Real Live Online Journalism

Blogging, like most things on teh Internets, is prone to glib, overheated, breathless statements about how it is going to revolutionize journalism as we know it and bring the "MSM" (mainstream media, for you luddites) to its knees. This off-the-cuff sloganeering hides the fact that 99.9% of blogging (including this one) is half-thought-out rantings of the ill-informed, and can't compare to actual reporting and fact-finding, including through real sources who have first-hand knowledge of things.

Nationals Farm Authority, however, is the real deal, and shows it with this interview of Nats minor-league pitcher Shawn Hill, which is of high quality, and shows that bloggers can compete with "real" journalists on their own turf. Brian's questions to Hill put him in the 95th percentile of sportswriters I have read (for proof, write down the questions at the next press conference you watch in full -- idiots on parade), and, as a result, they elicit real answers from an apparently bright and insightful young ballplayer. Blogging the way it oughta be.