to find your own work coming under fire, when you thought you were the one who should do all the bashing. Time to wise up for Jonsson. Size isn't all you need to survive in a media age. Dinosaurs do die out.
Damn those bloggers who are behaving like "the Law west of Pecos", DN fumes. (Namecalling apparently also fits DN like a glove...) They only attack our poor journalistic material because they like to promote their own agenda (i.e they are "right-wing extremists and nuts who agree with the US") - a statement which also reads: Because we, here at cozy DN, we don't have an agenda at all. We are objective. We are "real" (self-aggrandizing, pretentious) journalists in an elite media outlet.
The best comment yet is this insightful remark to the branding-game DN plays with The Spectator:
When media and the intellectual dominance in a land or culture forbid or hinder
challenges to the worldview that is proclaimed by government or especially the
media establishment, one of the best ways to make your opposition voiced is by
blogging. You can there write what the establishment can not control.
A number of Swedish blogs have referred to DN's Stefan Jonsson and his agitation. I know it must be hard to find your own work coming under fire, when you thought you were the one who should do all the bashing. Time to wise up for Jonsson. Size isn't all you need to survive in a media age. Dinosaurs do die out.
