Christian Christensen
Christian Christensen, American in Sweden, is Professor of Journalism at Stockholm University. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrChristensen
Articles by this author
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Views Friday, January 31, 2020 Brexit’s Backward Legacy: The Past Swallowing The Future By this time tomorrow, the UK will be out of the European Union. To those who say the UK is better out than in, I beg to differ. In 1979, I moved to England. This was the year Margaret Thatcher was elected, and just seven years after Conservative Prime Minister Ted Heath – an advocate for EC... Read more |
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Views Sunday, September 22, 2019 The US Just Killed 30 Innocent People in Afghanistan. Let's Pretend It Was London. A US official in the UK has indicated that he is “working with local authorities” and “examining the intelligence” that led to a drone strike late last week that took the lives of 30 customers at a restaurant in central London. It appears that the intended target of the strike was a gathering of IS... Read more |
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Views Monday, June 24, 2019 How Immigration Changed A Small-Town Sweden That Never Existed How far can you stretch nostalgia before warm, harmless exaggeration transforms into weaponized dishonesty? This question is at the heart of a great deal of discussion on immigration in Europe, where the presence of new residents is often pitched by those opposed to immigration as ultimately... Read more |
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Views Friday, June 14, 2019 "Not Founded On Anything": The Epitaph for the Sarah Huckabee Sanders Era At Politico's " Women Rule " event in late 2018, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who President Trump announced Thursday would soon be leaving her position as White House press secretary, said that she hoped her legacy would be as a person who was, "transparent and honest throughout that process" and did "... Read more |
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Views Saturday, June 01, 2019 Dear John Cleese: Why Was My White, Nordic Immigrant Family Never Accused of Making England Less English? In 1979, my family moved from the United States to England. The four of us were born in four different countries, and held three different nationalities: US, Danish, Swedish. I lived in England for close to 15 years, and my parents stayed on until their deaths, with my mother living there for what... Read more |
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Views Friday, May 24, 2019 Assange, Espionage, and the Cult of Personality The announcement that Julian Assange is being charged by the United States government with violating the Espionage Act should come as no surprise to anyone who has paid attention to WikiLeaks over the past decade. As far back as 2010, the Chair of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee wrote an... Read more |
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Views Monday, May 20, 2019 From Greta Thunberg to Parkland: Young Activists and the Right-Wing Smear Industry I recently hit the age of 50, but let me tell you one thing I don’t think as I enter the second half-century of my life: that younger citizens around me are lazy, apathetic, entitled snowflakes, ensconced in cocoons of political correctness. Younger citizens—and, yes, they are citizens even though... Read more |
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Views Friday, May 03, 2019 On World Press Freedom Day, 10 Reasons Why Press Freedom Matters Today is World Freedom Press Day and it's as good a day as any to be very clear about why this issue remains crucial. Here are ten key reasons: 1. Questioning Power: A truly free and independent press is a fundamental tool for holding those in and with power — be it political, economic or social — ... Read more |
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Views Friday, March 15, 2019 Christchurch: When Simply Being a Muslim Is Your Biggest Crime The Christchurch terrorists, who earlier today took the lives of nearly 50 people at two mosques, were clearly consumed by both racism and hatred of Muslims. One posted a lengthy “manifesto” on white nationalism before he committed the crime. They spent significant time online, and were perhaps “... Read more |
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Views Friday, February 22, 2019 From Karl Lagerfeld to George H. W. Bush: When Is It "Too Soon" to Criticize the Dead? The passing of legendary fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has once again raised the question: “When is it too soon to publicly discuss the less-than-positive legacy of a dead person?” To me, the answer depends on a single factor: How much power the person wielded in life. The more powerful the... Read more |