I Am Totally Biased!

Recently I and my poor little blog have gained some attention due to my posts concerning the upcoming Second Pride election.

I have received messages and emails asking me to post this or that "to prove" that I am unbiased and objective. It is totally beyond me how anyone can think I am unbiased or even attempting to be that.  I am a blogger, not a journalist. Every post I run is something I myself find interesting and have an opinion about, which I in rare cases choose not to share with you. Usually however I will tell you what I believe, think or feel in no uncertain terms.

In this election I have asked the candidates certain questions that I believe are relevant and pertinent. I have done so respectfully and with no interest whatsoever of "bashing" them or making personal attacks in anyway. Despite this I have, more than once, been accused of bashing or personally attacking some candidates, sometimes even by the candidates themselves.

I have also been asked or told - anonymously or straightforwardly - to ask a certain candidate something or other. I have always refused to do so because I am not a mouthpiece for anyone but myself,. If someone else wishes to ask a question they should do so themselves.

I of course realize that others do not always agree with me, and however distasteful I may find their views I will allow them to comment on my blog as long as they stick to the issue and don't attack other commenters or people, should they wish to launch a personal attack at me they are welcome to do so.  I have only ever removed one (1) real comment and several hundred spam comments. The real comment I removed was a personal attack on an avatar and had no relevance to the post at all. Even the four Swedish female avatars that I utterly detest, can and have indeed left comments here even if I have expressly asked them never to do so.

In spite of this I today received an acidic message in private on Facebook from someone whom I thought was a friend, thanking me for permitting him "to leave a comment on (my) magnanimous blog". This totally irked me.

So be warned, I am opinionated and totally biased. Always!

More On NOH8

My dear friend Blanche Argus, with the blog Blanche´s Arena, asks what the NOH8 Campaign is all about. I am grateful to Blanche for asking the question outright because it gives me the opportunity to explain.

The video above should answer some of her, and others, questions but I will nonetheless say a few things more.

The campaign first started out as a grassroot reaction when Proposition 8 was passed into law by a ballot measure in California, U.S.A. The proposition added an amendment to the California Constitution whereby "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.". Same-sex marriages were thus effectively outlawed in California. The NOH8 Campaign has since developed into a silent photographic protest against homophobia and discriminatory legislation all over the world.

An infamous Swedish Internet-troll in a comment to Blanche´s post makes the interpretation that the campaign suggests that we shut down communication by covering our mouths with duct tape. I am guessing she must´ve failed miserably in the courses on "investigative journalism".

Contrary to the troll´s  stupid assumption, the symbolism of the manifestation should of course - as most reasonable people will understand - rather be interpreted as "you may try to shut us up but be will not be silenced". The campaign makes use of the well known adage that "a picture is worth more than a thousand words" which refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image.

For more information you should visit the website NOH8. Campaign.

Slanted Journalism

The latest issue of Newsweek has - rightfully - drawn a lot of criticism for the magazine´s cover and article on "Muslim Rage".

The U.S. magazines grossly exaggerated and dishonest reporting on the reactions in the Muslim world on the the discovery of an inane and provocative Islamophobic film on YouTube must be one of the worst examples in history of bad journalism. The magazine blows up the reactions of a small minority of crazy extremists and tries to imply that there is a widespread fury among the Muslims.

Some people should lose their job for this bummer, if they haven´t already, and hopefully that includes the editor-in-chief.

The website Gawker.com has made a satirical compilation of thirteen photographs showing us the true pictures of the Muslim Rage, see Gawker: 13 Powerful Images of Muslim Rage. (Tipped by Avaaz.org.)

Angry Egyptians gather to vent their Muslim rage

Iranian couple preparing to rage

The reaction to the cover and the article in the Muslim community has also resulted in a a flood of hilarious tweets.

On Contemporary (Swedish) Journalism

I firmly and wholeheartedly believe that an independent, free and powerful press and other news media are both essential and fundamental for any democracy.

The reason for this is my belief that the press and news media are needed to monitor, investigate, analyze and report to the citizens how the powers-that-be are using, misusing or even abusing the powers that have been granted to them.

The press and news media are the Third Estate in Sweden - in English speaking countries the Fourth Estate, and are - as they should be - the most powerful of the three (or four as the case may be).

Sweden has one of the oldest and strongest freedom of press acts, and later acts to grant the same freedom for other news media.

We also have laws stating that any document, including memos etc, in all local or national authorities is public and should be handed without questions to anyone who wants it for whatever use they may have of it. The only exception from this rule is if the specific document has been declared classified in accordance with the rules that are set for doing so. These rules are strict and are not to be used other than to protect the rights of an individual or national safety.

Sweden also has laws prohibiting all local or national authorities from searching - or even trying to search - for the source that may have leaked a story to the press or other news media.

With all this power comes a great responsibility for the press and other news medias to fulfill their obligation toward the citizens. These obligations are not set in any law but is rather a code of ethics that has evolved by the press and news medias themselves. There are no sanctions - nor should there be - if the journalists do not perform according to their part of the deal.

We - the citizens of every democratic nation on earth - have bestowed to the press and news media this tremendous power in our societies to set the agenda, to investigate, to analyze and to report freely anything and everything they wish with the sole reason to safeguard us from crimes and misdemeanors by the two (or three) other Estates and in fact everyone or everything else that may occur.

Auberon Waugh (17 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) was a British author and journalist.who once said  "Generally speaking, the best people nowadays go into journalism, the second best into business, the rubbish into politics and the shits into law.”

Although I am a lawyer myself - and even if Waugh´s statement is a gross generalization - I do believe what he said holds some truth.

So here we have this "institution" in our midst that we have granted total liberty to supervise itself and set it´s own rules of conduct and we also send them our best and brightest people. 

The question I have asked myself - and joked about in a comment on a Swedish SecondLife blog yesterday - is do the journalists deliver on their deal? Do the press and the other news media fulfill their obligations to us to the full extent of their powers? 

My answer is unequivocally: Hell no, they are not even close!

In my not so humble opinion the contemporary press - at least in Sweden - and other news media mostly are squandering and misusing their powers with sensationalism and gossip. 

The contemporary journalists hunts of "offenders" have become a public entertainment, much like the pillories of shame or the public executions once were. These hunts are rarely motivated by the offenders position or failings but rather for the sole purpose to sell more copies. 

The statement I got yesterday from a journalist (and resident of SecondLife) that "The newspapers only write ... and readers only read." is an expression of exactly what I think is the fundamental problem with today's journalism and journalists. 

I willingly admit that this is also a gross exaggeration but nonetheless it is as true as Waugh´s statement that I mentioned earlier. It's always difficult for non-journalists to criticize journalists, as difficult as it is to criticize the police force. Both professions have a sick "esprit de corps" which essentially leads to the following position among both corps, "Whatever you do or say to one of us or about our work in general is an attack on the entire profession so we all have to huddle together in self-defense". 

There is so much crap and abuse of power to investigate even in our little paradise that exposing the crap and making sure that those in power stay on the narrow road should and could be full-time work for our brilliant journalists - if only they wanted to do what they owe us. 

I am now thinking "Too long, Bock, this post is too damn long."