I’ve been called “handsome”, but also told that I’m “not exactly a fruit bowl”. I have been called “communist” and “socialist”, but also labeled as “right-wing” and “racist”. I’m an “old man”, but also a “Jypling” and a coffee latte drinker from Grünerløkka. I have been called “friend of Palestine”, but also “lover of Jews” and “supporter of Israel”. I have been asked why I hate the Conservative Party, and at the same time have been called a “Labour party hater”. And then I am an “idiot”, I “can’t write” and I am “devoid of knowledge”.
In that sense, I am much like most journalists and editors, we get a lot of such feedback. Some of my colleagues far worse than I get.
We get some good ones too, but the vast majority are bad. Some are threats.
As a man, I am lucky and escape the worst attacks on gender and on the body or sex.
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So why am I telling this?
I say something to those of you who give the most irrelevant feedback, by email, on social media, even by text message
I will explain that. Feedback with accusations about who I am spreads so much that it shows a lack of understanding of what it is to work in an editor-controlled medium. We are actually seeking the truth. When we sometimes do something wrong, that’s about the worst thing we experience. We hate it. Not seeking objectivity in coverage is a sin. It is an illusion to think that we can do it completely, no one is completely objective, but we must seek it.
And then I want to say to those of you who give the most inappropriate feedback, by email, on social media, even by text message. To those of you who are really into speculating on journalists’ inner lives and intentions. That you are most often wrong. For example, I’m not a communist, I don’t drink coffee latte, I’m not from Grünerløkka, I’m not a Labor Party hater, or a Conservative hater, I’m not a racist. But I can be an idiot, I can be both an old man and a jerk and there is a lot I could use more knowledge about.
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I seek to remedy that.
And then there’s the fire torch: Keep sending me bad words and characteristics! The alternative is probably silence. I would hate that. But facts are received with greater interest than insults and threats.
Merry Christmas!
(Voices is ABC Nyheter’s debate section. Here regular and occasional contributors write about current news topics. We also have a collaboration with the political online newspaper Altinget.no . If you are burning with an opinion or analysis, you can send the text to stemmer@abcnyheter.no, and we will consider it).
2023-12-19 17:08:11
#feedback #scold
