A reflection on 51 years as a columnist

(First published in The Dominion Post and on Stuff.co.nz, May 11.)

I wrote my first column for The Dominion 51 years ago.

Jack Kelleher, the editor, employed me to write a twice-weekly column aimed at readers of my own age group. The late-1960s youth rebellion was in full cry and Jack hoped I could tap into a market segment that had been all but ignored by the conservative print media.

Alas, the column lasted little more than a year. It was a good idea that failed for want of someone with the know-how, confidence and energy to make it work. I hadn’t yet turned 19 when I was hired and didn’t have a clue what I was doing.  (I’ll pause here to allow my critics, who are many, to chime in with the obvious riposte).

I’ve written hundreds of columns since then, for a variety of publications. I began writing this one in 2005 and today’s is my last. There’s still gas in the tank, but in case the engine starts sputtering I’d prefer to pull over to the side rather than risk stalling in the middle of the road.

It’s a funny business, column-writing. Here are a few observations formed in the course of doing it intermittently over a half-century:

■ The first duty of columnists is to be read, which is rarely achieved by expressing milk-and-water opinions that no one disagrees with. We are lucky to live in a liberal democracy that allows free speech. How much longer that will remain the case, when ideologically driven state agencies such as the Human Rights Commission are vigorously pushing to restrict what we can say, is a moot point.  But in the meantime, not to take full advantage of that freedom would be like going into the Boulcott Street Bistro and ordering a Marmite sandwich.

■ It’s a strange quirk of human nature that readers tend to attack you in public but agree with you in private. By that I mean that those who dislike something you’ve written are more likely to disagree by way of a letter to the editor – or in recent years, an online comment – rather than confront you directly, whereas people who share your opinions will often get in touch by phone or letter. I've had many supportive phone calls over the years but never a hostile one, which is a surprise given that my columns often anger people. Make of that what you will. Perhaps New Zealanders prefer to engage in combat at a distance rather than hand-to-hand.

■ Having a public platform on which to say what you think is a great privilege. The quid pro quo is that columnists must accept that they’re fair game for criticism. But when all is said and done, a column is just one person’s opinion. It has no legal force or coercive power. No one is compelled to read it, still less agree with it.

■ Online comment sections introduced a new dimension to the business of being a columnist. I thought it wrong that while newspapers insisted (rightly, in my view) on writers of letters to the editor identifying themselves, they allowed online comments – some of them abusive to the point of being defamatory – to be made anonymously.

■ Public discourse has become infinitely more polarised and confrontational. This is partly due to the fact that the anonymity conferred by the Internet gives people the courage to express themselves far more intemperately than they might otherwise dare.  But it’s also attributable to the ideological heat generated by the so-called culture wars over such issues as race, gender identity, climate change and so-called hate speech.

■ Democracy depends on the contest of ideas, to which columnists – of both the Left and Right – contribute. One of the tragedies of the digital revolution is that it has accelerated the decline of the traditional broad-church print media, where newspaper readers were presented with a wide range of opinions moderated by editors and expressed civilly. In its place we have an overheated online echo-chamber where people shut themselves off in ideological ghettos and are exposed only to ideas they agree with.

■ Over the period I’ve been writing columns, issues have become far more complex – often too complex to explore adequately in 800 words – and events much faster moving. In the 24-hour gap between writing and publication, the landscape can change dramatically. This is a roundabout way of saying it’s got harder.

■ I have good friends who sometimes disagree vehemently with my columns, but we remain good friends. That’s as it should be in a civilised society. It would be a dull world if we all agreed with each other, and duller still if we had to choose our friends on the basis of their politics.

Footnote: To regular readers, my thanks. For the record, I’m going of my own volition and my retirement is unrelated to the recent change of ownership at Stuff.