The Scud Stud has turned into The Great Litigator.

I speak, of course, of Mr. Blackwell, creator of the legendary worst-dressed list. He passed away Sunday at age 86.

Globe and Mail national affairs columnist Jeffrey Simpson held an online Q-and-A with readers today. He was asked the following about the news media's coverage of the election:

Catherine Wilkie: It would be worthwhile to know what journalists, specifically Mr. Simpson, think of the state of journalism these days? Were Canadians well-informed in the past campaign?

Jeffrey Simpson: The state of journalism? That, dear Catherine, would take the rest of the week.

All I will observe is this: The Web is now, it would appear, the increasing focus of our efforts, money, time and attention -- witness to my doing this today.

The Web has many virtues: immediacy, elasticity, variety. It is limited less by space than by the literal ability of people to manage that space and people to provide something to fill it.

It is also nigh inexhaustible in its demand for material. Just about anything will suffice, as long as it fills space. Hence, although with a lot of timely, interesting and occasionally insightful pieces, drivel abounds, bloggers proliferate, instant "analyses" are offered, and the time for reflection is reduced literally to zero.

It was surreal in recent months for me to watch a "reporter" sitting in front of a television set offering comments every two minutes or so on what the "reporter" was observing on the screen.

It gave new meaning to the depths of superficiality encouraged by the least attractive features of the Web — that is, contemporary journalism.

Globeandmail.com will continue its election hub as a politics hub.

Editor-in-chief Edward Greenspon unveiled the not-surprising development today in an editor's note to readers:

This new section of our site will provide a blend of news, opinion and features about the federal political scene.

We're keeping some of the staples of our election effort. You'll see strategists, web discussions, polling, outside commentators and blogs. Just at a slightly less hectic pace than in the past six weeks.

And, of course, we'll have the news from our team in Ottawa and reporters and columnists across the country, as well as a more interactive, community-based experience.

Reader-submitted political cartoons and politically-themed photos will still be welcome.

Navigationally, the hub doesn't seem to rate a top-rank navigational pointer. It doesn't rank with national, world or opinion, for example, to find the politics hub, you must first click on national.

Globeandmail.com has a three-column layout. In the centre column, there's no section yet for politics stories.

Having a hub that you can't easily find from anywhere in the site isn't a good thing.  Perhaps the site's navigation will be tweaked in the coming days.

PS

I'm still finding this pointer on politics blog postings:

I would think that should be passé by now.