Thursday, March 27, 2025

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TV4’s Örebro mass shooting coverage sparks backlash from experts

Disinformation in the media

Published 14 February 2025
– By Editorial Staff

Following TV4’s reporting on the mass shooting in Örebro, where the channel claimed, on unclear grounds, that the perpetrator had uttered the phrase “you should get out of Europe”, ten experienced sound engineers are now questioning the channel’s methods in an open letter.

The information provided by the state-owned Telia TV4, which was allegedly based on an “expert analysis” of an audio recording, was widely circulated and used to imply a racist motive behind the Örebro attack.

Critical voices questioned TV4’s reporting early on, pointing out that there was a lack of transparency about how the claim was arrived at. Now, ten experienced sound engineers have also published an open letter in the magazine Kvartal, criticizing the channel’s conclusions and general journalistic credibility.

The ten sound engineers, with extensive experience in sound analysis, recording and editing, state that it is impossible to determine with certainty what is being said in the audio clip in question and criticize the channel for giving the impression that there is a clear conclusion when this is not the case.

No one in our profession would be able to establish that”, they clarify.

“Not up to scratch”

They emphasize that TV4’s handling of the material cannot be considered anything other than a serious case of false journalism.

It is dishonest to claim that this is the case. Instead, many of us in our forum have been disturbed by the fact that our professional knowledge and professional honor seem to be used as an alibi for frivolous and irresponsible click journalism”.

They are calling for the channel to report exactly how it went about the analysis that TV4 News says it did.

We do not think that TV4’s defense is up to scratch and we do not believe that the publication can withstand further scrutiny. If TV4 wants to be transparent, they should make available exactly in what format they have taken part of the original audio and make a file without further compression or processing available for independent review”, it concludes.

For its part, the state broadcaster SVT has linked the criticism of TV4 as an expression of Islamist propaganda, associating criticism of the channel’s reporting on the Örebro killings with a Salafist social media account.

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Watch the full conversation that led to Trump’s scolding of Zelensky

Disinformation in the media

Published 3 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump during their meeting in the Oval Office in front of the US media.

In Friday’s news broadcasts following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House, focusing on peace talks and a mineral extraction agreement, several Swedish media outlets painted the picture that Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance had “planned” the dispute that unfolded in the Oval Office. Both the state broadcaster SVT and the Schibsted-owned Omni have promoted conspiracy theories about a planned conspiracy without presenting any evidence.

There was a heated discussion towards the end of Zelensky’s visit to the White House, where he spoke to both Trump and Vice President JD Vance in front of the press. In broadcasts on Friday evening after the meeting, SVT reported on the meeting in the country’s largest news program Rapport.

Both the presenters and commentators referred to the meeting and presented it as a degenerated “brawl” in which Zelensky was portrayed as vulnerable by his American counterparts. Instead of showing the background to the event, SVT instead referred to the meeting orally and described in their own words the course of events and what was said. Viewers only got to see a fraction of the meeting in a few seconds where it appeared that Zelensky was under the microscope of the attacker Donald Trump and JD Vance.

SVT incorrectly presented in Rapport that it “took only a few minutes before a heated argument broke out in front of the cameras”. In fact, the meeting had been going on for almost 40 minutes in front of the cameras and until then proceeded calmly and orderly in a normal conversational tone.

Only towards the end of the meeting, which lasted almost an hour in total, did Donald Trump start to get annoyed by his Ukrainian counterpart’s repeated demonization of his wartime counterpart in front of the cameras and the perceived disrespectful tone of Zelenskyi.

This while Trump did his best to lead the conversation towards a negotiation to try to bring a definitive end to the three-year long and devastating war, which eventually led to a more heated exchange between the three main participants where Zelensky was strongly criticized by both Donald Trump and JD Vance, who perceived his behavior in front of the cameras and the American people as disrespectful.

Afterwards, several media outlets, including Schibsted-owned Omni, openly promoted conspiracy theories that the move by Trump and Vance was a “planned ambush” without presenting any evidence. SVT’s former Russia correspondent Bert Sundström also commented that the discussion was “completely incomprehensible” and SVT’s US correspondent Fouad Youcefi promoted the narrative of an “attack” and a “strategic target”.

– Was it a strategic goal that the White House wanted to achieve by attacking Zelensky, a tactic that is useful in negotiations? he speculated without any evidence.

Watch the unedited version of the historic meeting

SVT chose to show only selected parts of a few seconds from the almost hour-long meeting in the White House where it appears that Donald Trump is escalating the situation. The Nordic Times publishes the meeting in unedited form in its entirety so that the public can judge for themselves the background and how the historic meeting proceeded.

USAID central in global propaganda war

Disinformation in the media

  • New serious revelations continue to emerge about the US aid agency USAID.
  • Among other things, it shows that the agency has been systematically used to run advocacy campaigns in more than 30 different countries.
  • In Ukraine, as many as nine out of ten media companies have been entirely dependent on US aid money – with USAID reportedly the main funder.
Published 12 February 2025
– By Editorial Staff
US aid money has funded a worldwide propaganda apparatus.

The Nordic Times has previously reported on how Trump may completely shut down USAID. This after his efficiency chief, Elon Musk, described it as a “purely criminal organization” and stated that it “is time for it to die”.

The White House has also confirmed that the aid organization has funded LGBTQ propaganda, jihadist terror groups and other subversive activities in a wide range of countries.

A review also shows that USAID has played a central role in the US propaganda war and has funded a very large number of pro-Western media around the world media that are now threatened with closure if US support is cut.

In Ukraine, for example, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) points out that “9 out of 10 outlets rely on subsidies and USAID is the primary donor”.

80% of our budget is affected, laments Anna Babinets, CEO and founder of Slistvo.Info.

“Almost everyone had grants”

According to RSF, USAID funds “independent media” in over 30 countries and has funded “training and support for 6,200 journalists, assisted 707 non-state news outlets, and supported 279 media-sector civil society organizations”.

In 2025 alone, $270 million was budgeted to support “independent media and the free flow of information”.

– The problem is that almost everyone had grants. The question is that for some, these grants amounted to 100% of their income and they could only survive thanks to grants. These grants amounted to 40–60% for some, less for others, explains Oksana Romaniuk of the Ukrainian Institute of Mass Information.

She clarifies that media funding came not only from the US but also from the EU and the UN.

“The puppet masters pulling strings”

The “independent journalism” funded with US aid money is accused by many critics of being a propaganda machine pushing issues and topics deemed important to the political establishment in Washington.

USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars through a secretive US government financed NGO, ‘Internews Network’ (IN), which has ‘worked with’ 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and ‘training’ over 9000 journalists. IN has also supported social media censorship initiatives”, WikiLeaks wrote in a post on X.

Former USAID director Samantha Power has also spoken openly in the past about how the agency funds and influences media reporting in countries like Moldova and Nicaragua.

USAID set up insurance funds for journalists, which was just a fancy way of saying they were controlling the narrative. Over in Moldova, they pushed for memberships and subscriptions, essentially deciding who gets the cash flow. And in Nicaragua, USAID was restructuring media businesses, which is a nice way of saying USAID was calling the shots on how news gets made and distributed”, notes political commentator Ian Miles Cheong.

They were the puppet masters, pulling strings to shape the media landscape to their liking”, he concludes.

Orbán: USAID has a strong presence in Hungary

In practice, it remains unclear whether the agency will be closed down completely, reformed or resurrected in a modified form. In many quarters, hopes are now being expressed that in that case it will focus on aid work rather than advocacy.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, among others, has said that the agency funded “basically the entire left-wing media in Hungary under the previous US administration”.

And they called me ‘disruptor of the year’ … I think the world owes a debt of gratitude to President Donald Trump for uncovering and putting an end to this dark conspiracy”, he wrote.

Not a new phenomenon

It should be noted that attempts by the US establishment to simultaneously control and manipulate media reporting are not a new phenomenon nor are they limited to USAID alone.

During the Cold War, for example, the CIA launched “Operation Mockingbird”, which aimed to manipulate US and international media to spread pro-American propaganda.

By recruiting journalists and using front organizations, the CIA influenced news reporting, sometimes by planting false stories.

The program was partly uncovered by journalist Carl Bernstein in 1977, who claimed that over 400 journalists collaborated with the CIA in various ways.

Mass formation – psychological warfare against the own population

Disinformation in the media

By injecting the perception of "existential crises" into people's already strained psyches via the mass media, so-called "mass formations" - collective psychoses - are induced.

Published 23 March 2024
– By Dan Ahlmark
Photo: cottonbro studio/Pexels
This is an opinion piece. The author is responsible for the views expressed in the article.

People in the West today are exposed to claims about global dangers that are manufactured and enforced for political reasons by international organisations in collaboration with member state governments. On the surface, these issues may seem credible. Climate alarmism is a case in point, but the most recent and perhaps most striking example is covid-19, where a disease that primarily affects the elderly was declared a pandemic that threatens everyone. Fittingly, the medical threshold for defining a pandemic had previously been lowered.

The general impact of covid was medically no greater than that of a more serious seasonal flu, but for its sake politicians in various countries completely changed life, closing schools and commercial activities, stopping some professional activities, which – despite public support – caused the destruction of many individual businesses, and so on. It simply changed the daily lives of virtually all age groups and severely damaged the economies of states for a disease that was generally not nearly as serious as claimed. And coercive measures were applied to populations, violating their personal integrity by demanding compulsory vaccination.

Opponents of this behaviour were subjected to severe harassment and persecution in the media, including social media; to contempt and action by frightened citizens (see below); and people in certain public service professions – or otherwise working for the public – could suffer severe consequences. This was much the same treatment that members of the Sweden Democrats faced when protesting against mass immigration less than a decade ago. The effects of the vaccines then turned out to be less important than natural immunity for many people. However, they also caused significant side effects and many deaths, the full significance of which is not yet clear.

A common feeling in the modern society is the apparent lack a meaningful existence

The underlying psychological conditions that were used to implement measures against covid are those that are the basis for the creation of collective psychosis. These are described in the theory of “mass formation” or “mass formation psychology”, which is ultimately based on emotions that a significant part of the population has or has been instilled with1. One of these is a widespread fear that can be whipped up, for example, by the mass media. But this reaction is linked to persistent underlying emotions that are said to have grown in importance and are now very important to many people. One is the consequence of too few social contacts, which for many leads to a feeling of loneliness. The other is another common feeling in modern society: the apparent lack a meaningful existence. For many people, life simply seems too empty, too meaningless. Media of all kinds also often have a negative bias and support this by preparing people to believe the worst. This contributes to a latent attitude of dissatisfaction and frustration, creating a tendency towards aggression that can easily flare up when an event occurs that really affects and frightens people. A virus that threatens humanity with mass death then fulfils this requirement.

However, in order for the above components to cause a mass psychosis and then maintain its power for a sufficiently long time, the government of the country (here in conjunction with the relevant international organisation) must use mass formation, i.e. mass formation psychology. This involves psychological operations (psy-ops) of the kind used in war against enemy populations. Such methods are now being used against their own people. They involve indoctrination by any means possible, using all the resources of the public sector, combined with media of all kinds and civil organisations, all channels delivering a narrow, powerful and consistent message. This consists of a description of a dangerous social crisis of the utmost importance, with major personal consequences for citizens. The description of the consequences of the crisis should be designed to immediately reinforce the fears of the population that have already been created by the media. Most importantly, the government had to present a solution to the crisis.

Covid-19 fit the bill. It was a (supposedly) brand-new virus that could infect at lightning speed and often appeared to cause death. All of this was playing out in China, where the outbreak began and dramatic countermeasures were taken. Whole cities were shut down, and healthy people seemed to suddenly just die, with no previous signs of illness.

The reaction to the perception of a rapid and widespread spread of a dangerous infection created a considerable amount of fear, which led people to be prepared to give the government even more power than the country’s constitution allowed. There was enormous peer pressure, and people wanted only effective countermeasures to prevent or stop the outbreak, event or process. And it was generally accepted that the measures taken by the state were coercive. No attention was paid to issues and considerations other than those related to the crisis. Harmful consequences of the measures taken were ignored. A long-term form of collective hypnosis had emerged2. And like all hypnosis, it means that people can be led in dangerous directions. People can become highly radicalised, and their private morality no longer plays the role it once did. So much depends on the management of the psychological operation. But in democracies, such tasks cannot be entrusted to politicians or anyone else.

To ensure the credibility of the threat and its effect on people’s psychology, mass formation requires supporting measures that can maintain the strength of this fear and peer pressure. This means that indoctrination must not be challenged by effective and credible sources of alternative information. Alternative explanations and views should not be allowed to emerge and disrupt the government’s message. While constitutions prevent many governments from taking effective censorship measures, the fact that the world’s media now appear so unified – and are controlled by a group of like-minded decision-makers – allows them to support the authorities without being constrained by laws. The media have pushed the message while, with few exceptions, maintaining censorship of alternative information.

Dissenting writers and oppositional views were not allowed to appear or were not published. In the past, the diversity of the media and the professional ethics of the sector made such behaviour impossible, but with the elimination of so many independent voices in the media landscape in favour of concentrated ownership with an international flavour, propaganda could now be pushed without the counter-arguments being widely disseminated.

So, for all the boasting about the multiplicity of channels and outlets for people’s opinions, public opinion has never been so silenced by those in power as it is today. This highlights something that needs to change in society, namely the danger of opinion formation being paralysed or monopolised in this way. When all the established parties in Sweden rallied behind the covid policy, there was no significant opposition in the media.

It is frightening that journalists are so beholden to politicians. There is only a small group of alternative media with limited reach. By using all possible channels, including those with high credibility such as medical ones, the fear was amplified and people’s anxiety and fear was directed towards supporting all measures prescribed by the authorities. This also created a new sense of social connectedness between people and gave many a common meaning to life (for a while). It also meant that people’s frustration was powerfully directed at those who opposed the measures or doubted parts of the authorities’ narrative. And for a long time, peer pressure did not allow for explicit changes in the majority’s thinking.

So what politicians and authorities have done with regard to covid is to apply a theory that allows the creation and maintenance of mass psychosis.

Very radical and objectively life-destroying measures can then be supported by the masses, even though they themselves will be severely affected. The current energy policy, which is a consequence of the theory of carbon-based global warming, is another similar example. Views on freedom and human rights are partly ignored. Mass formation is in fact a deliberate, government-induced distortion of people’s perception of reality. It is unacceptable that such methods are being used against Swedes in Sweden today.

The sequence of events is likely to be repeated in the future, and each time it is likely to be based on some perhaps misleading, but in any case probably completely exaggerated reason. Among other things, international bodies have suggested that pandemics will return – perhaps soon – and are now trying to take over the power to decide what action should be taken. The World Health Organisation (WHO) wants to decide when such a crisis is deemed to have occurred and what measures, such as the lockdown of countries, are required.

The current proposal could give the head of the WHO – a former minister in the Ethiopian dictatorship – the power to decide. The targets devised by the UN and the World Economic Forum can be achieved through various threats designed to induce mass psychosis. Carbon-based global warming was an early example. And much of this is done with the aim of forcing global decision-making in general and creating a world state.

 

Dan Ahlmark

 


 

Sources and References:

(1) Medium – What is Mass Formation?

(2) The Epoch Times – Mass Formation and the Danger of Technocracy

Danes largely unaware of US role in Wuhan research: Voxmeter poll

Disinformation in the media

  • The previously controversial and heavily censored Wuhan lab leak theory has gained more attention in the media and among the public.
  • It has long been concluded that the US government has funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan on genetically engineered coronaviruses with "enhanced pandemic potential".
  • Yet, according to a Voxmeter poll conducted in Denmark, few are still aware of the U.S. involvement in the now infamous lab.
  • Most Danes, however, think that the Danish press should write about the US involvement in the Wuhan lab.
Published 23 August 2023
– By Editorial Staff

Since 2014, the US has co-funded coronavirus trials at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. However, only 15 percent of the Danish population is aware of the US involvement, according to a survey by Voxmeter research.

Since 2014, the US Department of Health and Human Services (NIH) has been funding coronavirus trials in Wuhan through Peter Daszak, CEO of the NGO EcoHealth Alliance. This type of gain-of-function research on SARS viruses (coronavirus family) was banned under the Obama administration from 2014 to December 2017, but the trials and funding continue to this day.

The goal of the research is to study the properties of the virus to better understand how such viruses can cause pandemics. One of the many NIH-funded research projects at the now infamous Wuhan lab involved the creation of a new, artificial coronavirus that did not exist in nature and could easily infect humans. This also resulted in a new genetically engineered virus with “enhanced pandemic potential”, meaning it could have a greater impact on the population than naturally occurring viruses.

A visualization of the SARS-CoV-2 virion.

It is not yet known whether this particular experiment, which was last funded in 2019 and was scheduled to run until 2024, directly led to the outbreak of covid-19.

Many interested, few aware

The issue has received little coverage in the Danish press. According to a survey conducted by Voxmeter Research, only 15 percent of respondents were aware of the US involvement in the laboratory.

At the same time, the same survey shows that the Danish population is generally interested in the Wuhan lab. As many as 77 percent believe that the Danish press should write about the US involvement in the Wuhan lab.

As many as 67 percent of respondents have heard that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Energy have made statements that it’s “likely” that the SARS-CoV-2 virus escaped from the lab.

About the survey

The survey was conducted as a telephone-based survey using Voxmeter's CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview) system among randomly selected respondents. Data is collected according to nationally representative quotas by gender, age group and region. The data collection was conducted between April 17th and April 23rd and data was collected from 1,000 representative respondents.

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