#535 Role Dispersal

Read an interesting article in a magazine called The Week. It was about a Pasadena, California online magazine.
A little while ago, the online magazine hired two reporters to cover the Pasadena local government beat. They saved a lot of money on the reporters because they were from the little known suburbs of Pasadena, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Never heard of them? Here’s a clue. If you have an old map, Mumbai used to be called Bombay.
That’s right, in India.
Just a touch east from Pasadena. Close to San Bernardino, I think.
Seems the outsourcing thing is kicking into high and very absurd gear. The magazine’s publisher points out that since the Pasadena City Council meetings are webcast, and official documents are online, there’s actually no reason for his reporters to be physically in Pasadena.
It’s not like you have to smell the flowers to appreciate the Rose Parade.
And certainly no one could accuse them of having a local bias.
Hell, they don’t even have a bias towards the country.
I worry though. I’ve had huge language barrier problems whenever I’ve called India tech support for one of my electronic issues. Not least because they tend to pronounce whisky, viskey.
They miss the slang. So they may miss some of the local flavor.
The publisher of the magazine doesn’t care. Outsourcing his local coverage to India means he can get 15 “local” news stories a week and only pay about $10,000 a year. Lots less than your typical underpaid American reporter.
In a way, it does kind of make the notion of objectivity in reporting a little more defensible. I mean, it’s hard not to be unbiased when you don’t know the place, the people, and the local worldview.
Unless, of course, the city council is debating the merits of outsourcing its tax preparation to India.
But it will completely eliminate the intangibles reporters pick up in one-on-one interviews. Like the gut instinct, certain knowledge that a politico is lying through his perfect teeth.
About the only good thing you can say about it, if the idea catches on, is that at least Fox news won’t be bitching about the snooty eastern liberal media anymore.
Unless they mean really far east.
America ya gotta love it