Panic-legislation - fault of the media?
Politicians are in my oppinion far too influenced by the media. No matter how small the problem, politicians are quick to respond if the media raises a concern. This means that all political agendas at most ride shotgun to the media’s agendas. The politicians are far too concerned with how they appear - instead of actually saying what they mean.
The biggest problem in this respect is when politicians land in a media landmine - a typical example was the creditcard discussion that happened to hit the fan around the last election. A scandal was unfolding with a new type of security in the national creditcard (Dankort) - for the first time since it was launched, bank customers were now forced to pay for each transaction. Many were mad - there was talk about a boycott and everyone was trying to avoid the proverbial monkey attaching itself to their back. Then the Financial Minister-to-be was asked what he intended to do about this scandal if he was elected. Unfortunately for him, the Prime Minister-to-be was quick to say that customers would never have to pay for the transactions. Of course the Financial minister could do nothing but agree… Instead of trying to justify the reasons for the transaction fee - he just folded and said that he would arrange for things to happen.
Another of my pet-peeves is the ‘Guilty untill proven innocent’-argument that surrounds the debate about terror and pedophilia. Due to pressure from the media, politicians have produced a number of bills that reduce or eliminate the basic civil-rights of people that have been accused of one of these two. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think pedophilia and terror is wrong and should be punished if proven. But to punish people on suspicion is against my beliefs.
If a teacher is accused of pedophiliac activities - his career is over no matter the outcome of a trial or if there ever is one. His face will adorn the newspapers’ front page everytime he moves to a new place and concerned parents will organize demonstrations, put protests on the school boards and so on. It’s no wonder that the percentage of male kindergarden employees has never been as low as it is now. I have seen no conclusive proof that the problem of child-abuse has been on the rise in schools. Still, the punishments have increased ten-fold within the last decade.
There has been suggestions about legislation that limit basic civil-rights for accused terror-suspects - freezing of their assets and so on. And the list just goes on and on. Billions and billions of kroner are used on making legislation, task-forces and inquiries.
And all this despite problems that far over-shadow these. The world’s oil-ressources will be used before the year 2015 - pollution is at an all-time high - people in Africa are still starving and being oppressed just to name a few. But since the media controls the politic agenda, these issues will never really be touched, since they no longer sell newspapers.