I have enjoyed your writing, but this time I disagree. In the cold black days before VCRs, CDs, computers and the Internet, Journalism was produced, as you point out, by interviewing real people, painstakingly tracking down documents and researching a story. Journalism is relating important information that otherwise wouldn't be available to the reader. The internet can be accessed by anyone. And that is the source of the problem with "Journalism" today. Anyone can publish anything and the media today doesn't bother to verify much. The internet is your least reliable source of information. If it is the only source you are using, or even your primary source, don't bother.

And if you've never seen a microfiche reader, you need to get out more.