Jon Friedman's big battle

In this one, MarketWatch's media critic Jon Friedman takes on the task of explaining how The Washington Post  and Politico are drawing battle lines over political coverage in Washington. Or does he? 

The story never gets around to telling readers whether Politico is actually gaining ground on The Post. In fact, in his last section - awkwardly named "Dessert vs. appetizers" - Friedman even seems to backtrack. Here's what reads like the theory of the piece:

The challenge for Politico is to sustain its momentum at times when political news can be overshadowed by, say, the worldwide fear of a swine flu epidemic or even such flukes as the low-flying plane that fascinated and terrified New Yorkers on Monday.

Then here's Friedman, in the very next line, contending that Politico......um.....can't sustain momentum.

The Post averages 10.6 million unique visitors per month. The Post noted recently that Politico hit 4.6 million unique visitors last October -- when the public's fascination with the presidential race was at its peak level -- and now claims about 3 million.

Politico has lost 35 percent of its visits in recent months, Friedman? So where's the story?? And "rival"? Bottom line, seems like Friedman got a story out of Washington media small-talk on a slow news day. That may be bearable if we weren't left with this:

MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do you like or dislike about Politico and the Washington Post? 

OK then.