Los Angeles Times reporter/blogger Michael Hiltzik's blog has been "suspended." Apparently that's the blogospheric equivalent of being given a time-out. The scandal has also made The Washington Post.

Patterico, in the wake of his impressive sleuthing has expressed concern that the Times might throw the baby out with the bathwater and end their blogging experiment. Patterico also believes that Hiltzik's brief suspension is "good enough."

I don't think Patterico need worry that the Los Angeles Times would abandon blogging, I think that most journalists see that there can be a definite benefit to the medium. The interactivity it allows readers to have with working journalists is really unparalleled.

As far as the "suspension" goes, it's a necessary step. But I think that what this whole episode really shows is that Michael Hiltzik just isn't mature enough to be allowed on the Internet, under the aegis of the Los Angeles Times, on his own. I say this as someone who is at least a decade younger than Hiltzik, but I can at least fake being a responsible adult on the Internet.

Hiltzik can probably continue to work on his dead tree columns without being a major embarassment to the paper, but he's demonstrated that he can't handle the editor-free blog environment.

So, if the Times is looking for an alternative Pulitzer-Prize winning blogger, may I suggest ... me.