“Spice it up with fiction”
“Tell small lies”
“Make it up”
“Simple tricks for blending fact with fiction, telling half-lies and writing semi-literary works”
This is how Swedish journalism’s king of the Radical Left, Jan Guillou, describes the recipe for achieving success in journalism.
He goes on to state that today “most journalists (in Sweden) are better than in my day”.
He measures success by the degree to which the media succeeds in persuading the public of its agenda.
Using any means that make it difficult to separate hard fact from personal opinion.
This goes a long way to explaining the obsession of extreme-Left tabloids like Sweden’s Aftonbladet to defaming Israel and trampling on the sensibilities of Jews. It explains Aftonbladet’s recent unsubstantiated claim that Israel – and through tenuous implications Jews – engage in systematic organ trafficking. Claims that both the journalist behind the piece and the editor freely admit have no basis in fact.
Anyone wanting to find out what drives the extreme Left in Sweden – and the media in Sweden form a largely Left-wing stronghold – should take note of what Jan Guillou says. He is the Grand Old Man of Swedish journalism and has for decades set the tone for journalism in this country.
Sweden’s Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press. And quite rightly too, as in any self-respecting democracy. It is not the role of government to interfere in the workings of the press.
But it is the responsibility of the public to be aware of the agenda that drives many journalists and to be familiar with the tricks used.
With some thankfully excellent exceptions, Sweden does not have a free press. Sweden has a press free of critical thinking.
A press nurtured on deception as a means to a pre-determined political end.
The interview with Jan Guillou is in Swedish and can be viewed here.
For an example of the sort of journalism that Swedish journalists do NOT engage in and an example of the sort of story that most Swedish papers will NOT report on, read the following article.
It’s all about the terrorist training camps run by Gaza’s Hamas rulers for children as young as eight.
You won’t read about it in Sweden’s Aftonbladet.
TV4 (Swedish programme), IDF, NGO Monitor, NGO Monitor2, IlyaMeyer1, IlyaMeyer2,