---
title: "Yle on the left, social media on the right | Jarkko Tontti, Heikki Pursiainen | Negotiator 376"
titleOriginal: "YLE vasemmalla Some oikealla | Jarkko Tontti Heikki Pursiainen | Neuvottelija 376"
episodeNumber: "376"
guest: "Jarkko Tontti, Heikki Pursiainen"
datePublished: 2026-03-16
duration: "01:02:12"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["free_speech_society","finnish_economy_policy"]
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 guests are active participants in the debate they are analysing, and the count of Yle's columnists presented in the episode is the guest's own informal work rather than published research; the long-form write-up in the Neuvottelija AI editions states both."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/757-yle-vasemmalla-some-oikealla-jarkko-tontti-heikki-pursiainen"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep376-yle-vasemmalla-some-oikealla-tontti-pursiainen/
---
# Yle on the left, social media on the right | Jarkko Tontti, Heikki Pursiainen | Negotiator 376

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=EXIobHotg7I&t=0s) The versifying doctors: Jarkko Tontti and Heikki Pursiainen
- [01:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=74s) Pursiainen's analysis of Yle's external columnists
- [02:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=135s) Results: the left over-represented in Yle's economic journalism
- [03:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=180s) Tontti compares the finding to the emperor's new clothes
- [04:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=251s) Limits and caveats in interpreting the count
- [05:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=317s) Universities as a recruiting source, and political skew
- [06:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=379s) Pursiainen's background at Libera, and dress codes
- [06:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=406s) The nature of dividends, and the recurring misunderstanding in the media
- [08:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=509s) Why dividends are paid, explained from economics
- [09:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=580s) The competence of Finnish economic media under criticism
- [11:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=688s) Nils Ittonen at Sanoma's helm and the 14.5-point syndicated loan
- [13:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=791s) The long march through the institutions and the left-leaning university
- [14:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=867s) The friendly interview as a news format
- [15:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=942s) What Yle's task in opinion journalism should be
- [17:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1044s) Pursiainen on Yle commenting on Trump's tariffs
- [18:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1125s) Taxpayers fund a skewed media apparatus
- [19:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1163s) AI as a tool for analysing political skew
- [21:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1317s) Assessing Sitra's report on a right-wing skew in social media
- [23:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1402s) Methodological weaknesses in the Sitra study
- [25:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1510s) Romania's election and Russian information warfare conflated
- [26:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1587s) Double standards in criticising algorithms and journalists
- [29:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1747s) German and Swedish research on journalists' party preferences
- [30:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1814s) Can a party preference tell you anything about a journalist's quality
- [32:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=1946s) Yle's special position as a state-funded dominant actor
- [33:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=2034s) Comparing Finland's media landscape with other countries
- [35:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=2143s) Finland has no non-left national medium
- [36:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=2218s) The barber analogy for Yle competing with private media
- [40:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=2423s) Yle's 570 million euros and 2,500 employees
- [41:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=2473s) Technological change and the competitiveness of a small studio
- [43:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=2613s) Public-good theory and the case for Yle's existence
- [47:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=2842s) Maslow's hierarchy and the tasks of the state
- [48:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=2910s) NPR and PBS in the United States as a comparison
- [50:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=3025s) Linear television disappearing with a generation
- [52:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=3156s) How public support for journalism is best organised
- [54:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=3285s) Legacy media leaving facts unreported
- [56:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=3403s) LinkedIn as a new agora for open debate
- [59:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=3559s) Democracy strengthened when everyone has a voice
- [1:01:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I&t=3688s) Inner Circle: the Libera years

## Summary

A media analysis episode with two mirrored halves. Heikki Pursiainen presents his informal count of the political distribution of Yle's external columnists, and Jarkko Tontti places the finding in a wider frame; then the same scrutiny is turned on Sitra's report claiming a right-wing skew in social media, including a methodological critique of it. The connecting question is gatekeeping power — what difference it makes whether the choice is made by an editor or by an algorithm. The closing section covers Yle's 570 million euro budget and public-good theory.

## Two halves that test each other

The structure is what makes this episode usable. The first half presents a count of Yle's
external columnists by political leaning; the second turns the same methodological
scrutiny on Sitra's report claiming a right-wing skew in social media. Because the guests
concede the limits of their own count, the critique of Sitra's method is held to the same
standard rather than applied only to the other side.

## The question underneath

Neither half settles which way Finnish media leans. What both halves are really about is
gatekeeping: whether it matters that the choice is made by an editor who can be named or
by an algorithm that cannot, and what each is accountable to.

## Scale and justification

The closing section moves from bias to size — Yle's 570 million euro budget and roughly
2,500 employees — and to public-good theory, which is the strongest argument available
for public broadcasting and does not by itself settle the question of scale.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [YLE vasemmalla Some oikealla | Jarkko Tontti Heikki Pursiainen | Neuvottelija 376](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXIobHotg7I).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/757-yle-vasemmalla-some-oikealla-jarkko-tontti-heikki-pursiainen).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep376-yle-vasemmalla-some-oikealla-tontti-pursiainen/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/yhteiskunta/ep376-yle-vasemmalla-some-oikealla-tontti-pursiainen/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Yle on the left, social media on the right | Jarkko Tontti, Heikki Pursiainen | Negotiator 376, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep376-yle-vasemmalla-some-oikealla-tontti-pursiainen/, 2026-03-16. For quotes include episode 376 and timestamp.