Maureen Dowd is kind of an idiot. And we mean that in the nicest way possible, because she seems so smart. But then she goes off and writes this. In her most recent op-ed piece for the New York Times, she attempts to show the world of online writing what's what. How so? Well, she attacks Twitter and other types of newfangled online internet world wide web sites, claims that journalists are "hot" in Hollywood right now ("Russell Crowe, playing a messy and morally ambiguous Washington investigative journalist, teaches the self-regarding blogger, Rachel McAdams, a thing or three, including why a pen is necessary" is just one example of print publishing's tenacity), and compares cumbersome newspapers to the ageless Norma Desmond.

Best of all, Dowd goes on a death-of-journalism date with SF Chronicle's editor-at-large and preferred online writer Phil Bronstein. While in SF, Phil takes Maureen to a "newspaper bar" (The Chieftain, formerly Harrows), shows her something called a "Linotype machine," and reminisces about hot-off-the-press stories like Barry Bonds and AIDS.

But before Dowd can ensnare Bronstein inside her sepia-toned web, he hits her with the following gem.

"For people who still love print, who like to hold it, feel it, rustle it, tear stuff out, do their I. F. Stone thing, it’s important to remember that people are living longer,” he said. “That’s the most hopeful thing you can say about print journalism, that old people are living longer.”

Well played, Phil.