They should be platforms of journalism. There are plenty of other venues available for "important people" to share their views. A news outlet lending credibility by uncritically publishing an opinion is not journalism.
A news outlets lends credibility by publishing an op-ed as much as Samsung lends credibility to what you're saying when you're on the phone with somebody. Newspapers have always been and should be part of the public sphere. Their mission should be to investigate, interview, report, publish, and let the reader form her own opinion. Not to shove their own opinions down the reader's throat. A serious newspaper will interview both sides of any conflict, and print their viewpoints uncensored.
Do you want to read the an op-ed written by Putin or Biden in the New York Times or do you want them to write "That horrible man doesn't have opinions that align with ours, so we won't print him so that our readers are protected from him"?
You contradict yourself by saying both the platform should publish important people and that the platform is not lending credibility. Which is it?
Then you created a strawman argument to knock down. If they do anything, I'd actually like them to research the statements made and publish the facts instead of publishing the statements directly under their headline. They don't need to put their heads in the sand.
Maybe spending less time reading biased op-eds would help you develop better skills in this area.
Your insult is the kind of low quality insult that gets published sometimes in smaller local newspapers. It doesn't add anything but at least helps in filling up the pages – or the DOM in our case.
> If they do anything, I'd actually like them to research the statements made and publish the facts instead of publishing the statements directly under their headline.
That's exactly what they almost always do, if such statements are made. But usually there will be an opponent refuting the claims in his own op-ed in tomorrow's newspaper.
>You contradict yourself by saying both the platform should publish important people and that the platform is not lending credibility. Which is it?
Where is the contradiction? If you understand that opinion is different from reporting, then there is no credibility lending or borrowing. Likewise a newspaper doesn't endorse eating at Subway just because they print one of their ads.
