You rarely see Jim Romenesko involved in bitchslappery, but apparently he struck a nerve with Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine yesterday regarding his post on an off-the-record future-of-journalism roundtable by snarking (yes! snarking!): "Don't you hate it when journalists get together and refuse to share their brilliant ideas?" Nonplussed, Jarvis responded "Romenesko keeps trying to insist he's not a blogger but he sure sounds like one -- a snarky one at that."

Jarvis did indeed keep his meeting notes off the record, and we wish he'd done the same with this comment:

Does every newspaper across the country need its own movie critic? The movies are the same coast-to-coast. The information we need to decide whether to go is the same. So why not plop in Roger Ebert? Or why not plop in reviews by your funny neighbor who knows the good stuff?

Ditto sports columnists. Ditto political columnists. Get rid of the voices on high and get more voices from down on the ground and you'll improve the conversation and save money.