Hightower Lowdown

Here in Austin, Texas, a TV station fired its own
news director and put the news director of its Tampa,
Florida, station in charge of our “local” news
coverage. Rumor has it that the Tampa guy had once
visited our fair city, so apparently that qualified
him to be the long-distance arbiter of Austin news.

Can journalism sink any lower? Of course it can!
Blazing a new path to the journalistic bottom, the
editor/publisher of a web journal that covers city
politics and government in Pasadena, California,
flung his job net all the way to India to find
low-cost journalists to report on the happenings in
Pasadena.

James Macpherson, boss of Pasadena Now website, says
that since city council meetings can be watched on
the internet, a reporter from anywhere can cover
what’s happening. Excuse me, but even if you were
sitting right in front of most city council meetings,
you still would not know what the heck was happening,
because the real deals are cut in the back rooms.

Macpherson, 51, who used to sell clothes made in
Vietnam and India, says, “whether you’re at a desk in
Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you’re still just a
phone call or email away from the interview.” Yes,
but—hello!— it helps if the interviewer has some clue
about the cultural nuances and community dynamics at
work.

Macpherson has hired not one but two Indian reporters
for a combined salary of about $20,000. I’m sure
these two are smart and capable, but surely
journalists need to know more about their beat than
having seen the Rose Bowl Parade on TV.