Sniping and sneering at your readers generates a lot more page impressions than praising them. When I worked in-house for a publication and our traffic was dropping, I'd write something that called a section of our reader-base idiots and watch the comments come in and traffic go up... works...
Not so sure about that: most nationals and regionals are shedding staff so there aren't many places for someone to go. I'd look at it the other way; if he wasn't decent, he wouldn't be in a job.
He strikes me as a pretty competent reporter: he doesn't idly speculate, he follows up on rumours...