I subscribe to a Swedish daily, Sydsvenskan, which I regard as right-wing. For example, while the Swedish population was strongly against the war on Iraq, Sydsvenskan insisted that Saddam was indeed an immediate threat to the whole world because of his weapons of mass destruction. Also, Sydsvenskan argued that a war against Iraq had a very good chance of bringing peace, stability and democracy to the Middle East.
I also subscribe to the internet edition of the New York Times, and I check out its headlines and read some of its articles every day.
I often check out the internet edition of USA Today.
I regularly check out the internet editions of Time and Newsweek.
I sometimes check out the internet edition of The Guardian, to see what is going on in Great Britain.
I usually watch the six o'clock news on Swedish public service TV, channel 2. I sometimes watch the 6.30 news on Danish public service TV, channel 1. I should point out that politics and public opinion in Denmark is generally more right-wing in Denmark than it is in Sweden. Denmark was for a long time one of the United States' most loyal allies in Iraq. Denmark is also one of the most, if I may use that word, Islamophobic countries in Europe. I was not surprised when the Danish daily, Jyllandsposten, published a number of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed which provoked riots in several Muslim countries some years ago. Recently a plot against one of the Danish cartoonists by Muslim extremists was uncovered in Denmark, and in a show of sympathy, almost all Danish dailies published the cartoons all over again. Predictably, the Muslim protests against Denmark returned. A few days ago, Osama bin Laden himself threatened all of the European Union because of Denmark and because of the Pope.
Osama bin Laden threatens EU over Danish cartoons When I commute, there are often Danish dailies left on on the train, and I often leaf through them.
The school where I work subscibes to Sweden's two most prestigious dailies, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, and I leaf through them almost every day. Both these publications are right-wing.
I also listen to two top-quality weekly radio programs on Swedish public radio, Konflikt (Conflict) and Godmorgon, världen! (Good morning, world.) Konflikt is a program that makes in-depth interviews with people of different political beliefs. Yesterday, for example, the program concentrated on describing political opinion in Israel. Various Israelis in Israel with various political agendas were interviewed, and two Swedish Jews commented on what was said. Godmorgon världen is a program that comments on news from different parts of the world every week.
I no longer read Reader's Digest, but I grew up reading that publication. It had an enormous influence on my early political beliefs. Reader's Digest in the sixties was full of articles about the horrors committed by Communists. I read some of them, and they were totally scary. There were also not so few articles with headlines such as "Why We Are in Vietnam". I never read them, because them seemed boring and preachy to me. This resulted in the fact that I managed to stay totally ignorant of the Vietnam War throughout the 1960s! I'm not kidding you. But I remember a story that I once read in Reader's Digest about a man who was for some reason far, far away from home. He and a number of other men were walking across a muddy field, and I sure wondered what on earth they were doing there. Then suddenly there was an explosion, and the guy who was telling the story fainted. He woke up in a hospital and was told that he had lost his left foot. He was sent home, was fitted with a prosthetic device, learnt to walk again, got a good job, got married and had children. The story ended by the narrator telling us, "God Bless America!". I can't tell you how confused I was!
Ann