I first wondered why a federal employee who does not work for the state department was writing letters to the Norwegian Prime Minister, instructing the Minister how to conduct foreign policy. I would think that Ambassador Barry B. White would be a more appropriate spokesperson.
You can learn about Norwegian food traditions, hiking snacks tips, the uniquely Norwegian Easter crime tradition, and get your Norwegian on!
A television story from Afghanistan on Norwegian television on New Years Eve spurred a curious debate where it appeared that a large Norwegian newspaper said the military should have censored the footage.
In my opinion, social media have two primary benefits for journalists. 1. It levels the playing field so people who usually don’t have access can reach the reporter. 2. It provides a transparency to the social network of the reporter. Transparency and access are essential to representative community reporting. I hope Kokkvold will experience this first-hand as he continues his Twitter experiment.
Most of the world, including President Barack Obama, woke up last Friday to quite a surprise. But the real story is that Thorbjørn Jagland, the new committee chair of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, wanted to start his tenure with a splash. He had promised insiders a winner that would gain international recognition.
Norwegian tells G. Gordon Liddy that Obama got the award for not being Bush, and that Norwegian’s are furious with the decision.
This was the question my friend Iain Murray sent me yesterday morning. He went ahead and posted my reply over at the Corner, National Review’s blog. Here is a excerpt:
One person that did predict this result was Gerhard Helskog, an experienced reporter covering the foreign desk for TV2, the largest private newsnetwork in Norway. He said the new committee chair, Torbjørn Jagland like to think big, and Obama was big in Jagland’s eyes.
Armed with cameras, the four set out to achieve what the U.S. and all of its allies has been unable to do; bring wanted criminals from the war on terror to justice. This is done in a ridiculous blend of an action movie narrative paired with documentary style content. The result is an uneasy blend of reality TV that undermines the original message. Lets call it a dramamentary.
The only thing that places Obama on the right wing of the Norwegian political scale is how much government intervention that is politically possible in U.S. politics. With an electorate that is strong supporters of decentralized government and private solutions, he can only propose so many centralized, big government solutions without reducing his office to irrelevance and certain loss in the next election.
The media trade publication Journalisten in Norway reported today on what appears to be the first resignation via Twitter. Heidi Norby Lunde, opinion page and citizen journalism editor of the online news site ABC Nyheter, tweeted that she had cleaned her desk and was ready for new challenges on May 12th.
