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| Europe |
| Oprah chastised by Swedish Govt for pro-war bias |
| 2003-09-18 |
| Tip o’ the hat to Andrew Sullivan. Sweden’s broadcasting watchdog says it is censuring an Oprah Winfrey talk show for showing bias towards a U.S. military attack on Iraq. The censure means Swedish television network TV4, which broadcast the show in February, must publish the decision but there are no legal or financial penalties, Annelie Ulfhielm, an official of Sweden’s Broadcasting Commission, told Reuters. How typically Swedish — you did bad but there’s no penalty! My mother should have been this nice. "Different views were expressed, but all longer remarks gave voice to the opinion that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States and should be the target of attack," Sweden’s Broadcasting Commission said on Wednesday. "Eeeek! An independent opinion!" U.S. forces attacked Iraq in March and toppled Saddam’s government after a three-week war. Before the war, Washington said Iraq’s arsenal of weapons of mass destruction posed a threat but no such arms have yet been found. The Swedish government strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying it lacked a U.N. Security Council mandate. A TV4 spokesman said the Oprah Winfrey show usually drew an audience of about 100,000-140,000 Swedes, making it one of Sweden’s more popular day-time television programmes. I’m betting her ratings go up after this. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #14 So I don't suppose FOX is shown in Sweden? Nah. |
| Posted by: john 2003-9-18 7:02:39 PM |
| #13 I didn't even know the Sweds allowed colored shows on the air. |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-9-18 5:25:07 PM |
| #12 I still think Oprah's show sucks. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-18 3:08:00 PM |
| #11 Sweden needs to reconsider its decision. Oprah has enough money to buy their entire country and make it a suburb of Chicago, if she so chooses. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-9-18 1:21:45 PM |
| #10 Chuck---I forgot! My upper level thinking does not kick in till 7AM local time. I was up at 4AM just to find that my 6am flight was cancelled. I guess we cannot ask the Swedish military for anything, esp. now with limited business hours. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-9-18 9:53:15 AM |
| #9 Bollocks.All the Broadcasting Commission does is give opinion on whether the media follow 'good journalistic practice'.We have a similar body in Finland.The media can and do ignore its statements,with no consequences whatsoever to the "offender".It's not censorship. |
| Posted by: El Id 2003-9-18 9:32:20 AM |
| #8 I get really tired of hearing about "advanced" countries and their "civilized" approaches to funding the arts, accepting immigrants, providing womb to tomb welfare, and so on. Strange that those who fawn over them omit thier supression of free speech -- but that's an American thing. |
| Posted by: Highlander 2003-9-18 9:19:31 AM |
| #7 Could you picture anything like this ever happening in the US? Someone being censored by an "American broadcasting watchdog"? So bizarre. It follows perfectly with the statement made by the former premiere a few days ago that Swedes should have never been asked their opinion in the first place on voting the Euro. You lucky Swedes! |
| Posted by: g wiz 2003-9-18 9:16:11 AM |
| #6 Oprah gets taken to the tool shed for her pro-war stance. Someone please tell me someone, anyone, got taken to task for their anti-war, pro-murder stance. |
| Posted by: badanov 2003-9-18 8:40:01 AM |
| #5 Alaska Paul, they can't. Swedish Army is 9 to 5 these days, don't you recall? |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2003-9-18 8:23:42 AM |
| #4 Is it worth asking Sweden now to send troops to Iraq? /sarcasm off |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-9-18 7:57:26 AM |
| #3 If Swedish sales of her book club aren't high enough, she should demand that her program be removed from Swedish television. 100,000 viewers is not worth extradition to the Hague on charges of Crimes Against Humanity. She dodged the bullet this time but she needs to heed the warning. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-18 5:54:48 AM |
| #2 She's being silenced, I tell you! Intimidated out of her Free Speech rights by critics of her stance on the war. Perhaps Oprah will do as badly as the Dixie Chicks after their "dissent was silenced" by the evil ClearChannel people...what'd they make on that tour, $60 million? |
| Posted by: R. McLeod 2003-9-18 3:55:21 AM |
| #1 Good Lord. Oprah is a threat to Sweden's intellectual conformity. I guess she didn't schedule enough guests like Dominique DeVillepin or Arundhati Roy to give voice to the opinion that Saddam Hussein was not a threat the the United States and should not be the target of attack. Is the show dubbed or subtitled? |
| Posted by: Tokyo Taro 2003-9-18 2:23:38 AM |