The Jeremiad Over Journalism

important areas on Greenland to NATO supervision. 113 In the context of the present study,
however, Villaume‘s greatest contribution is his trailblazing status in terms of using primary
sources from the United States to support claims of the Americans‘ conscious influence on Danish
journalism. While Villaume does not explicitly use the concept of ―Americanization,‖ in his
doctoral thesis, he does nevertheless convincingly detail the conscious efforts from the United
States‘ Department of State when it comes to influencing Danish public opinion.
Despite receiving criticism for not emphasizing the cultural aspect of the Cold War enough,
Villaume in a subsequent response argued that ―the cultural-ideological aspects of the NATO-
partnership and the Americanization of the media are in fact the subject of independent analysis in
the book.‖ Additionally, ―it is here documented for the first time [my emphasis] that the Danish
press and the state broadcasting system was infiltrated with more or less systematic ‗grey
propaganda‘ of American origin.‖ 114
Due to Villaume‘s research it is clear that the United States Information Agency primarily worked
very hard to create a favorable view of the United States by establishing relations with ‖influential
Danish opinion leaders, especially people within the foreign- and defense ministry, the Danish
Atlantic Treaty Association along with pro-NATO editors, journalists, radio program officers and
lecturers.‖ 115
―The United States‘ intelligence service CIA, which from 1950 increasingly was integrated in
American policy-making, to a great extent recruited American and European journalists as spies and
propagandists,‖ furthermore ―economically and politically CIA infiltrated a number of American
and European newspapers and news media, among these the larger news bureaus, i.e. Reuters.‖ 116
The New York Times, for example, ran an article-series in 1977 where it was argued that the Danish
news agency Ritzaus Bureau ―reportedly,‖ was infiltrated, 117 and in 1988, The Danish Union of
Journalist‘s also took up the subject in their professional periodical Journalisten. 118 Yet, apart from
113
Villaume, Allieret Med Forbehold: Danmark, Nato Og Den Kolde Krig [Allied with Reservations: Denmark, Nato
and The Cold War]. Page 17 as well as 121-122 and 156.
114
———, "Replik - Om Tankefængsler, Sikkerhedsdilemmaer Og Interessefællesskaber [Response: On Imprisoned
Ideas, Security Dilemmas and Community of Interests]." Page 463.
115
———, Allieret Med Forbehold: Danmark, Nato Og Den Kolde Krig [Allied with Reservations: Denmark, Nato and
The Cold War]. Page 793.
116
Ibid. Page 769.
117
Ibid. Page 792.
118
Frede Jakobsen, "Online Til Fem Danske Redaktioner [Online to Five Danish Newsdesks]," Journalisten, April 20,
1988. Page 1.
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