Per Wahlöö is one of Swedens most internationally renowned authors with the crime novels about Martin Beck as the crown jewel. His career as a journalist is not that famous. The cardinal question in this paper therefore is whether the social criticism that made his authorship so famous emanates from the journalism he produced before or simultaniously with his work as a novelist. To do so I have used a text analytical method on all of Per Wahlöös journalistic writings between the years 1947 and 1965. The sources have consisted of both daily newspapers, most notably Kvällsposten, and weekly magazines like Veckorevyn and Folket i Bild. This investigation have resulted in that I found an ideological turn in Per Wahlöös journalism; from being obvious conservative within the daily press to a more socialistic orientation in the weekly magazine press where his social criticism was leavened by a more personal concern.