Eight opinions to rule them all

Eight commentators set Sweden's national news agenda; where they lead on a political story, the rest of the country's media will follow. That is, if we are to believe Manuel Ferrer, the Social Democratic Party's Head of Press, currently on paternity leave. "The Eight" he suggests we call them, and I couldn't help but be reminded of Tolkien's one ring to rule them all, as he goes on to describe these pundits, and their influence, in quite dramatic terms:

"One is short of height and never smiles on pictures. One is talkative and always laughs. One always succeeds in making the incomprehensible comprehensible. One makes the comprehensible incomprehensible almost all of the time. At the end of the day, they have all complemented each other in the news arena, as if they were a brotherhood."

Of these eight, four are broadcast journalists, and four are newspaper scribes, a mix between commentators and reporters: two of them, Arenander and Bergström, always lead on the story, according to Ferrer, and if these two give the story a negative slant, only a small miracle will prevent the other six from doing so – again according to Ferrer, whose Op-Ed, "The eight who dictate Sweden's media world" (in Swedish), is the scariest Op-ed I've read this week - it literally sent chills down my back, but perhaps not for the reasons he intended. Buried between all the melodrama and hints of conspiracy, Ferrer makes a few valid, though hardly revolutionary, points about the dangers of editorialising and presenting views as news. But the proposition that, in this day and age, eight people determine a country's political coverage, indicates that one of the two, Ferrer or Swedish media, is completely ignorant of the world we're living in. Let's for the sake of Swedish media hope it is Ferrer...