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.