Media Culpa

According to an article dated Sept 1 (!) by CorpWatch, corporate donations to the Republican National Convention will reach $160 million this year, “making it the most expensive political convention in history. It will dwarf the record $95 million spent by Democrats on their 2004 convention.”

The article describes in detail how corporate interests sponsor both parties’ conventions in order to pave the ground for lobbying initiatives. Says AGA spokeswoman Peggy Laramie:

“We want to raise the visibility of natural gas issues in a fun atmosphere (!).”

Need inspiration for a PR stunt? Check out Josh Kinberg’s Bikes against Bush, a brilliant “one-of-a-kind, interactive protest/performance occurring simultaneously online and on the streets of NYC during the upcoming Republican National Convention. Using a Wireless Internet-enabled bicycle outfitted with a custom-designed printing device, the Bikes Against Bush bicycle can print text messages sent from web users directly onto the streets of Manhattan in water-soluble chalk”

His protest got even more attention when he was arrested and when his equipment was confiscated the whole thing suddenly became a possible violation of the first amendment sending the blogosphere into red alert. Kinberg also appeared on NBC’s Hardball last night.

As I wrote last Wednesday, Sweden’s second daily, Svenska Dagbladet today launched a blog, the first from an established Swedish media. The blog PJ Just nu (PJ Right now) bears the name of the paper’s chief political editor PJ Anders Linder, although it is really a group blog. All the paper’s political editors will contribute to the blog.

In today’s paper, Linder writes:

“At SvD we feel that it is important that also established quality media – “mainstream” media as the bloggers like to put it – accepts the challenge and gets involved. We must find our own way of using the new tools and develop our own tone of voice. It would be devestating to isolate in hope that all this will blow away. We must participate; to learn, to influence, to live in the flow.”

On the blog, Linder links to three other blogs: PR agency JKL and libertarian thinkers Dick Erixon and Johan Norberg. It is quite typical that he links to Erixon and Norberg. For all his claims of an open discussion and that bloggers in general are generous with links to both allies and opponents, it will be interesting to see if “PJ Just nu” will promote an open debate (the blog does not have a comments function) or be a forum for liberal thinking. The thing is that both Erixon and Norberg are part of the liberal think tank Timbro, which by coincidence Linder was head of between 1996 and 2000. Also, Fredrik Erixon, chief economist at Timbro has, “what you might call close ties with a senior editor at JKL Blog” and Anders Kempe of JKL was a member of Timbro’s board (thanks to Per Gudmundsson for the link).

Either way, the fact that SvD launches a blog is another sign that the two leading Swedish dailies approach the blogosphere quite differently. Dagens Nyheter is shying away from it, maybe partly because of the “attacks” by local media watchdogs like Stockholm Spectator. SvD on the other hand seems to embrace the blogosphere. They read blogs, they quote blogs in the paper and now they have their own blog. To me that sounds like a smarter approach if you want to stay tuned to developments in journalism.

Footnote: RSS feed here. No trackback or comments functions yet.

Update: Another thing, if you start fooling around with RSS feeds, change the URL once you go live otherwise everyone will see your old posts. SvD obviously started posting on July 15…

Update 2: “PJ Just nu” is not the first blog from a Swedish editorial writer. Håkan Jacobson, editorial writer at Upsala Nya Tidning has a blog, although it is a personal blog and not connected to the paper.

So the mea culpa from Dagens Nyheter regarding plagiarism finally came this week, although halfheartedly. In summary: It is wrong, but everyone does it and we are not going to take any measures to prevent it from happening again.

DN’s “reader ombudsman” Lilian Öhrström writes that “plagiarism is a serious thing” but on the other hand she downplays its importance by saying that it is a common practice among journalists.

DN’s editor in chief Jan Wifstrand uses the same method: “[plagiarism] is the most common ethical violation in journalism. We don’t want to have that situation at Dagens Nyheter”. On the other hand he says that “there is no need for investigations. You need to have open eyes and ears.”



What strikes me as odd is that Lilian Öhrström is handed the duty to put the records straight. Media always point to the highest possible executive to take responsibility when they examine wrongdoings in companies. As Wifstrand doesn’t step up and take his responsibility, it is clear that he doesn’t take plagiarism accusations seriously. That kind of behaviour would never be tolerated by media.