Outsourcing Has Gone Too Far

I have to admit, it took a few minutes for me to pick myself up off the floor after reading this article by Gene Weingarten from the Washington Post. We have all heard plenty of stories about corporations who decided to take their business offshore, but having journalists from India write about city council meetings in Pasedena?

Weingarten's article was a sarcastic response to the original article, which was published on May 11th. Although Weingarten's response is somewhat exagerated, I agree with his reaction. How could the publisher have thought that outsourcing local news half way around the world is a good decision?

During the evaluation stage of The Pasadena Now's ethical process, it's clear that the cost/benefit model was used in a very literal sense. According to the publisher, James Macpherson, "A lot of the routine sutff we do can be done by really talented people in another time zone at much lower wages."

But what of other values? Can a journalist from a completely different culture accurately and fairly report the news? Do they have the same value system as the people in Pasadena who will read their articles?

Locke's philosophy was that knowledge is derived from our experiences. Kant said that we impose certain features on all our experiences because of our perceptions. I believe the life experiences of someone from India are very different from someone in Pasadena. If Locke and Kant are correct, then a journalist from India watching the city council meeting and a journalist in Pasadena watching the same meeting will have different truths. For the people of Pasadena, the reporting by a local journalist on city council meetings is the better choice for accurate reporting.

The Pasadena Now saves a buck and the citizens of Pasadena lose.