Do we, the Norwegian people, want Bush or Kerry to win the election? If someone had asked me that, two weeks ago, I would claim that a strong majority of the Norwegian people would say Kerry. But now, I am not so sure. The main reason for that is how Bush has been portrayed in the Norwegian media and the fact that Kerry is claiming that he is much more open to an international dialog when addressing international issues like terrorism. One should never forget the fact that Norway believed the invasion of Iraq to be against international law, but there is a general understanding that Iraq can not be left to itself in its current state. We feel that the ‘occupying force’ is responsible for restoring a peaceful and normalized situation in Iraq, and that the UN and a broader multinational set of forces is needed for achieving that.

I didn’t understand how colored the Norwegian media really was until a week ago. Kerry has been portrayed as the smart thinker that can come to the best result through dialog and Bush has been portrayed as an underachiever misled by the “hawks”. Maybe the media has understood it itself how it was reporting news about the US and started a more neutral report of the election or maybe it is due to a change in Norwegian politics.

The Norwegian media tends to report news in a critical manner, often aligned with the opposition, regardless of the ruling parties in Norway.

The 3 leftwing opposition parties has over the last few weeks been able to present a realistic alternative to the center and center-right governments we have seen for a majority of the last decade. This has resulted in the media being somewhat more neutral when reporting from the Norwegian scene as well.