---
title: "The Wiseguys Club and the media rage | Ivan Puopolo | Negotiator 204"
titleOriginal: "Viisasteluklubi ja mediaraivo | Ivan Puopolo | Neuvottelija 204"
episodeNumber: "204"
guest: "Ivan Puopolo"
datePublished: 2023-07-27
duration: "18:58"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["free_speech_society"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one; their spacing is irregular and matches the recording. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. Both participants are parties to the media controversy the episode is about rather than observers of it, and the journalists and publications criticised are not represented; the long-form write-up in the Neuvottelija AI editions states that."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/308-viisasteluklubi-ja-mediaraivo-ivan-puopolo-neuvottelija-204"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep204-viisasteluklubi-ja-mediaraivo-ivan-puopolo/
---
# The Wiseguys Club and the media rage | Ivan Puopolo | Negotiator 204

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=0s) Ivan Puopolo, and the birth of the Weekly Wiseguys club
- [01:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=61s) A counterweight to the sanitised tone of traditional media
- [01:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=96s) Does the concept work under a right-wing government
- [02:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=173s) Finland has no real economic right
- [03:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=213s) Helsingin Sanomat's four-field model goes wrong
- [03:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=221s) The opposite of liberal is authoritarian, not conservative
- [05:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=302s) Subjective experience against objective reality
- [06:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=381s) Identity politics reduces the individual to their attributes
- [07:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=437s) A case of alleged targeting
- [07:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=474s) The media's fear of many voices
- [08:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=513s) A columnist's power against an MP's power
- [09:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=546s) Keeping the private role and the professional role apart
- [09:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=599s) The Nazi-background claim was brazen
- [10:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=657s) Attempts at cancellation and the employer's position
- [11:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=715s) Kevin Spacey, Johnny Depp and the cost of a media mill
- [12:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=775s) How the editor-in-chief should have acted
- [13:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=794s) The media sets itself up as mentor to MPs
- [14:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=876s) The video column as a genre, where exaggeration is allowed
- [15:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=930s) The journalists' guidelines, and the weight of Helsingin Sanomat
- [15:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=953s) Media literacy and old forum posts
- [16:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=988s) Context is remembered only when it suits
- [16:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=1004s) Little House on the Prairie loses its award
- [17:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=1050s) Blumenbach and racial classification
- [18:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=1081s) Helsingin Sanomat's reluctant pieces about men
- [18:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI&t=1133s) Inner Circle: a surprise subject

## Summary

Ivan Puopolo joins Sami Miettinen in the middle of the press storm that followed the new right-wing government taking office. This is the Weekly Wiseguys club's own backstory: why the programme started, whether its format survives now that its guests sit in government, and what separates a video column from news journalism. The weightiest section asks whether a columnist may be criticised by name, and where the line runs between a private role and a professional one. Both participants are parties to the dispute they are describing.

## The genre argument

Most of the dispute turns on which genre is being judged. A video column is allowed
exaggeration in a way a news report is not, and the episode's clearest contribution is
insisting on that distinction before arguing about any particular case.

## The question worth separating

Whether a columnist may be criticised by name is a different question from whether a
given criticism was fair, and the two are constantly merged in the coverage. The episode
separates them — while being, itself, one side of the argument.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Viisasteluklubi ja mediaraivo | Ivan Puopolo | Neuvottelija 204](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywbk7aN1dPI).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/308-viisasteluklubi-ja-mediaraivo-ivan-puopolo-neuvottelija-204).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep204-viisasteluklubi-ja-mediaraivo-ivan-puopolo/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/yhteiskunta/ep204-viisasteluklubi-ja-mediaraivo-ivan-puopolo/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — The Wiseguys Club and the media rage | Ivan Puopolo | Negotiator 204, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep204-viisasteluklubi-ja-mediaraivo-ivan-puopolo/, 2023-07-27. For quotes include episode 204 and timestamp.