The media is the message

What Karsten Tveit’s award really signifies

May 13, 2012
By Kafka

Odd Karsten Tveit wins the Gullruten lifetime award for his propaganda news coverage from the Middle East. When it comes to correspondents in the Middle East sent by NRK (the governmental broadcasting organization financed by a surcharge on owning a television), it’s a bit like watching the Eurovision song contest:  you can endlessly discuss...

Read more »

Frank Rossavik in Morgenbladet on Israel as the rebellious victim

April 18, 2012
By McGonagall
Frank Rossavik in Morgenbladet on Israel as the rebellious victim

Frank Rossavik is an interesting fellow – a journalist, a writer, a former press secretary for the Socialistic Left party, information officer for the Norwegian Euro-movement. He has written several critical articles on the Norwegian press coverage of Israel and the ME conflict, so he is not a fellow you easily dismiss, even when...

Read more »

Erling Borgen agrees with Sidsel Wold. Who is Erling Borgen?

April 16, 2012
By McGonagall

lifted from Dagsavisen Am I the only one who thinks something is missing from this “analysis”? Erling Borgen is a former NRK journalist, who specialized on Latin America, then Asia. For the last 13 years or so, he has been running his own production company. In 2006, he was famously censured by the NRK...

Read more »

Norway treats Turkey with kid glove – possibly got eyes set on Turkish hydropower commercial opportunities in return?

January 15, 2012
By McGonagall

So, it seems Norway is prepared to ignore Turkeys abysmal and worsening human rights records. Our PM manages to praise Erdogan for work well done in the area of human rights, conflict resolution, when in reality, more and more journalists are facing persecution and imprisonment, the Kurds continue to suffer heavy casualties on Turkish...

Read more »

Boycott-day: organizers claim success, while no news paper reported on the event

November 30, 2011
By McGonagall

26TH OF NOVEMBER MARKED ALL OVER THE COUNTRY Boikott Israel 2011 11 29, No stated author Summary.Anti-Israel organization claims success in initiative to boycott Israel in Cooperative businesses on November the 26th. There have been no reports whatsoever in Norwegian media over this boycott initiative. linkscolor = "000000"; highlightscolor = "888888"; backgroundcolor = "FFFFFF";...

Read more »

Rappers delight: Norwegian band Gatas Parlament with modern version of the blood libel

November 21, 2011
By McGonagall

Norwegian Rap band with a lefty twist, Gatas parlament, must have a most peculiar muse inspiring their poetic and peace loving music. Here is a sample of their attitudes towards Jews (euphemistically called Israelis….) Norwegian lyrics: All of us are antiracist, don’t accuse us for being antisemmetic, yeah Grenade rain...

Read more »

Not in Norwegian media: Erdogan accused of war crimes in Germany!

November 15, 2011
By McGonagall

In addition to being a constant irritation to German authorities for his meddling with domestic German affairs, Turkish prime minister and his government have been accused of war crimes by German scientists, academics and human rights activists. Norwegian media and commentators, politicians and human rights groups have preferred to brush this story under the...

Read more »

NRK journalist Odd Karsten Tveit wants to ban book by Israeli professor

October 9, 2011
By McGonagall
NRK journalist Odd Karsten Tveit wants to ban book by Israeli professor

The other day the following story came to my attention: About a year ago, NRK radio interviewed TV reporter Odd Karsten Tvedt in the weekly program “The bookshelf of shame”. In it our friend Tveit found it opportune to denounce a book on the history of the PLO in Lebanon, by professor at the...

Read more »

A taste of political children’s TV, courtesy of NRK

September 24, 2011
By McGonagall

This little sketch will give you an idea at what level the general education on Israel and Palestine is in Norway. We would be fools to think that Sande got his outrageous ideas from thin air…. You know we can never be like them, and they can never become like us, and we can...

Read more »

Not in mainstream Norwegian media – How Abbas shut down satirical program

August 19, 2011
By McGonagall

Perhaps it is only an oversight, an article forgotten in the stress and commotion of meeting deadlines, but this little story from Jpost on how freedom of expression is denied in PA controlled areas seems to have slipped under the radar of  intellectually idle journalists: Lawsuits, complaints lead PA to cut satirical TV series...

Read more »

Norwegian Students and Academic unions be warned – here are the first signs of things to come

July 3, 2011
By McGonagall

Boycott-pushing universities, students and academic unions, be warned that from now on, you are going to face court action for your failure to address the rampant racism and anti-semitism that fuel your feverish attempts to single out Israel for academic boycotts. Here you can read the letter from top litigation lawyer Anthony Julius sent...

Read more »

Broadcasting council member: We did not do our job.

May 22, 2011
By McGonagall

How bitter it must be for the self-congratulatory politically appointed members of the Broadcasting council to find out that their warm round of applause and many cheers for a job well done, when in reality the job has been botched, now has turned into flames that come after the Council members themselves. In fact,...

Read more »

Transcript: The opinion of Cecilie Hellestveit

April 29, 2011
By admin

Yesterday Kringkastningrådet acquitted NRK of the charges of bias brought against it by the Israeli embassy. In fact, Kringkastningsrådet went so far as too congratulate NRK on the quality of its coverage of the Middle-East, which Israel regards as an “ongoing journalistic failure”. But does really the professional opinion of researcher Cecilie Hellestveit, whom...

Read more »

Has NRK reduced the Middle East to a black/white depiction of the Israel/Palestinian conflict?

April 27, 2011
By admin
Has NRK reduced the Middle East to a black/white depiction of the Israel/Palestinian conflict?

Israel claims state broadcaster NRK’s coverage of the Middle East is an ongoing journalistic failure. On April 28th NRK hosts a public hearing on the matter. Hopefully, the public hearing will deal with at least most of the issues listed in the letter above. For a few examples of what Israel’s case is based...

Read more »

PFU to Israel: Sorry, NRK is out of bounds

April 26, 2011
By admin
PFU to Israel: Sorry, NRK is out of bounds

Israel claims state broadcaster NRK’s coverage of the Middle East is an ongoing journalistic failure. On April 28th NRK hosts a public hearing on the matter. The reason NRK has to rule on itself in this matter? Well, as the letter above makes clear it’s out of bounds for the press media complaints division...

Read more »

Coming: public hearing NRK vs Israel

April 24, 2011
By admin
Coming: public hearing NRK vs Israel

Israel claims state broadcaster NRK’s coverage of the Middle East is an ongoing journalistic failure. On April 28th NRK hosts a public hearing on the matter. For a few examples of what Israel’s case is based upon, see this post. Regarding the public hearing, it will be held on April 28th, room 7/8, starting...

Read more »

Håkon Gullvåg, how do you live with yourself?

April 23, 2011
By McGonagall

Considering his great concern for liberty, peace and apparently also human rights (such a fashion item these days), would he consider revisiting Damascus this week? Only in the last 56 hours or so, the lifeblood of more than 120 souls have flooded Syrian streets, and one cannot but to marvel at the lack of...

Read more »

NTB, Vårt Land still don’t get it – serve cock and bull stories

April 9, 2011
By McGonagall

Vårt Land continues to hide behind the unprofessional nonsense served by NTB these days and print fairytales intended for the severely intellectually challenged: Three Palestinians killed in Israeli attack Bloody days on the Gaza Strip ©NTB A Hamas officer and two of his life guards were killed when their car was hit by an...

Read more »

Deep state: NRK and the left-of-centre

April 9, 2011
By admin
Deep state: NRK and the left-of-centre

It is no secret that NRK is closely aligned with Labor. Yet many members of the Norwegian media corps owe their allegiance to parties further out to the left-of-centre. At times it almost seems as if there is a Norwegian “deep state”, working together to keep the right-of-centre out of government. The screenshot above...

Read more »

Dagbladet has a weird way of presenting news

April 7, 2011
By McGonagall

It must be very hard for Dagbladet to report on terror attacks from Gaza on Israeli civilian population. As Avital Leibovich pointed out in her SKUP conference last week, Norway stands out for its lopsided way of covering the ME conflict, charging that the Norwegian press corps is very selective of its sources, and...

Read more »