I just got back from a trip and found printouts and clippings of this Associated Press story waiting for me on my desk. Apparently, a Web site has hired journalists in India to cover news in Pasadena (although now I see the publisher has postponed his plan because he's been so overwhelmed by the resulting media storm that he hasn't had time to train the new reporters).
How will these noncommuters from Mumbai and Bangalore cover the city government beat from the other side of the world? They'll watch the televised council meetings on the Internet and e-mail the stories they write after watching. And they'll do it for far less money than an American reporter would be paid.
I can't say it any better than Bryce Nelson, a University of Southern California journalism professor, who told AP, "Nobody in their right mind would trust the reporting of people who not only don't know the institutions but aren't even there to witness the events and nuances. This is a truly sad picture of what American journalism has become."
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I am part Indian and I deplore this nonsense. This is tantamount to hiring a man sitting in the Sahara (who has never left his own country) to write about skiing on the Aspen slopes or to report on the latest fashion statements made at a runway show in Milan. Ludicrous really!
I admit outsourcing for tech jobs makes sense where you have a geek sitting behind a computer in Bangalore writing a thousand lines of code. However, to outsource a profession like reporting, where not just the rudimentary knowledge of English, but an insight into the lifestyle, psyche and ambience of a town or a people is required, it is just a crying shame.
Why don't they outsource the Pentagon next?
Oh, done that already?? Well my bad ! :)
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