No other organization or association in Sweden would get away with the kind of irresponsible financial dealings and practices as employed by the Stockholm Pride association! And the question is why? Different media (latest on the TV4 news, but also in SVD, here and here, GP, DN here Aftonbladet here and Dagen) have addressed the unexplainable loss of 2,4 million kronor from last year’s festival.

No real inquiry has been done according to Jon Voss, chief for the publishing house QX who has followed Pride since it’s beginning and who is critical to how things have been dealt with. “How could money like that just disappear?” It is a great mystery!

Normally the press loves mysteries and they love to bring people and organizations on their knees to the confession booth where they can confess their sins and mistakes. Not so with Pride! Strangely enough our united press shows much tolerance and unbelievably much grace in this situation. In other cases (do I have to name them: Stadsmissionen, the Red Cross, Ersta hospital) employers or members of boards were publically “crucified” and exposed, in this case we find an almost unnatural quiet and slumbering attitude from the press and we can’t just blame the “summer drought of the news desk”. Here is front page news and the amazing thing is that the different reporters only report the information given by the responsible persons within Pride without asking the nasty questions which in other cases are bombarded at people and organizations!

Again the question is WHY?

Call me dumb, ignorant or right out stupid, but I have the sense that the reason why Pride gets away without much negative publicity is the fact that it is Pride. Pride is endorsed, supported, empowered and sponsored by a broad spectrum of different organizations and companies. It is sponsored and supported by many different entities from national politicians and political organizations to Stockholm city (450.000 kronor), from SL to Heineken, Scandic, Swedbank, Statoil and dozens of smaller and larger companies. They all give their “token of support” while covering a couple of million kroner for this year’s event.

So why is no one putting the breaks on and asking the nasty questions? Because it is politically not correct to do so! Let’s not forget that many of the Pride-lobbying people are active members of our media circus! They are the ones who determine what is written and how stuff is written; they are the ones who angle the cameras and the questions asked. They are the ones who decide whether news is news and on what page it should be published (or hidden)!

I might not be in the main stream of media production but I am not ignorant! It doesn’t take a prophet to see what is happening here… My only question is “When will a real researching journalist dare to touch this hot potato?

This is the Way I see it!

John