As a journalist who has done a Q & A or two in his career, this Fishie hates to say it, but we’re pretty sure the traditional journalistic Q & A is nearing its demise. Because Reddit’s Ask Me Anything question sessions tend to be so much better these days. Yes, that goes for the Woody Harrelson debacle too, which made for great theater.

The Atlantic‘s James Fallows did a great AMA today where he answered questions on everything from home brews to China to the Gawkerization of his magazine. His answer to the latter we found particularly interesting.

Obviously this is a question we take very seriously here, and think about every day.

I have worked for the Atlantic longer, probably, than most people asking questions here have been alive. I started when I left the Carter Administration (when I was in my 20s) in 1979. What I’ve learned over that time is the balance between, on the one hand, the way the magazine HAS to keep changing, continually — and on the other, the crucial importance of its standards, intelligence, judgment, and so on. If you look back through our bound volumes, you see how dramatically the magazine has changed, and how often, through its existence. While still having some sensibility that makes us think: here is an Atlantic treatment, and not one from (name your other mag).

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Jeff Bercovici columnist at Daily Finance lays out a case for nixing the pajama dig:

Jokes about bloggers in pajamas were already a cliche by 2005, when a group of blogs banded together to form Pajamas Media. They were even more hackneyed by 2008, when Sarah Palin swatted at “some blogger probably sittin’ there in their parents’ basement in their pajamas.” Now it’s 2010. Paul Krugman blogs. So does Hendrik Hertzberg. So does James Fallows. So does…well, everyone.

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The Atlantic crosses the Pacific, for a China-themed issue.

National correspondent James Fallows, who moved to Shanghai in 2006, has a cover story on China’s riseas a manufacturing is good. Fallows writes:

Here is an uncomfortable truth I’m waiting for some Chinese official to point out: The woman from the hinterland working in Shenzhen is arguably better off economically than an American in Chicago living on minimum wage. She can save most of what she makes and feel she is on the way up; the American can’t and doesn’t.

How Fallows knows what a minimum-wage earning woman in Chicago feels isn’t stated–maybe she’s a PA for Oprah, living at home, and she’s thrilled.

The magazine must have gone to press before the food additives scandal surfaced.

Also in this issue:

Caitlin Flanagan on on-line predators,while confessing to a little weird stalking thing of her own.

Virginia Postrel on Hollywood’s master glamour photographer, George Hurrell.

Corby Kummer on fresh sardines, now available up and down the California coast.

Caitlin Flanagan reviews College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kitten and Co-eds by Lynn Peril Norton in the April Atlantic. Flanagan, whom we quite like, makes the dubious case that leaving home is harder on girls than on boys. Flanagan needs to wait til her kids grow up before she decides this stuff, as her own experience isn’t universal.

James Fallows weighs in on a reality show in China, Ying Zai Zhongguo, or Win in China, which is not unlike The Apprentice. He learned of the series “from a Chinese-American friend, Baifang Schell, who was involved in the production.” Schell’s married to Orville Schell, the dean of the J-School at UCBerkley. Oddly, FBLA can’t think of many American reality shows with that kind of imprinteur. Fallows went to China for the final episode, which he found fascinating, but it’s unlikely he’s watched very many other reality shows. There’s a video segment with business types praising the show against a music track so soul-stirringly uplifting and gloppily romantic that it could be an promo for a very special Oprah segment.

Andrew Sullivan’s daily blog is also on the site, and today, he’s after Dinesh D’Souza.