The front page of Dagens Nyheter: the choice that effects the world.
The road to the White House.
The president must demonstrate an interest in sports!
When I was back in the US for a month this summer, the election commercials drove me crazy. They were relentless and mean-spirited and I was happy to get back to Europe to escape them. It’s been a welcome relief to be able to limit the election coverage I see to either CNN, BBC or online newspapers.
But I was fascinated to discover the coverage that Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter gave to the election yesterday. A large part of the Sunday issue was devoted to the race and it was analyzed from all sorts of angles. The front page headline was Valet som påverkar världen Barack Obama eller Mitt Romney? or “the choice that effects the world: Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?” It was an amazingly thorough look at the election, from the practical road to the White House (vägen till vita huset) article which went step by step through the process of electing the president from the primaries to the electoral college.
There were in-depth analyses on the strong and weak points of each candidate. And there was a series of articles featuring American families and what they cared about in terms of electing a president. On a lighter note, there was an article about what actors and musicians supported Barack or Mitt, including 10 famous democrats and 10 famous republicans. Then there was a look at the favorite sports of each candidate as well as past presidents, all in an article called “the president must show an interest in sports.” There was even a “what you can do when you travel to Washington DC” article.
The issue was super interesting to read as an American living in Sweden. And I couldn’t help but wonder: is there any election in the world that a US newspaper would devote so much coverage to? I’m pretty certain that I never read about Swedish elections in The Cincinnati Enquirer, for instance.
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