Why Blogs are the Future

Whenever the future of the newspaper and publishing industry is discussed, someone is bound to make the claim that we can't let blogs take over, because we need the 'quality' of professional journalists and writers. 

First, I think the loss of investigative journalism would be a tragedy; I hope there is some way it can be maintained (I have no idea how). But the claims about 'professional' 'writers' is just rubbish. I'd much rather read the postings of any four members from Ffb then to deal with something like this: exhibit A. 

I don't expect anyone out there to read the whole article, but please read the first two paragraphs. And then, if you haven't already abandoned this post, come back here for my brief rant.

1. The quotation from the second paragraph repeats the lead from the first paragraph, almost verbatim - 'hard to call...an old team'. 

2. There are two quotes in the second paragraph and literally no words from the writer other than identifying the source. But the second quote repeats the first quote: 'it's an experienced group'. 

3. Most of the article is just like this: big blocks of cut and pasted quotations, with the occasional connector words.

4. Later on in the article, the author says that 'To upgrade their championship quotient, Johannson tabbed three members of the 2008 Memorial Cup [team]'. What the hell does tabbed mean here?

Sure, nhl.com is not the NYT or the TLS. But I'm sure the budget for the NHL website is not tiny, and if they are putting out unedited schlock like this, then I'll keep reading blogs.