Murdoch has more powerful friends. Bush and Blair need the support of his newspapers very much, Berlusconi may be a competitor in a sense but he’s a very good buddy of his and even the leaders in the Chinese Communist Party can think of RM as their kind of media mogul.

Helsinski Pravda sucks, I read Kaleva…

If I remember, Murdoch and Erkko are well-connected. Wasn’t Erkko member of board at some companies of the Murdoch’s imperium.

“If I remember, Murdoch and Erkko are well-connected. Wasn’t Erkko member of board at some companies of the Murdoch’s imperium.”

Yeah, Erkko used to be a member of the board (or something like that) over at Murdoch’s News Corporation for years.

As for that original comparision between Erkko and Murdoch, it’s still good to keep in mind that Finland still has a strong and powerful local press. Helsingin Sanomat is by far the largest newspaper in the country, but it’s often forgotten by people living in the Helsinki metropolitan area that Hesari isn’t really that big and powerfull in other parts of the country.

And on the electronic media side, SanomaWSOY’s Nelonen and Radio Helsinki are tiny compared to YLE or the Swedish-owned MTV3, Subtv and Radio Nova.

Sanoma and Erkko are strong players, but not the only one’s in the Finnish media market.

What ever happened to “Uusi Suomi” ?

What happened to Uusi Suomi was that the publishing of a nationwide conservative newspaper turned out to be unprofitable in the end. In Sweden there still is Svenska Dagbladet that fills that function.

I don’t see any comments (besides one claiming that Helsingin Sanomat has no competition – in a country where about 80% of people reads some other news paper and most of other media is in hands of somebody else!)
.

Oh, now I get it. It was not a server error, you just presented an idea of “Finnpundit”. I love him, too;-)

If Finnpundit says so… it must be true. I’m glad that Phil has found the truth and is a follower now!

Uusi Suomi and Svenska Dagbladet both represented the traditional nationalistic conservative thinking, which the elites now have mostly abandoned for the perks of the global markets. SvD has big economic problems, and ironically nowadays is owned by a Norwegian company.

If Finnpundit says so? it must be true. I’m glad that Phil has found the truth and is a follower now!

Let’s all dance around the bonfire and chant the Sapir Report!

“Let’s all dance around the bonfire and chant the Sapir Report!”

And burn old Hesaris in the bonfire?

I kind of miss Uusi Suomi. It was like Harja Talonen says, nationalistic conservative paper and would probably be out of fashion at this EU time. It could have been little stigmatized by the old geezers of Suomalainen Klubi or national wing of Kokoomus writing letters to the editor about how the country is going to hell in the first class, but it was a good newspaper. Their pro-soviet view was always in a neat box with the text “Neuvostonäkemys” (Soviet view) on it and one time in the 80′s they managed to piss off the embassy of Islamic Republic of Iran, which is quite an accomplishment from a finnish newspaper, id est, they were taking STAND.

You burn old hesaris in the sauna…

*torches Sapir

Uusi Suomi died of natural causes (bad business decisions).
Iltalehti and Kauppalehti (which were part of the US package) survived, but the new owners decided US proper was beyond hope.

As for competition, it depends on what you mean. MTV3 and TV4 are all fiercely competing with Hesari for the same advertizers.

The American way is the way of the bomb. And coup d’?©tat’s and torture and GLOBAL media control and propaganda and monopolies and imperialism and destroying native people in the name of ‘freedom’. Did you know that nazis defended holocaust and other things they did because “the Americans showed them how to do it with the indians”.

American freedom = death.

The Finnish mass media market is not so mass.

It is understandable that the number of players are small.

And so, the degree of concentration is high, and the number of alternative opinions are limited.

It is simply a function of the small market.

And for better or worst, Finns have to live with it.

Perhaps, the worst thing is the lack of aggressive investigative journalism, particularly with regard to Helsinki Sanomat.

Everybody knows everybody else (it is all one big club), and so no one rocks the boat.

Perhaps, the perception of low corruption in Finland is partly based upon the lack of journalistic vigor.

Competition is only sustainable if there is a group of citizens ready to consume media presenting an alternative worldview.

The question is does such a group exist? Certainly not on the right. In Finland, a new, stridently left-wing national paper would likely be more successful than a Finnish version of the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Times.

Overall, the ideological line of the Finnish media closely reflects the ideological consensus of the vast majority of citizens, for better or worse. If anything, the Hesari’s intermittently pro-American editorial page is farther to the right than the average Finn.

Yes, Hesari generally represents the consensus views but in some key matters (NATO membership, Union power, municipal reform etc.) it is actually supporting the minority, mainly right wing views. Phil sees it as a love fest for Tarja Halonen, but misses quite a few political cues and signals in areas where HS is clearly opposed to Tarja’s line. As it is the only Finnish speaking national, it hardly can directly offend majority positions, but I would think that they actually are not very enthusiastic of Halonen at all – especially if they now believe that she is really genuinely opposed to more active Western direction in foreign policy. But who knows about that: the second term will be interesting – will she finally reveal her true colours, and what will they be?

As much as I loathe Tarja Halonen, she has been successful in pulling Finland away from the US orbit: something that Erkko and his ilk, of course, do not like, as they imagine themselves as somehow having something to contribute to the “transatlantic dialogue”. In fact, Erkko and his idiot mouthpieces at Helsingin Sanomat, such as Pentti Sadeniemi, have been striving to kickstart these dialogues on their own, often hosting debates where US embassy staff are invited, in addition to Finnish parliamentary notables. What the purposes of these debates are is very clear, as they simply have no official significance: it’s an attempt at shaping Finnish foreign policy by private media interests.

It is useless to hope that Finland would ever be a worthwhile friend (much less an ally) for the United States. The welfare-statist indoctrination has been so complete that Finns cannot see without bias. The more Finland is excluded from influencing the key powers that shape the forces of globalization, the better. In that sense, Erkko is more of a problem for the US than either Halonen or Tuomioja, who are pursuing weaker foreign policy lines that tend to lead to more Finnish isolation.

Comedy gold…

Oh yes, we must keep evil freeriding Finland from influencing the movers and the shakers. Look out, the evil welfare-statists are coming to get you!

Someone’s been missing his Haldol shots again…