Biased YLE?
Is it just me, or over the past couple months has YLE (Finland’s state owned and operated media) been favoring Halonen’s re-election? YLE’s polls always favor her more than others, she’s received a hell of a lot more election coverage than any other candidate, they’ve used certain words to show her in a more positive light. Or maybe it’s just my not-so-great Finnish language skills, maybe if I would speak fluently I’d find YLE to be unbiased?
I believe this is what happens when you allow politicians to control your media like this. Look, I’ll be honest, if I were a politician and given a responsibility within the state media, I’d try my hardest to influence the country into my political convictions. I’d do it so subtly that the mainstream public would never figure it out. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d do this. You can’t expect these politicians to all of a sudden forget their ideologies and drop their party lines just when they’re involved with YLE.
Some people have said that the left-leaning YLE balances out the other right-leaning media like MTV3 and Nelonen, so Finns get a balanced media if they just flip through a couple channels. Is this how everything works itself out? Finland’s YLE was infamous for being red-leaning in the earlier parts of the 1900’s, is this still how things are run or have things changed?
You never really gave YLE a chance (or did you?), so at least I wouldn’t take your word for it.
Comment by M — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 12:38 pm
Can you give some specific examples of biased information? I think the polls are well within the margin of error and ordered from independent sources. There has been some nice mud throwing towards Halonen in YLE’s programs as well (see A-piste: Tarja Halonen – valtakunnan simputtaja).
Btw. Nelonen is owned by Sanoma Osakeyhtiö, which is owned and highly influenced by Aatos Erkko, a well known SDP member. I don’t know how MTV3 would be any right-leaning either. Because YLE’s channel buttons are on the left and rest are to the right on the remote control?
Comment by Anonymous — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 1:16 pm
“I’ll be honest, if I were a politician and given a responsibility within the state media, I’d try my hardest to influence the country into my political convictions.”
Yes, and that’s the reason why all the main political parties are represented in YLE, including Kokoomus. You seem to conflate “politician” and “social democrat”.
Comment by Söderberg — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 1:19 pm
During the “Operation Freedom Whatever” (the occupation of Iraq) I followed quite intensly both American media and the BBC. Now, because the BBc is run by the politicians the information there was naturally much more biased than in the free American media. Just kidding, of course …;)
Comment by Anonymous — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 2:09 pm
All Finnish TV channels have a leftist bias - no doubt about that.
Comment by qwerty — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 2:58 pm
4. tr00…
Comment by M — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 2:59 pm
Umm.. Yle’s polls have shown results that are quite similar to those of MTV3. And besides the polls are done by independent firms.
I really hate your way of shooting from the bushes based on your general antipathy towards certain institutions or people.
It way well be that Yle has been biased but then it would be nice to see some REAL examples of that.
Comment by Soap — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 3:42 pm
“Is it just me, or over the past couple months has YLE (Finland’s state owned and operated media) been favoring Halonen’s re-election?”
It’s just you. Everyone knows that Kokoomus members and libertarians have a gene that makes them YLE-paranoiac. The reaction from Kokoomus after YLE A-Piste made an episode about Niinistö was hilarious. We haven’t had this much fun since Young Kokoomus wanted to ban Itse Valtiaat!
“YLE’s polls always favor her more than others”
They are almost the same as MTV3 polls. Erkko-Hesari polls favor Niinistö, that doesn’t make sense.
“she’s received a hell of a lot more election coverage than any other candidate”
Not really, Vanhanen and Niinistö have been there all the time. Arto Lahti got a good coverage too.
“they’ve used certain words to show her in a more positive light”
Now we’re going paranoiac.
“Some people have said that the left-leaning YLE balances out the other right-leaning media like MTV3 and Nelonen”
Right-leaning media like Nelonen? That’s the joke of the year!
Comment by Donkey — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 3:46 pm
Politicians at YLE board and direction come from both left and right and according to Ruben Stiller, there was even one kökkötraktori from the center. Usually there is a heck of a noise, sometimes all the way up in the parliament, if some group notices a bias in YLE programming.
I don’t think they are biased in general now, unless the bias towards B is defined as not being gung-ho about A. For example, the MOT crowd is not exactly left- or green-leaning. In the 70’s, some of YLE journalists were pretty outrageous though and in the 1st of May, the radio was “Warszawianka”, “Workers March” and “Partisan Waltz” all the time, but it was then.
Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 4:59 pm
There is no ‘right wing’-media. It’s just a question of how close to center or how far to the left it goes. It’s not hugely biased either, but enough to make it count.
One more reason not to pay televisiolupamaksu.
Comment by Frustrated Finn — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 5:08 pm
public-funded media does not neccesarily imply commie media. compared to what i’ve seen back home, finnish public television is way less biased than lets say american public televsion or even corporate television. checked out a fox broadcast lately? you do seem a little paranoid phil, for a libertarian who has chosen to live within the confines of a social democracy…and as previously mentioned, channel 4 is owned by an sdp member..
Comment by jenkki immigrant — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 6:15 pm
“I believe this is what happens when you allow politicians to control your media like this”
Am i the only one who thinks this is better than, as is the case in some countries, the media controlling the politicians?
*cough..Fox..cough*
Comment by Christian — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 6:20 pm
Osku Pajamäki, the producer of YLE’s hit show “itsevaltiaat” is a member of SDP and sits in Helsinki city council. He is a young guy, but already a well known demari politician. He tried to get electected to parlament in the last elections, but failed. He’s been a quest on “uutisvuoto” atleast once.
He had managed to insert a lot of SDP propaganda into yesterdays show. They trashed all Niinistö’s talking point’s, while only showing Tarja in one scene.
Doesnt anybody find this even a bit odd, you know the fact that this Pajamäki dude is allowed to produce “itsevaltiaat”?
Comment by Timppa — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 6:29 pm
“Or maybe it’s just my not-so-great Finnish language skills, maybe if I would speak fluently I’d find YLE to be unbiased?”
I think you’re on to something here, and it’s not the first time that you draw some rather far-reaching conclusions on the basis of a limited understanding, combined with extensive political bias.
Comment by Kimmo W. — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 6:53 pm
“Osku Pajamäki, the producer of YLE’s hit show “itsevaltiaat†is a member of SDP…Doesnt anybody find this even a bit odd, you know the fact that this Pajamäki dude is allowed to produce “itsevaltiaatâ€Â?”
From what I’ve seen of the show, it seems to be an equal-opportunity offender.
Comment by Kimmo W. — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 6:54 pm
Doesnt anybody find this even a bit odd, you know the fact that this Pajamäki dude is allowed to produce “itsevaltiaat�
I find it even stranger that the Kokoomus-jugend wants to censor the show.
Sure, it’s biased. So what? It’s a political comedy, for chrissakes.
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 6:59 pm
YLE used to be a stronghold of communism way up into the 1970’s. DDR-style correct thinking. Not saying some of the kids propaganda wasn’t good. Atleast I eat my veggies these days.
Comment by Hank W. — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 7:06 pm
If YLE has a bias for Halonen, it is not because Halonen has control over it, but because YLE staff is, and has been for a long time, left-leaning; their recruitment policies have for decades favoured leftists.
Comment by Pallopää — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 7:20 pm
YLE is not the whole media in Finland. Unlike in
the good ol’ USA people in Finland are able and
willing to read newspapers and newsmagazines.
Then there are two nation-wide commercial TV net-
works pouring the Hollywood shit into our homes
night after night.
Comment by artzi#1 — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 8:43 pm
It does indeed seem that YLE leans somewhat towards Tarja, as their word choices seem to portray her in a better light than any other candidates for president. On the other hand, they seem to be making a big fuss and making startling headlines over any little thing supporters of other candidates do.
But now theres we have the fifth socialist in a row as the president, hopefully the people will become more sensible in the next 6 years and we could see the end of the socialist era and a move towards a more international and possibly capitalistic system.
Comment by Kuwait — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 9:43 pm
I might be paranoid too but I can definitely see leftist bias in especially YLE’s programs. “Itse valtiaat” is a great example: hasn’t anyone noticed that they make the most fun of Kepu (not that that’s a bad thing :D), then Kokoomus and least of SDP?
However, I think SanomaWSOY is even more biased, probably due to the fact that Erkko is an SDP member. With Nelonen it can’t be noticed very easily because their program content is made up mostly of entertainment. Hesari’s bias is very clear, you can tell it straight by just reading their editorials.
Comment by Johnnyboy — Sun, Jan 29th, 2006 @ 10:40 pm
Yle is the voice of the Finnish Parliament, many politicians have admited this very openly. It’s no secret.
Yle also produces high quality programs as long they’re not politically linked.
Comment by Tero Lehto — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 12:05 am
I for one think that this issue isn’t as big today as it used to. Sure, some people have strong feelings for a particular political group, but to say that a whole media outlet would be biased is taking it too far.
Okay, so YLE has traditionally had a somewhat (it’s not the days of Reporadio anymore) leftist point of view. That was in general a result of the even otherwise over-politicized days of the 60’s and 70’s when even school children were propagated to get involved into “class room politics” and the stalinistic so-called “taistolaiset” were very active. A lot has happened since then - former communist Björn Wahlroos is now one of richest men in Finland and the “red YLE” is pretty much a thing of the past.
MTV3 (or just plain MTV, as it was known back then) had pretty much the Centre party to thank for getting the right to broadcast their own news in 1981 (especially the left disagreed the idea of bringing competition to YLE which had a monopoly in TV news up to then). That appreciation showed at least before in the way they handled certain rural stories and Centre politicians.
Erkko apparently has certain ties to the social democrats. I’m not sure if he really is a member, but on the other hand his grip on the SanomaWSOY group isn’t that strong any more either. Then again there have also been studies made, that show that for instace Helsingin Sanomat often seems to support whoever happens to be in power, not necessarily the SDP. And by saying “support” I of course refer to the editorials as Hesari is a liberal paper in the sense that they have always allowed different opinions on their pages, both from interviewed people, guest columnists and even staff reporters.
All in all, what I’m trying to say is that sure there are a lot of different biases out there and some decisions are probably made on political grounds, but it’s still not enough to label a certain media outlet as partisan or biased. As for most of Hesari’s, MTV3’s, Nelonen’s or even YLE’s journalism, I think it’s clear that most of it is produced under journalistic guidelines, i.e. they are at least trying to be as objective as possible.
There will always be a few bad apples, but journalism is also a field were someone is always unhappy with the results and every little thing often gets interpreted as a show of support for one party or the other even though the journalist himself only tried to ask questions he saw as interesting and relevant.
Comment by Joonas — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 4:33 am
Thumbs up to Joonas for a refreshingly sensible post, in which he got all his ducks in a row before rushing into print. Of course, letting facts get in the way of a good rant is nasty wet-blanketism of the worst order, but someone has to do it.
Comment by Anne Onimus — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 2:09 pm
Unlike in
the good ol’ USA people in Finland are able and
willing to read newspapers and newsmagazines.
You’ve got a point there. I never started reading newspaers or newsmagazines till I came to Finland.
Comment by Phil — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 3:33 pm
I for one think that this issue isn’t as big today as it used to.
So what changed this? When and how did YLE become un-left? And another question - When people accused YLE of being leftist back in the day, what did they say? Did they admit this or deny being leftist?
Comment by Phil — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 3:35 pm
It’s not so much that YLE was a mouthpiece of the left per se, it’s just that the content had to more or less reflect the political balance in Parliament.
Up into the 1980s the hard-line faction of the Communist Party had a good deal of influence in Parliament: this was partly due to their ability to get their supporters to make maximum use of the proportional representation system through tactical voting in marginal constituencies. As fervent supporters of the Soviet Union, they were also able to intimidate the other political parties with the Moscow card. The other main group this unholy alliance was the Centre Party.
Arguments critical of socialism were heard, but they had to be worded in a manner that would not give any reason for the Soviet Embassy to take offence. If someone in the media “went too far”, the hard-line communist newspaper Taudinkantaja - excuse me: Tiedonantaja - would write an op-ed piece lamenting that there are people in Finland who still want to sabotage the hard work of those striving for good relations bewteen Finland and the USSR. This piece then would be quoted by Pravda. Many journalists erred (considerably) on the side of caution to avoid the hassle.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the political and moral bankruptcy of its Finnish clients, there has been a certain amount of soul-searching in the whole Finnish media about the time of Finlandization and the accompanying self-censorship about topics that might have been caused offence among the people in the Kremlin and their Finnish lap-dogs.
Comment by Kimmo W. — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 4:30 pm
Well, it is mostly a new generation now working at YLE. Old left-wingers are now in the phase of writing their memoirs and the new people are from “generation Sähly”, who played sähly without any ideology in the university instead of drinking red wine and screwing around in student politics, like their predecessors.
Besides, total left-wing bias was required, if you were a Moscow correspondent or handled Soviet Union otherwise in your story. If you were not in line on the former, the soviets would have kicked you out of the country and on the latter, Kekkonen would have send a myllykirje to your boss for breaking the orthodoxy of foreign politics. If some group in the parliament got pissed off, your boss would slap your fingers and tell you to improve your act.
Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 5:16 pm
“State owned and run media”
This is a typical misunderstanding by a non-European of northern European public service broadcasters (e.g. BBC, SVT, YLE, NRK, DR, ARD etc). They are not ’state-run’ companies. YLE is quite independent of the government and is reasonably unbiased in its coverage as far as I can see.
Comment by JG — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 7:55 pm
Phil:
When people accused YLE of being leftist back in the day, what did they say?>
The same as now:
JG:
YLE is quite independent of the government and is reasonably unbiased in its coverage as far as I can see.
BTW: Yesterday, after the results were clear, Ropponen said that “they [YLE] had asked last week from people that if Niinistö loses what is the main reason”, and the answer was “his stand on NATO”. This was part of the same opinion poll, which they gave out before their last TV debate on Thursday. This poll was reported to the public in
this form. Can any of you saying that YLE was not biased towards Halonen (and left in general) give me a good reason why anyone without a motive of influencing undecided voters would do this type of reporting? Especially, after this issue was already the main tool of Halonen’s forces against Niinistö.
Comment by pikkupoika — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 8:33 pm
Phil: “So what changed this? When and how did YLE become un-left?”
As someone already mentioned, I think it’s a generational thing. Younger people weren’t into the party politics of their predecessors and the society as a whole simply got tired of politicizing everything. And then of course there was that whole thing with the disappearance of the Soviet Union.
“And another question - When people accused YLE of being leftist back in the day, what did they say? Did they admit this or deny being leftist?”
Well, I guess the problem was that they didn’t have to. Pleasing the Soviets was seen as so important in the times of finlandization that critique was kept subtle.
Comment by Joonas — Mon, Jan 30th, 2006 @ 9:03 pm