Response to Thomas Seltzer
I refer to your opinion piece, published on 5 November 2026 in Document, entitled ‘Misleading portrayal of food and petrol prices in the US’.
You replied to the email I had sent to you and to Nettavisens journalist Thomas Paust regarding my comment ‘Thomas Seltzer cherry-picking in California’.
In the email, I had questions about your claims regarding US food and fuel prices. I wrote that, in my view, these give readers a highly distorted picture of the actual price levels in the US.
These were my questions for you and Paust:
Seltzer describes how expensive it was to buy food during his visit to California. In my article, I compare, amongst other things, the price of strawberries with prices here in Florida, where we can buy strawberries for around $3 a pound – roughly a third of the price he paid in California.
Why did you not inform readers that California is the most expensive state in the country when it comes to food? The high cost of living and energy prices in California are also closely linked to the state’s political and regulatory policies under Gavin Newsom and the Democrats. Why has this context been omitted?
The same applies to petrol prices. California has the highest petrol prices in the country, but the article gives readers the impression that prices of around $6 per gallon are representative of the US.
Here in Melbourne, Florida, petrol currently costs around $3.80 per gallon. In North Carolina, prices are as low as $3.35.
Why did you not make it clear that Seltzer is describing prices in one of the US’s most expensive states, and not a price level representative of the rest of the country?
My questions are at the very heart of the whole matter. I reacted to the skewed portrayal of a country with 50 states, where prices vary from high to low.
Prompted by criticism of Trump
In your interview with Nettavisen, you cited strawberries at nine dollars and petrol at six dollars per gallon as examples of Americans’ economic situation. I believe it is legitimate to challenge this portrayal.
The US consists of 50 states with significant differences in prices, taxes, wages, housing costs and political frameworks. California is, in several respects, among the more expensive states. I am fully aware that Hawaii and Alaska are more expensive. It was not a deliberate tactic to omit them, as you assume. They are outliers, and this was made clear in my text and graph.
In your reply to me, which was published on Document, you cite a number of opinion polls regarding public dissatisfaction and support for Trump. You write: ‘You call yourself a media critic, but you haven’t checked the most basic facts.’ You then list what you consider to be my errors.
You have failed to grasp the point of my article, which was solely that your presentation of the prices was skewed.
I do, however, have a few comments on some of your accusations.
You write:
But perhaps it wasn’t the petrol and strawberry prices you were actually reacting to in Nettavisens interview with me. I reckon you were most provoked by the fact that I, backed by solid facts, pointed out that Trump and his cronies are historically unpopular. If that’s the case, I can live with it. Remember: facts don’t care about your feelings.
This is a rather condescending and baseless portrayal of both my motives and my reaction. You are not content merely to disagree with my criticism, but attribute to me feelings and motives about which you have no basis for comment.
That is an assumption which is completely wrong. I have nothing against well-founded criticism of Trump or the Republicans. I can live with that. What I do take issue with, however, is the extreme one-sidedness of the media’s coverage of American politics and society. That is what I am criticising. It is creating division in Norway and a sharp rise in anti-American sentiment.
Let them eat cake
You write:
You live in the US and call yourself a US correspondent. Nevertheless, after a brief visit to California, I must tell you what Americans themselves are saying loud and clear: life has become too expensive. It is not I who have lost touch with everyday American life.
That a US correspondent dismisses this by saying that the restaurants are full where she lives, we must put down to Marie Antoinette: Let them eat cake. Incidentally, it would have been amusing to see *Document*’s reaction if an NRK correspondent had written something similar.
If someone at NRK had written this, I would have supported them, because it reflects the reality I myself see when my family and I are out and about amongst people every single day. I see busy shops and restaurants, and happy people in the parks and on the beaches. This is what I observe in my everyday life.
You portray the US as if the country were in the midst of a new ‘Great Depression’. That is a massive generalisation, and it is the impression readers are left with. Just as in Norway, where prices are sky-high, you still see people out and about spending money. That was precisely my point: it’s not all doom and gloom.
My own family has also been in a situation where we’ve lived from hand to mouth through several presidential terms. Nor are we wealthy people who live sheltered from other people’s financial problems or fail to see that others are struggling.
I do not lack empathy for those who are struggling. I talk to and give food and clothes to homeless people in the park, something I’ve been doing for years, regardless of who’s been president.
Do you do that, Thomas?
I’m no Marie Antoinette, but if you wish to portray me that way, I can live with it. Perhaps it’s better, after all, than ‘retarded lying Lizzy’, as you called me when you threatened to take legal action against me in Florida.
Serious allegations about me as an immigrant
You write:
You have previously written that I ‘hate America’, based on my criticism of Trump. So you believe that criticising a president is treason. In the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, 64 per cent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance – nearly two in three. Do they hate the US too?
The reality is that you have chosen to settle in a country where a clear majority of the population have had enough of the most corrupt, incompetent and oligarch-friendly president and vice-president in American history.
Furthermore, you write:
A word of advice, Tove Elisabeth: as an immigrant, you should start respecting the citizens of the country that has been so generous as to let you live there, and integrate yourself in accordance with their values.
The expression ‘hates America’ was intended as a metaphor, not as a literal accusation. It was a way of highlighting your and NRK’s one-sided portrayal of the US, in this case the Florida episode, which was actually not about Trump. That you now believe I am calling you a traitor is an interpretation you yourself have chosen to read into my words.
You yourself do not hold back on the rhetoric when referring to people and political parties with whom you disagree. The word ‘hatred’ is almost a mild term compared to the labels and expressions you yourself have used – and which the media are only too happy to repeat – given that you have an open microphone across all media outlets in Norway.
At the same time, you threaten to sue me when I criticise your coverage and that of NRK. It is difficult to see this as anything other than an attempt to intimidate me into stopping my criticism.
And no, I do not hate America. This is the second time you have lectured me on how I should behave as an immigrant, whilst implying that I do not respect the country I live in. The first time was when you threatened to sue me here in Florida. That’s rather peculiar coming from an NRK employee. Do you do this to others who criticise you as well?
I’ve lived here since Ronald Reagan was president and am among those who love this country above all else. I have always asked what I can do for the country, not what the country can do for me. I’m constantly told by Americans that they appreciate how much I love America. Americans in my family, amongst my friends and people I meet, know that I respect their country, their culture and the people who live here. This is something that has been important to me throughout all the years I have lived here.
Never in my long life in the USA has anyone spoken to me as disparagingly as you have. That is quite remarkable, especially coming from a Norwegian-American.
Threat to refer the matter to the PFU
You conclude your post by threatening to refer the matter to the PFU if Document does not correct what you believe to be my misinformation. You are, of course, free to do so. I have no objection to the matter being considered by the PFU.
Since you are so keen on incorrect information being corrected, perhaps you could also correct your own account in Nettavisen? There, you predicted that the Republicans ‘will not accept defeat under any circumstances’, and claimed that Trump would abuse the federal apparatus to attempt to confiscate votes in several states and constituencies. You also warned of a great deal of ‘lawfare’.
And whilst we’re on the subject of misinformation: Marie Antoinette never said ‘let them eat cake’. It is a historical myth that was later attributed to her. The phrase appears in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s *Confessions*, written whilst Marie Antoinette was still a child in Austria.
The historian and Marie Antoinette biographer Lady Antonia Fraser believes that the statement was hardly consistent with the Queen’s character. She was intelligent, donated substantial sums to charitable causes and showed concern for France’s poor, despite her own lavish lifestyle.
I will not be silenced
In a follow-up email, you write:
PS: If you do not do so, I will bring this to the attention of your readers, or possibly post my reply as a comment beneath the article.
And furthermore:
Neither I nor the public have any interest whatsoever in any further private correspondence with you.
It is not up to you to decide what is in the public interest. That is for the public to decide for themselves. Given that you have previously threatened legal action and are now warning that you will go to the readers if you do not get your way, it is difficult to see this as anything other than an attempt to put pressure on me and silence me.
It will not succeed. I will not be intimidated or silenced. I will continue to criticise you, other media outlets and US experts whenever I believe there are grounds for doing so.
Yours, Tove Elisabeth Rooney
American and Norwegian patriot
