You southern scoundrel……..I don’t know how you have the nerve to show your treacherous smarmy two faced southern face up here at all.
While officially bowing out today, the Guardian’s former northern editor Martin Wainwright has made public a letter in which he is roundly abused by an anonymous critic of his work.
It was sent in 1999. It’s an example of the pre-internet communication with readers which just about every journalist will be familiar with but which sometimes gets forgotten in the rush to denigrate online commenters and cry ‘troll’ at every opportunity.
Being on the receiving end of such vitriol could lead you to reject the views of those who spew them, but Martin’s approach – as can be seen by turning out to meet the author in this occasion – has been to attempt to understand the other person’s viewpoint.
Martin makes the point in his farewell gallery that The Northerner blog which he has steered for the past two years has been a place for “discussions we are able to have as equals.”
It’s a point well made. By taking that approach of equals, rather than experts, to the comments and having the authors regularly joining in the discussions ‘below the line’, the civility present on the blog has been a hallmark since the initial team of four of us started it in 2010.
So, as the one “they call Martin” heads off for a well-earned retirement, here’s hoping The Northerner continues to be the place for healthy, but reasoned, debate he worked so tirelessly to establish.
Dim Sum Digital 