hackbash

I expect I’m not alone in noticing some entertaining needling between the Guardian and Telegraph in recent months, as the two scrap for first loser when it comes to web views - the BBC leads by a mile, The Mail snaps at their heels.

No doubt it’s driven by valid concerns and genuine differences, the most important of which regards freedom of speech. The Guardian has picked up on extreme opinions, including those of the BNP, aired in My Telegraph blogs apparently unchallenged by the paper’s editorial staff. Shane Richmond has responded, pointing out that the Guardian’s Comment is Free hosts similarly extreme views despite censoring a higher proportion of material. He asks whether we should infer from the Guardian’s more active censorship that it is more approving of what remains.

Richmond already responded publicly to a set of related questions from the Guardian. But in his more recent post he asks whether the Guardian’s interest is motivated more by ’sour grapes’ after having been pipped into third place in April by rising Telegraph site visits. He links to a Jemima Kiss story on the subject, which could uncharitably be said to underline his point.

Six million extra visitors gained in two months is a hell of a lot. Who knows; perhaps it will turn out that The Telegraph’s been gaming its figures in some way, but I doubt it. While I’m no expert on how they’re arrived at, Richmond’s role as communities editor suggests to me that the paper understands full-well how the web works, and the widely distributed rooftops from which its competitors and detractors would shout it if this turned out to be the case.

A confession

As is probably becoming clear, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of taking the Telegraph’s side. The Guardian (and others) might be right to question the recent surge in the paper’s web visits, but the Telegraph has more than double the Guardian’s print circulation, and, traditionally at least, an older, less connected readership. As internet saturation spreads outside of the cosy media bubble that the Guardian embraces, and the Telegraph goes out of its way to engage its readers online, the latter’s traffic surge may not be as surprising as all that.

And when it comes to freedom of speech, as Richmond shows by publicly engaging with the Guardian and freely linking out to it, the paper better understands the nature of the social web, and the responsibility of a publisher to nurture and provoke open discussion. As he puts it:

The internet encourages free speech, has lower barriers to entry and places greater onus on individuals to decide for themselves what is acceptable.

and

when you have an open platform, whether it’s My Telegraph, Comment Is Free, or the internet itself, then you have to accept that a multiplicity of views will be expressed on it and that some of those views will be unpalatable to some people.