Newspapers are slowly dying off because the cost to distribute content via newsprint — something that used to be the industry’s biggest competitive advantage — is now a massive disadvantage. But the editorial cycle, where writers and editors are vetted and hired; articles are vetted and edited by these pre-screened talents; etc.

The goal is to maintain a high level of quality and accuracy. This comes at the expense of speed, as additional checks and approvals inherently require additional time. Note that in the pre-digital world, this didn’t matter, because publications were only able to publish once a day anyway — they, quite literally, had all day to write, edit, and fact check articles.

But the alleged benefits — again, quality and accuracy — are supposed to be the point of differentiation between newspapers and newer media, e.g. blogs and tweets and email blasts and the like. So when the New York Post publishes a column by Filip Bondy bemoaning how Major League Baseball veterans are relegated to the undignified designated hitter role, one expects the argument to be a home run.

Instead, we get classless claptrap. Witness:

The DH may forever represent an unwanted demotion for older sluggers – [Hideki] Matsui, too, felt that way – but it is the fate of almost everyone, if they’re good enough to hang around. Thurman Munson was spared this indignity, in tragic fashion, dying at age 32.

In other words: “It’s a good thing Thurman Munson died in a plane crash, or he would have become a designated hitter! How awful!”

If this made it past the controls at a newspaper, where’s the value in the process?