If you don’t think opinion pages are used to air papers’ positions on things then you really need to open your eyes. https://twitter.com/fergushunter/status/1343121277922410496

The plethora of climate-change denying crud, pro-libertarian chud that frequently makes the opinion pages of The Oz for eg would not make it past (mostly) any other decent opinion editor.

when you hire someone to be a regular columnist that let’s your readers know you believe their views are worthy of debate.

And that is the point -
It’s not just about agreement of views but that their views are worthy. When it comes to climate-change denial that says a lot

The days of the “oh we’ve got them to spark debate” are long gone in an era where such methods are used to gain legitimacy

Tbh it has *always* been thus. In the past it was called “gatekeeping”. And it had pluses and minuses - good for keeping out nazis and anti-science nutters; bad for keeping out minority views about discrimination etc

Opinion pages have always reflected upon a media org and editors have (until now it seems) realised this.

And in an era of social media and sharing it reflects now more than ever.