Three editors at Morgenbladet are resigning from the Norwegian Editors’ Association (Norsk Redaktørforening) in protest at the fact that Document’s editor has not been expelled. It is a purely demonstrative act, given that expulsion must follow a carefully agreed procedure: A warning must be issued, and the person concerned must be given an opportunity to defend himself.
That process has not been initiated. It is possible that the three editors want to force the matter to be ‘resolved’, as VG’s Gard Steiro puts it. They are probably hoping that others will follow suit?
VG’s Anders Giæver was under the mistaken impression that Document had received a warning from the board in 2021, but had to admit on air that this was incorrect. Document’s editor received criticism for his description of 6 January, but not a reprimand.
It is society editor Bjarne Riiser Gundersen, ideas and debate editor Ingeborg Misje Bergem and culture editor Bernhard Ellefsen who have written the letter to the Editors’ Association.
It can be read in full here.
The word that recurs throughout the letter, as in other articles about Document’s editor, is ‘conspiracy theories’. It is a word that has become devalued through overuse and which, on the contrary, evokes negative associations for many people. They remember the pandemic, when questioning first the origin of the virus and then the vaccines was described precisely as conspiracy theories.
The fact that documentation emerged several years ago showing that Anthony Fauci helped finance the research in Wuhan and that Big Pharma was working on vaccines in parallel with the outbreak of the pandemic is established fact abroad, but not in Norway.
The Epstein commission is investigating Børge Brende, Rød-Larsen, Mona Juul and Thorbjørn Jagland. These people were themselves part of a conspiracy. Epstein was protected by someone high up in the system as early as his first court case. It was whittled down to a couple of victims, and the prosecuting authorities relinquished the right to bring new cases. If anything is a conspiracy, it is Epstein.
Nevertheless, the mainstream media, together with the authorities, which are tightening their grip ever further on freedom of expression, want exclusive rights to the word conspiracy.
In reality, it is the concept of truth that they want to monopolise.
We are impertinent enough to say that no one has such a monopoly. On the contrary, we believe that everyone has the right to contribute to bringing as much as possible into the light.
Only different angles and perspectives can contribute to a complete picture.
But several editors react with fury because there is a small player that does things in a slightly different way and refuses to adhere to the agreed script.
Why might that be?
Can they not tolerate diversity? Plurality? Must everything be forced into a single mould?
That question is not even being asked, and it heralds a change in the climate of Norwegian public discourse.
