Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Outsourcing journalism; Chet Edwards

The Nightly Build...

Journalists Discover Their Jobs Can Be Outsourced

Rodger Jones, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, uses exclamation marks to headline a report that copy editing for the Orange County Register, a major daily, is being outsourced to India. Apparently, outsourcing journalism is news in The Dallas Morning News newsroom, which, I had imagined, is filled with professional journalists who might be expected to be on top of developments in, say, journalism. Apparently not. Suggestion to Rodger Jones: Google 'outsourcing journalism' for many other examples. You have heard of Google, haven't you?

Nicole Stockdale followed with her own blog post on the subject. She quotes the copy chief at The Billings Gazette telling readers all the reasons why they should care about copy editors. He does a good job at that. But he does a poor job of making a case why that copy editor needs to be located in Billings. He fails to explain why copy editors in India can't be the readers' advocate, can't "bring clarity to murky writing", can't "challenge flimsy assumptions or conclusions", can't "fix errant facts", can't "bang the drum for fairness and propriety." Maybe he could have used a good copy editor in India.


The Great Mentioner Speaks Chet Edwards' Name

The Texas blogosphere has been lit up the last couple days by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's mention of Texas Rep. Chet Edwards as someone Barack Obama should consider for Vice President.

Has anyone offered a reason why Pelosi wanted to throw a big air kiss Chet Edwards' way? Because there's not a chance that Edwards will get the nod, but he's gotten a lot of good publicity the last couple days because of it. Pelosi's statement was better than money in Edwards' campaign coffer.

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