New Time, 5 years and Braanen's untruths

EXTENDED VERSION OF MODERN TIMES 11.02.2011

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Exclusionary. Last week, Ny Tid was able to celebrate five years as Norway's first news magazine, after that Gold Awarded Launch 27. January 2006.

And it is also five years as completely politically independent, after SV – as the largest owner – decided to sell its last shares in the newspaper to the publisher Damm. This was something that also one closest unanimous general meeting agreed to do 24. January, three days before switching from tabloid format to magazine format.

Thus the ring was closed to the newspaper: In February 1953 it was started as the independent and internationally oriented Orientering – long before there was any party ownership – and eight years before Orienteringcircuit was excluded from the Labor Party, which led to the establishment of SF.

Precisely party independence and an undogmatic search for a 3rd way, with a critical eye towards both east and west, was then also the goal and the flag issue for the newspaper's first editor – the author Sigurd Evensmo (1912-1978).

Five years ago, SV and a clear majority wanted the newspaper to remain independent with a publisher as owner, rather than, for example, becoming a supplement to the former AKP (ml) -controlled Klassekampen – which still has the Red Party as main owner. That choice was understandable, as well as one strength for the media diversity and expression range in Norway. However, a few dreamed of a merger with the Class Fight, which was formed in 1969 when SUF (ml) broke with Orientering, SF and Sigurd Evensmo tradition. But the Workers Communist Party (AKP) also refused in 2005 to give up its ownership of the Class Fight, and then the merger option became impossible for an 3. road-oriented newspaper.

"Sensible suggestions"

Nevertheless: This newspaper's critical independence clearly provokes, even to some who want a more one-track radicalism in the country. Some have then also done their best to spread misinformation, rumors or untruths about Ny Tid, in 2006, 2008 and 2010 – and as now in 2011. If nothing else, it is not so different what the newspaper experienced from some also in the 70s . At the same time, there is something pleasing about this aggression and the revealing accusations leveled against our newspaper, from the usual side.

And the more gratifying it is to see that New Time – in which busy Orientering – the last three years (2008-2010) has been Norway's most cited weekly newspaper and periodic publication. Also the expert commentator's assessment of the first five years provides increased motivation for the continuation. For one of Ny Tid's most important priorities in recent years has been to highlight other perspectives than the majority's, such as when it comes to minority issues. Ny Tid was then also launched as a news magazine in the middle of the so-called Muhammad caricature crisis in January 2006. In that case, we may also be able to seek part of the aversion to Ny Tid's perspectives.

One example of how central this so-called cultural struggle is in the Norwegian public came Wednesday this week. Then the Labor Party's "Integration Committee", led by Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap), presented his much talked about program suggestions.

The suggestions themselves are not so surprising. This is good Frp policy, a time-honored expression of the spirit that so often speaks of a Europe in times of crisis: The forces are focused on immigrants, immigration and diversity as a "problem" that must be "solved". And this is best done by the majority banning various "practices" to the minorities.

The focus is on immigrants' duties, as well as on the rights of the majority: Immigrants must pass the compulsory exam in order to obtain Norwegian citizenship. And a dedicated team from the authorities, according to VG, call on the doors to get immigrants out to work. Not without reason, Frp wants to take credit for the proposals.

More surprisingly, seen from a radical perspective, it is possible that Klassekampen's responsible editor, Bjørgulv Braanen, already 9. February writes a very positive leads on the proposals. The newspaper writes on the leaderboard that the AP proposals generally look "reasonable".

This is where the arguments for banning cousin marriage are purchased, which the Klassekampen editor believes will not stigmatize anyone, since the ban will "apply exclusively to future marriages" (as if anyone should have thought about forcing voluntary marriage in Norway).

Fane Escape

Surprisingly, however, Braanen's argument is not. In 2009, he also supported Aps's Danish-inspired requirements in leadership positions, then for at least four years of work to be allowed to achieve a family establishment in Norway:

“We also consider the proposal to introduce a rule of four years of work or education as a condition for family establishment (not reunification) is positive ”(The leader of the class match 10.10.2009).

The conclusion: "It is good for them and good for integration».

The most important thing for Braan's line is the "national community". This is inserted the arguments in front of other values, such as cross-border solidarity, international human rights or equal treatment of individuals.

It is certainly strategically wise to link up with the Labor Party's worldview – according to the PR slogan, Braanen will make the previous AKP-ml publication "the entire left-wing daily newspaper". Then it is probably good for the economy to argue for what most people will nod understandingly to.

But at the same time, the editor of the Class Fight makes a gradual flap from basic radical perspectives. Avisa's old motto "workers in all countries, unite", has also disappeared from the front page. In a national conservative strategy, global radical values ​​must necessarily be thrown on the boat. It doesn't really matter anymore if in practice you support Ap or Frp, just everyone "Incorporated into [the] national community", as it was called this week.

Good Norwegian first, solid world citizen another time.

And you can easily stand for that – because it only makes the need visible New Time and Orienterings global radical perspectives, and for a third way also for our time. For the international Orientering was not founded to speak the case of the introverts. The perspective of Orienteringeditor and later SF leader Finn Gustavsen was something quite different from gathering around "national communities". Or as Gustavsen wrote in Orientering Spring 1961: "We ARE Internationalists."

Gustavsen also opened the way for Norway to join "an alliance with other nations, also in an association where Norwegian national interests had to give way to the community". For his global perspective, not unlike Evensmos, was to show and work for "solidarity with folk. True internationalism today is global, worldwide without fences against other political systems, nations or races. ”

Such visionary thoughts seem more alien now than then. At the same time, some independents saw how Braanen wanted to rewrite the past and present in his image. The former Red Youth leader (1979-1983) is obviously trying to take its bite too Orienteringtradition and the Sigurd Evensmo legacy of 1953 itself, pointed out historian and journalist Trond Gram in a post in print in Klassekampen, five days before Ny Tid in January 2006, formally became independent of any party ownership.

After a massive, negative Klassekampen coverage of the publisher Damm's possible rescue of Ny Tid, the mentioned historian Gram wrote on 19 January 2006 under the title "Alternative agendas?":

"A little behind the barricades, two gentlemen named Bjørn Smith-Simonsen and Bjørgulv Braanen have stood. Both have an interest in Ny Tid remaining at least in the alternative newspaper Norway…

Braanen does not have to say anything to express what he means. The newspaper does that for him. The class struggle was the newspaper that first wrote about Damm's interest in Ny Tid, and has since followed the case closely. The only strange thing is that so far only the opponents of the Damm purchase have been allowed to speak in the newspaper's columns, under headlines such as "- Thoughtless New Time Sale" and "Do not believe in Damm" the critics have been allowed to speak. But few of those who stand for the opposite line have stated (…) What agenda does Braanen really have? »

Some thought that the answer to this agenda question came already on Saturday, January 28, 2006: The day after New Time and OrienteringThe magazine launch launched the Klassekampen editor Orienteringlogo to illustrate a new column, which he now puts every Saturday under the name "Orientering».

Orienteringthe logo has probably disappeared, but Braanen has never apologized or replaced the logo misuse – even though a similar logo theft has not taken place in the Norwegian press in modern times.

Stef-lifted

The class struggle editor's manic preoccupation with our newspaper can probably be perceived as something sweet or comical – as some will say he no longer seems proud of his past to his own newspaper – but if nothing else, the attacks (see below) on our newspaper are in the tradition from 1970s: In August 1977, Klassekampen wrote that "the revisionist agency Ny Tid og Friheten are examples of state-funded anti-worker propaganda".

Exactly. Just like some people put it today, possibly, except today it is The class struggle that gets tens of millions in support from the state, trade union movement and the party.

Boats Orientering (until August 1975) and Ny Tid (from 1975) were in the Class Struggle long referred to as "revisionist bodies" and socially harmful propaganda – they stood for a democracy-oriented radicalism that was Mao- and Marxist-critical. The class struggle was then also founded in February 1969 after a "mole" (term from Birgitte Kjos Fonn's book Orientering [Pax, 2011], p. 223) from the Marxist community had been employed in Orientering, at the same time as the secretary spent time building up the new organs of Tjen Folket and the Class Fight.

The newspaper of the SUF and the upcoming AKP (ml) just stood in opposition to SF, Orientering and Sigurd Evensmo's unogmatic 3. standpoint. That is why there were also sung jealousy songs among others. Gustavsen. Evensmo and the third road were already counted and dated in 1969. In the Class Fight, it also applied to 2. position: tribute of Eastern regimes and "armed revolution" against Western democracies. No wonder Evensmo and Orientering/ Ny Tid was deeply disliked in Klassekampen's columns. And no wonder SF- and Orientering-nestor Find Gustavsen (1926-2005) in 1986, when he was a short-lived Ny Tid editor and the undersigned stopped by to study journalism, sat next to Ny Tid's secretary – who still works for our newspaper – and said: «Promise me that you will never lets Ny Tid become part of Klassekampen! »

(PICTURE: Gustavsen and Kjell Cordtsen in 2003, i meeting with New Time.)

Much water has been clean in the water since his heyday, and much has changed in the press as well, but Gustavsen's journalistic and political insights have it standing. So, in the last five years, many noteworthy features have not been so surprising. Little is new under the sun for anyone who knows its history. Just a few months after Braanen became the new Klassekampen editor, after a decade in DN, he went out in February 2003 and claimed that it was his newspaper that should "bring the best in the legacy from Orientering go ahead and do our best to keep it open!»

The edge towards New Time thus began long before later changes of ownership or more recent times. In the first years of Braanen's attacking strategy, it was Ny Tid's journalists who in the leadership position were accused of writing things that "in the first place are very poorly thought out". But already in July 2004, Ny Tid cultural director Halvor Finess Tretvoll pointed out the problems with Braanen's national conservative strategy, in a Dagbladet column entitled "Is it radical to be conservative?". No wonder New Time & Orienteringperspective challenged. For Braanen's line – with a vague or problematic relationship to the totalitarian, the multicultural or the green position – stands to a small extent in extension of the tradition this newspaper is obliged to follow, in according to the statutes.

But Braan's big words from 2003, by taking on the rhetoric of managing a newspaper tradition other than his own, oblige. Little would be pleased with us, who have been responsible for 3. the road stand for a number of years, more than the Evensmo tradition's open, multicultural-friendly and anti-totalitarian line was hailed by as many as possible in this country. So that the best from Orienteringthe legacy can be carried on, as the articles of association in Ny Tid & Orientering AS now sounds. But unfortunately, we see at the class struggle editor's repeated multicultural hostile and Ap-servile line that Orientering-the legacy is not only badly taken care of, but also directly broken. Hence these words.

The above examples show how Braanen can not only support the new ice age that speaks across our country, with ever more national orders. He also breaks Orienterings idea of ​​a democratic "third way" – where the goal was to be able to be critical of power both in the East and in the West.

«Braanens agenda»

According to Braanen, Iran is under the mullahs a "rule of law" (Class Fight 23.06.09). And journalists like writes about the regime's opponents, hanged out as participants in the "terrorist tour". Cuba has never dared Braan to write about, much less has he pointed to something small-critical about the Castro brothers, who still hold power without letting workers and the Cuban people have their say.

Such lefling with dictatorships, populism and state orders can be called too much strange – but some good preservation of the best from OrienteringThe tradition, with criticism of power, inclusion and an open crude, is unlikely.

At the same time, Braanen is very good at spreading rumors about Ny Tid, in which he is busy Orientering 26. January 2006, right after his opinionmate failed to get control of the newspaper, he claimed in The leader of the class struggle that the new magazine would receive «100 million kroner for launching Ny Tid» (sci!), and that from the publisher Damm. Beyond reason and reality – or an estimated 99 percent wrong. Interestingly enough, Braanen reveals as early as January 26, before the reorganization and after repeated misrepresentation of facts, that he would support Orientering- the name in "collaboration with the Class Fight", which was then controlled by the AKP party.

And that was in print one week after historian Gram wrote in Klassekampen and Ny Tid:

"Is that how you understand that Braanen prefers to see that fresh capital is not injected into the left-wing party's longest-lived newspaper project? If Damm decides to put some money behind Ny Tid's printing ink, the newspaper could become a significant competitor to «Venstresiden's daily newspaper». What agenda does Braanen really have? ”

Gram pointed out that "Braanen need not say anything to express what he thinks. That is what the newspaper does for him. " And if it doesn't, then you can get your life companion to do it for you. In the summer 2006 then Braan's co-resident, Lena Lindgren, received an essay in print in Samtiden with the title "The Good, the Evil and the New" – the first and only text so far she must have been in print in a Norwegian magazine, according to Idunn magazine base.

The conclusion in the 2006 article was that Ny Tid was close to death, yes, and by the way that the newspaper was also a "Bred twin" by the right-wing Memo (Sic!). No one else could see that the two counter poles in the weekly newspaper were dedicated twins, so at least there is no lack of imagination in the Branian home. Lindgren stated in the Samtiden article that she was a cultural editor in Morgenbladet, but accidentally failed to inform that she was the class struggle editor's partner.

Braanen's cohabitant concluded in 2006 that the insulted and sued Memo, which was on the verge of closure when her article was printed, was "a better product than Ny Tid". Of course. So Lindgren could with clear pleasure end his Samtiden article as follows:

'It is not always someone who has to die in the end. Let's just suggest that of Memo and New Time, Memo will die first. It's just saying like Edward R. Murrow, the reporter who slapped Joseph McCarthy: 'Good night, and good luck.' "

You don't have to be a rocket scientist or Freudian to discover that death is a general review motif when Ny Tid is also mentioned in Klassekampen, before as now. When Ny Tid in 2008 got Mentor Medier as owners – well marked like Klassekampen's own Le Monde diplomatique supplement – this was also like the actual fall to count: Then it was «a sad day, it is the end of New Age as we know it", Braanen wrote on the leader of the Class Fight 15. February 2008. Nothing less.

But if nothing else, then Damm wasn't the new owner of the 2006 devil himself, anyway. Or as historian Gram pointed out after campaign journalism back then:

"Klassekampen was the newspaper that first wrote about Damm's interest in Ny Tid, and has since followed the case closely. The weird thing is just that that so far, only the opponents of the Damm purchase have been allowed to speak in the newspaper's columns, under headlines such as "- Thoughtless New Time Sale" and "Do not believe in Damm", the critics have been allowed to speak. But few of those who stand for the opposite line have spoken. "

The lack of diversity of expression in 2006 was probably no less than that the majority who stood for the opposite view, of the then AKP-owned newspaper, for strange reasons did not come under pressure when called by the newspaper's eager staff. So much for media diversity. (Red. Note: The editorial staff and the editorial line have also in Ny Tid always had continuity regardless of owner, as in most other Norwegian newspapers.)

It turned out that Klassekampen also had a double role in the autumn of 2007: Avisa registered as interested in buying a newspaper from Damm / Egmont. However, the class struggle was rejected as a rogue bidder, when the politically owned newspaper proposed to close Ny Tid & Orientering as a publication – and have it incorporated as a couple of extra newspaper flakes a week. In return, Klassekampen's administration passed on twisted internal information from the negotiations to its journalists, as it appeared in online newspapers with the appropriate name Propaganda.

Braanen then claimed in 2008 that the deceased Ny Tid had now become a «preliminary end point for the efforts on creating a mouthpiece for a current that has marketed itself under the label global-left '». The statement says a lot about the writer. So does the statement that Ny Tids alleged «ambitions now anyway is in ruins". Not just "death", but now also "ruins", that is.

In the same comment in February 2008, the editor of Klassekampen makes such untrue claims that «Ny Tid will no longer manage the left-wing socialist legacy from SF and Orientering". And the newspaper is linked to Yes to the EU and other naughty judgments without coating.

Braanen so wrongly claimed that Ny Tid was subject to the newspaper Vårt Land and "Christian values", and did not say that Klassekampen-attached LMD then got the same constellation of owners in the Mentor house – that would of course be completely unproblematic.

But the Klassekampen coverage follows, if nothing else, its tradition from the 70s, when the SUFs sang jealously against Gustavsen and Evensmo: For Ny Tid is probably still a "revisionist body" to be reckoned with.

Marx & «ky-boy»

According to Marx, History repeats itself: first as tragedy, finally as farce. And in this case, the statement is true – "farce" in the KK production will be. As then, Ny Tid left the large group Mentor Medier, including Vårt Land / Dagsavisen, with the help of idealists and those who wanted to help the editorial staff at the start-up of the independent and Ny Tid & Orientering AS from 1. May 2010.

But again, a number of untruths were promoted spinnville claims about Ny Tids alleged ownership, parts of it now also on the cover of the Class Fight. Braanen is now writing a new leader, "Black on White", 15 May 2010 – where he both misquotes the undersigned from his own newspaper, promotes incorrect information about who owns the newspaper and for safety's sake gets to now link our newspaper to the "CIA" (sic!) Because a minority shareholder had the name Halvorssen .

The new false allegations of ownership against our newspaper were first made on the Class Fight's first page 10. May 2010. And the first cited critic in this straw man case is none other than one of Braanen's former colleagues, who governs an AS that in 2007 himself took advantage of Orientering- the name for sending out newsletters promoting commercial book publishing.

(NB! The charges and allegations against our newspaper were in May 2010 so far beyond the facts that they are difficult to deal with in short format. It is also referred to Ny Tids information page for facts about our newspaper, there Ivar Evensmo and earlier Orienteringwriters are now among the co-owners. Braan's and Marsdal's accusations of "excursions" and alliances with the CIA, or other UFOs, should fall on their own unreasonableness. If not: Send mail to tips@nytid.no.)

The class-fight editor was also in person early on and sent out a spread of joy twitter messages about newspaper's self-composed first page 10. May 2010: "You should recognize a CIA-like Ky boy when you see him," Braanen wrote on twitter same day. When someone wondered if the facts about Ny Tid's ownership necessarily matched Klassekampen's front page notice, he wrote: "I think it's about decorating the bride in overtime, after the wedding night."

The most important thing for some is still to believe, not to know. Press first, ask the page. The cryptic twitter messages above can be difficult to interpret, but obviously it is Ny Tid who is the "bride" here, and then alive. And that is at least a progress from 2008 – when Ny Tid was both dead and in ruins. And if nothing else, the Ny Tid case aroused the Klassekampen editor's twitter desire to come to life – as much as 37,5 percent of his twitter messages (3 of 8) dealt with the summer of 2010 Ny Tid's death or corruption. If nothing else, our long-standing soot bed creates life and nourishment for others.

New Times

While it is sad for the Norwegian press that loose rumors are such a central part of media dynamics, it is also gratifying that individuals and communities with a natural affinity for this newspaper see the importance of supporting the publication's outgoing, democratic and inclusive tradition. It is also inspiring that a researcher like Birgitte Kjos Fonn this spring publishes his own book about Orienterings history.

This is important to keep the best of the legacy just for new generations. That's when the ice cream says it's most about keeping the rye open. Each issue of a new issue of the newspaper becomes such a confirmation that it is useful, that the rumor spreaders and doomed prophets were wrong.

For this is about more than one newspaper. It's about ideas that shouldn't die.

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(Info: Ny Tid has in recent years not published articles about Klassekampen's ownership or development – this text (a much shorter version on paper) is the only summary editorial response given to several column meters with statements in various Ny Tid articles in Klassekampen since January 2006, ed. anm. In recent years, the editor of Klassekampen has repeatedly refused to answer or speak in Ny Tid).

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Reader comments:

In print in Klassekampen 19.01.2006. Printed in Ny Tid 20.01.2006.

https://www.nytid.no/arkiv/artikler/20060118/alternative_agendaer/

OF TROND GRAM:

Alternative agendas?

Capitalists sniff at Ny Tid. The museum guards tremble, and behind the scenes Bjørn and Bjørgulv lurk. There is reason to believe that they have different agendas than the old SFs.

Tradition faith it blows around one of the left-wing newspapers. This time it is Ny Tid that creates a fire in the roses' camp.

After struggling with income for a number of years, Ny Tid has been sucked at Damm. The publisher will buy the newspaper and further develop it. Owned by the Danish media group Egmont, and with pockets full of Harry Potter millions, the publisher wants to build a cultural profile. The magazine Vagant was bought and Kraftsentrum was started to strengthen its focus on Norwegian literature. Now they want to strengthen the profile with the purchase of Ny Tid.

The Danish-owned publisher wants to save the left side's weekly newspaper from a painful death. There are many on the left who do not want to. The publisher comes in the county's time. The red numbers in the accounts have been increasing. The circulation has gone down, and Posten is also struggling with increased postage.

When the rescue now has materialized in the form of a publisher with a well-filled wallet, it goes cold down the back to the old guard SV-er. The so-called museum guards who remember well the time when the newspaper was called Orientering and the party was called SF. The purchase is controversial among many of those who speak loudest on the left side of Norwegian politics. The purchase is supported by the board, the newspaper's employees and SV's central board, but the museum guards are not quite as positive. Berge Furre, Tore Linné Eriksen and Dag Seierstad do not want a capitalist company as Ny Tid owner. Positive words about how Damm will support the newspaper do not help old people. They brought out the rhetorical canon and managed to postpone Monday's extraordinary general meeting for a week.

In the scenes, wonder a large number of profiles on the left, the question is whether they have the same agenda? "That is not why we have fought for Socialism," said Furre. A little behind the barricades, two gentlemen named Bjørn Smith-Simonsen and Bjørgulv Braanen have stood. Both have an interest in Ny Tid remaining at least in alternative newspaper Norway. Bjørn Smith-Simonsen is the man behind the old left-wing team Pax. Together with the foundation Fritt Ord and Dagsavisen, he was part of the trio that was behind the acquisition and revitalization of Morgenbladet a couple of years ago. A newspaper that has doubled its circulation after the foundation put its millions on the table. But he is not just a Morgenbladet shareholder.

Smith-Simonsen also has shares in Ny Tid, and thus voting rights at the general meeting. And he has expressed interest in opening his wallet to secure shares in Klassekampen, should AKP sell out. He is one of several who want Ny Tid to be merged with Klassekampen. It is a solution several others have been eager for. Berge Furre is one of them. Nor is Bjørgulv Braanen unfamiliar with that issue. But as editor of Ny Tid competitor Klassekampen, he wisely keeps his mouth shut this time.

But Braanen does not have to say anything to express what he means. The newspaper does that for him. The class struggle was the newspaper that first wrote about Damm's interest in Ny Tid, and has since followed the case closely. The only strange thing is that so far only the opponents of the Damm purchase have been allowed to speak in the newspaper's columns, under headlines such as "- Thoughtless New Time Sale" and "Do not believe in Damm" the critics have been allowed to speak. But few of those who stand for the opposite line have spoken.

Is that how to understand that Braanen prefers to see that fresh capital is not injected into the left-wing party's longest-lived newspaper project? If Damm decides to put some money behind Ny Tid's printing ink, the newspaper could become a significant competitor to «Venstresiden's daily newspaper». What agenda does Braanen really have? Ny Tid is a newspaper that fears bankruptcy. If the opponents manage to gather enough votes to block the Damm purchase, it can be the result. For how great is the probability that Smith-Simonsen, Braanen and the others will be able to stack enough money on their feet to establish a viable New Age?

If the newspaper is purchased by Damm, the employees have been guaranteed that the newspaper's radical traditions will be continued at the time of transfer, and they are given full editorial freedom to carry the newspaper further. This will contribute to strengthening alternative media in Norway, which will undoubtedly be positive for opinion formation in this country. If the "Class Fight Track" is run in full, we risk the opposite. Is that what you want, museum keepers? Running a solution that could end in closure is, in my opinion, absurd.

A revitalized New Time will be a force in Norwegian public debate, journalism has long since been decoupled from party politics and Ny Tid has long since decoupled from SV. The party's ownership of the newspaper has only the interest of history, but the newspaper still has the right to life. Then it is wrong to transfer the newspaper from one political party to another. None of them have the money needed to give the newspaper new life.

Trond Gram is a journalist

(Reader's post in print in Ny Tid 20.01.06.)