What if no op-eds or letters to the editor were refused?
February 21, 2016
This Wednesday Schibsted-owned Aftenposten published all op-eds and letters to the editor that had been submitted within a 27 hour interval, both in print and online. The newspaper explains the stunt here. (in Norwegian).
I found the experiment refreshing and would love to see it repeated.
Even though it took me until this weekend to find time to sift through the six op-eds and 78 letters to the editor, and I didn't read every single one of them, I read more, and from more varied perspectives than in a long time. Although Aftenposten has been critizised, to some extent rightly, for giving the stunt the tagline "What Norwegians really think", which the stunt really can't be said to fully represent, I still think it served to broaden the debate, or public discourse if you like, in a healthy way.
A fair share of the news and opinion I read I get via blogs and social media, and the sources are so diverse it feels unfair to call this a filter bubble, but in some respects it probably is (due to factors such as common interests, similar educational background etc). Another reason why Aftenposten's stunt was so refreshing...