Claremont Insider Outsources to India

Pasadena Now may still be waiting for their first stories from India (see below), but the Claremont Insider has already outsourced a hilarious post on Claremont news.

Bogaard's Bike Shorts

The PSN has a photo gallery up from yesterday's ride to kick off Bike Week. Take a look and compare their shots to reader AA's photos, which we posted a mere hour or two after the event (our greatest scoop to date, *wink*).

Reporting City Council Meetings

Well, the first Pasadena City Council meeting since the India brouhaha has come and gone (video here, click on the May 14th meeting). Unfortunately, coverage from the subcontinent will not be forthcoming, not this week anyway, as the AP notes:

[Pasadena Now] was planning to put the work from the reporters online this week -- but the plans have been postponed because of the reaction that has been received.

James Macpherson says he has been so deluged with media requests about the plan he hasn't had time to train the correspondents.

Until they do get trained up, Todd Ruiz will remain without much competition. So, what did he have to say in the PSN about last night's meeting?

With a school board loathe to air its dirty laundry and a City Council that tries to relegate the thornier issues to outside of chambers, Monday's meeting at the Pasadena Conference Center was mostly a recap of successful joint efforts.

Indeed. James Macpherson argued, via email, that such a perspective is something he could have added while editing the piece, a point made by Ed Barrera among others. Of course, we'll have to wait at least another week to see if that's really the case.

The India Incident: Macpherson Responds

[NB: Post bumped to the top by reader request. Regular FC coverage continues below.]

By all accounts, James Macpherson got quite a bit more than he bargained for when he made the decision to hire a pair of Indian reporters to cover Pasadena's local news. Jill at Eye Level Pasadena has a massive list of everyone who's talking about the story in the blogosphere and the media. Our own comments got more of a response than we anticipated. To add to the folks we noted last week, LAist had an interesting post on the subject that included our thoughts and a Newsweek article featured some of our comments.

Between emails with these people and the comments, we've been having a great conversation about local journalism generally and Pasadena Now's situation specifically. But now, we can happily add the thoughts of the person at the center of this media firestorm, James Macpherson. While he has come in for some serious criticism in some quarters, perhaps his words will make the most bitter critics reconsider.

James Macpherson says:

I have been struggling for over two years to grow a website which will serve the public good and which will strive to present news and information without bias in a community which I believe is underserved by local media.

I have sold family heirlooms and given this effort my all, because I believe this community will be a better place to live in if we use the internet to connect the community. I have briefed public officials on the use of the internet to connect citizens and government, advocated for the arts, and given of myself to help this community become a better place.

I’ve struggled financially, and if people think I’m rich or greedy they haven’t bothered to check.

The idea of using writers based in India came to me as one of dozens and dozens ideas I’ve had over two years to keep my website growing on a non-existent budget.

Let’s be clear: This isn’t outsourcing in the sense it replaces employees (I’ve never employed writers); with a budget of only $400 a week it’s not like I can afford to hire too many.

My concept was to locate ghostwriters, educated and experienced writers who would follow my instructions, use my research and interview transcripts, and produce contents for me at my direction.

I’ve been asked if I tried to use local college student interns first, before I tied this. Answer: Of course I have. You should see all my correspondence with PCC, USC, Citrus College, Glendale Community College, Azusa Pacific, Cal Poly Pomona, and La Verne? I ended up finding a wonderful young woman from Azusa Pacific, who did well for us, plus four USC interns, of whom only one ever turned in even one article. I got in trouble from the Old Pasadena Merchants Association with that article, who demanded I remove it.

I had to work like crazy calling and contacting Professors and Job Centers at these Colleges and Universities to find prospective writers and it was – except for USC, which is very well organized – like pulling teeth to get any students to apply or return my telephone calls. I just gave up, I don’t have time for playing games.

Oh, and the lovely young gal who was an intern at Azusa Pacific? She graduated and now will work only for $30,000 a year (for the first 30 days, then a review) plus wants health insurance and vacations. She also stipulated 9am to 5pm, please – Monday through Friday.

In the beginning, this was a simple idea to convert the raw material I gather – photographs, recorded interviews, notes, and background research – into articles that are crafted the way I prefer and reflect my goals of objectivity and accuracy.

It was a simple idea to serve my fellow citizens.

A lot of commenters have been asking "isn't there anyone around here who would do it?" It seems as if, even if there are writers around, they're hard to find.

Frankly, unlike many of the people who have emailed us, we don't have some kind of jingoistic aversion to foreigners covering our local news. In fact, given the James' troubles in keeping a dedicated local journalist, it sounds like there's a niche for writers who will do the serious grunt work (e.g. watching every minute of city council meetings) and write it up. With a good editor, as Ed Barrera has noted, there's no reason to think they couldn't cover a lot of the basic happenings in the city.

To Macpherson's credit, there really isn't anyone covering these kinds of local issues that thoroughly. If a city council meeting runs late, reporters have to make deadlines and people often leave. Having someone sit through every single meeting and looking at other happenings around the city with the same exhaustiveness is a service that isn't really being provided.

That being said, a lot of local news really is tied to an incredibly complex web of people and issues that often can't be or just aren't directly mentioned in the article. Those kinds of connections probably aren't going to be made thousands of miles away.

Enough of us pontificating, let's hear your thoughts in the comments.

Russell Rustles Up Errors

Kelly L.C. Russell at WCGB had some criticism for a recent Pasadena Weekly article.

I am a fan of the Pasadena Weekly. But someone was asleep at the wheel when this article about CHAP (Community Health Alliance of Pasadena) was written.

The first three paragraphs are incorrect. Dr. Preedar Oreggio did not leave CHAP to work at Union Station. For the past couple of years, CHAP has employed Dr. Oreggio to work at Union Station twice a week, and pays him to do it.

I find it ironic that with all the hubbub about local news reporting (Look Ma! We’re on NPR!), even a simple item like this one got completely botched. I’ve no kind words for the writing style either.

No kind words indeed. But Russell caught a small host of mistakes, so it sounds like they are merited. Even more interesting is the response from the PW. Kevin Urich says...

For us I think it’s more of a problem with in-sourcing; pulling in real-life kids from the comforts of places like USC and PCC and La Verne and giving them a chance to do things that are sometimes a little above their present capabilities.

Woof, between Macpherson and Urich, local aspiring journalists have taken a real beating. Is it true? Are the kids not alright? And what about the editing/fact-checking? Who's responsible there? Read the rest of the post for more interesting comments.

Planet Glendora: A $5 Million Mistake?

That's what it could cost Councilman Gary Clifford, who, once upon a time, performed a citizen's arrest on a pair of protesting teen females.

Publius has followed this story from the beginning and will be back on Monday to break it down in great detail. Briefly, the civil lawsuit alleges the girls "great emotional distress and physical pain and suffering, insomnia, fear, neurosis, loss of wages and anxiety," and "emotional and physical injuries," according to Alison Hewitt's account for the SGVT.

I've no doubt the ordeal pained the poor girls, but did it pain them $5 million worth? I guess that's for the judge and jury to decide. What I do know is that there's a lot more to this story. Check back Monday for Publius' in-depth take on the latest perturbations in the orbit of Planet Glendora.

More on the Pasadena-India Connection UPDATED

We've gotten a huge response to the news that Pasadena Now is outsourcing its news coverage to India, and we've tallied up the latest on the web (and in the comments).

The LAT Business section wrote up the case, noting of the two reporters that "one lives in Mumbai and will be paid $12,000 a year. The other will work in Bangalore for $7,200." More importantly, Macpherson isn't content with just two: "Macpherson plans to hire half a dozen more Indian reporters." Half a dozen? He's hiring a veritable army.

Many thanks to Larry Wilson of the PSN for making this good point:

thanks for the excellent reporting and commentary. for more (can't speak to the excellent part), you might see my column in today's star-news, and alex pham's story in today's times business section. one small point: the ap did not get this story by beating the bushes (or even getting a tip) locally. one of its new delhi correspondents saw it on the craigslist for india, not a site i find myself perusing much for pasadena news. larry wilson, editor, pasadena star-news

We were speculating ourselves as to how on earth anyone would find this story. As we noted yesterday, the contributor from the story is indeed in New Dehli. In this case, it seems he just got lucky, though one can imagine a fair number of journalists looking to change jobs might poke around on Craigslist. For Larry's take (which, oddly enough, makes no mention of our post), click here. He also was quoted in the previously mentioned LAT article as saying, "To pretend you can get the feel and the culture of a town as complicated and interesting as Pasadena by e-mailing and doing things over the Internet is nutty." You can't blame him for being unclear.

Reason Magazine's Hit & Run also picked up our comments, and their post elicited a great discussion in the comments. Check it out here.

Also, lots of other thoughtful folks have left interesting comments. Check out Ed Barrera, Jill, and all the other great comments.

Finally, to the list of "blogs with curious names that have linked us," we can now add Los Angeles Times Pressmens 20 Year Club (who also had some good things to say in our comments), Fancy Store-Bought Dirt and skippy the bush kangaroo.

UPDATE: Added LAT article info.

PasadenaNow Outsources Local News Coverage UPDATED

Yes, you heard that right. Our very own Pasadena Now has outsourced its local news coverage to India. No, I kid you not. The news is spreading, fast (hell, it's already in Boston).

Before I launch into a curmudgeonly tirade about the downfall of local journalism, let's give James Macpherson a chance to make his point, as quoted by the AP:

James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the two-year-old Web site pasadenanow.com, acknowledged it sounds strange to have journalists in India cover news in this wealthy city just outside Los Angeles.

But he said it can be done from afar now that weekly Pasadena City Council meetings can be watched over the Internet. And he said the idea makes business sense because of India’s lower labor costs.

"I think it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications," said the 51-year-old Pasadena native. "Whether you’re at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you’re still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview."

That's true, to a certain degree. The type of journalistic coverage Macpherson is talking about really could be done by someone in another country, largely because their "coverage" often consists of little more than glorified press releases and parroting of the local media.

To be sure, there's a lot of good work that can be done online. Lord knows the majority of our information comes to us online and we depend upon the web as invaluable research tool. But there are clear limits to using the internet to report on local news and politics.

At the least, it would be very difficult to understand the issues Pasadena faces, from a development perspective, without having your feet on the ground, without walking the streets of Pasadena. To understand why Robin Salzer and Jacque Robinson both emphasized neighborhood security in their campaigns, it helps a lot to walk up and down the streets north of the 210, just to get a feel for the neighborhood. And it's difficult to imagine anyone being able to offer original content on the renovation of Pasadena's City Hall without ever being able to visit.

Of course, that's not to stay that the state of local journalism in Pasadena and the Foothill Cities is just hunky dory. If anything, McPherson's decision demonstrates that the opposite is the case. Expectations for local reporting are such that it's not beyond the pale for him to hire someone in India. And as the proliferation of a local blogosphere demonstrates, from the Claremont Insider to your very own Foothill Cities, there are a lot of folks who want more.

Local journalism is entering into a tumultous transitional stage. From part-time bloggers like ourselves to the full-time efforts like Pasadena Now to the Pasadena Star-News, everyone is trying to figure out just what niche they can carve out, how they can contribute to local news coverage and debate, and (perhaps most importantly) how they can make a buck. How it will end up is anyone's guess, but we certainly doubt that it will end up in India.

One final ironic note: from what we can tell, this eminently local story was picked up by, of all people, an Associated Press reporter—not the local press. In other words, as things stand the local media already often takes its cue from outsiders. We don't fault MacPherson for simply being logical given the sorry state of local reporting, but clearly this isn't carrying the ball forward—its simply accepting the sad state of the status quo.

UPDATE:
Props to Kevin Roderick for the link. As he notes, the AP report was also printed in the SF Chronicle, which reveals that "Associated Press Writer Matthew Rosenberg in New Delhi, India, contributed to this report." It also links to the original craigslist advertisement, which says:

We seek one to two 500-word articles each day Monday through Friday (depending on news that is occuring) PLUS two weekly in-depth Special Reports which focus on the City Council's weekly Council Meeting ... The Council meeting is televised on the Internet.
...
We do not believe that geographic distance betwen California and India will present unsurmountable problems, and that working together with you will result in your development of a keen working knowledge of this City's affairs. This will result in accurate and authoritative News reports.

Bad News Unbearable?

Remember the recent shooting in Pasadena? It wasn't the only one in Pasadena. And the West Coast Grrl thinks the Star-News is burying bad news.

I didn’t go to “J” school (as journalists call it), but it strikes me as odd to put this “hard news” in Around Pasadena, buried on page 2 of the Local News section–right where the police (? say it ain’t so!) or the developers want it, no doubt.

Indeed. The Grrl's eyes are better than ours, because we gave the front page headlines a quick scan and missed page 2 entirely. While it's hardly news that gangs are operating in Pasadena, homicidal gang violence should always be. As the recent runoff election demonstrated, for some districts it's the biggest concern (yes, PSN, even bigger than traffic). Is it the nefarious pressure of public safety officials and/or developers? That is beyond our ken. But either way, the Grrl's point stands:

Pasadena residents will never be able to address complex issues of gang violence if they don’t even know there is gang violence in this city. Notice I say residents, because the police cannot solve this problem. C’mon Star-News, time to step up. I don’t want to read about how the Pasadena Fire Department is saving pets on page one of Local News (with color photos), then read about our dead and wounded young men on page two.

Read all WCGB's commentary here. The PSN's page 2 coverage can be found online here.

Ruiz v. Holden

Todd Ruiz isn't going to let Chris Holden off the hook. Not for a minute.

Bill Bogaard and the Future of Local Politics

The Planning Report recently made several articles available in its archives. One of them, happily enough, features Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard and it's an interview worth reading (TPM, so you know, is a planning and development newsletter for the LA metropolitan region that primarily publishes interviews with the movers and shakers in government and public investment).

The Q&A with Bogaard ranges over a variety of topics, many of which have graced the pages of Foothill Cities: the 710 tunnel, the Gold Line extension, the aging Rose Bowl. Heck, even the Affordable Housing Bunny gets some coverage. But what really caught our eye came at the end of the interview. The second to last question reads:

As the mayor of an important California city, you are aware of how digital revolution in communications and its impact on political dialog and civic participation. What are the challenges to governing brought on by MySpace and similar media?

Bogaard's response deals primarily with the challenges facing local newspapers, noting that "Some people are predicting that in five years newspapers as we know them will be gone." And undoubtedly local newspapers provide information in a way that citizen journalists and commentators just can't. But the question strikes at the very heart of the Foothill Cities endeavor. Government at the municipal level has the most influence on our day to day lives, and, at the same, is most likely to be influenced by the individual. And yet City Hall remains a cipher to the average Jane, its actions seeming to be the provenance of a removed, insular elite, while the White House and the state capitol receive far greater attention and interest.

It's into that breach that Foothill Cities throws itself. We're here to have an "impact on political dialog and civic participation." That is, we want to increase both. As much as we like to chuckle at the mania for political expression in Sierra Madre or the scheming of the "Claremont 400," there's something to be lauded in the both cases. Local politics really matter because it's where the rubber meets the road, where the abstract principle gets put into practice. Eminent domain abuse matters a hell of a lot more when it's your lifelong barbershop being bulldozed or your home that's been "blighted" out of existence. It's one thing for the President to promise more police on the streets, but it really matters if Glendora puts more men in blue on Myrtle Ave (especially if their priorities are a little, ahem, off). And allegations of corruption mean a lot more when it's your local redevelopment agency, which may have changed the face and demeanor of your community, that is being challenged.

We're optimistic that the digital revolution will increase participation in local politics, and we think that's a good thing. Bill Bogaard's not so certain, as he ponders what might happen if local newspapers die off:

I think it will make public service more difficult. The amount of information will be more, but its quality will be less. There will be more people, perhaps, accessing and reading information. That could be helpful. But it’s hard to predict; that subject would make a good discussion—either at thoughtful seminar or a lengthy conversation over a glass of wine.

Ah, now you're talking, Bill. We'll take you up on that offer any time, perhaps at a preferred local eatery. We could call it the "Think 'n Drink with Bill Bogaard: Politics and the People." Any sarcasm aside, I honestly think that would be a great conversation and one worth having.

Until Bill gets back to us, we'll continue that "lengthy conversation" with you, the folks of the Foothill Cities.

Your Friends and Neighbors...

Ouch:
Last year I did not renew my subscription to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, and this year I will end my delivery of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, I have opted to subscribe to an online news source instead.

My subscription to the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly will continue, with no plans of stopping delivery this year.

I wonder if this guy found the place he wanted:
I got off on Azusa Ave./SR-39 and went up to take a peek at Azusa, one of the more working class suburbs in the area. It wasn't too bad, actually. A little more ethnic, but no different than Riverside. I cruised East on Foothill through Glendora, also a pretty city. The eastern edge of Azusa (closer to Glendora) was pretty nice...Initially I considered as far West as Pasadena...

What kind of shows?
We have shows in San Dimas, Pomona, San Gabriel, Norwalk, Glendora, and Covina.

They finally open up Glendora Mt. Road, and look what happens:
...got stuck offroading today in the mountains. Mr. Wilson and I decided to try to take a walking trail that was located about halfway thru Glendora Mt. Road; it was gated off...

He don't like Glendora:
I Don't think I want my kids living here.
:-/
Too much .... "Glendoraness"
Those of you that live here know what I'm talking about. There's too much hate, racism, and drama here. I would give anything to move out of this city.

Is he talking about Glendora, CA?

Gore Chooses Red-Eyed, Unknown Freak from Glendora as Running Mate!

Now why won't the SGV Trib print THAT?

And, by the way, everyone in LA knows that only Republicans live in Glendora. In fact, once you get on the 210, I heard that all that exists up there in those foothill cities are pasty white, racist, right-wing, red county types!?! Like in Claremont, for instance, which is even farther out...oh, wait...

OK, so now that I got a second, back to the Glendora story. Allison Hewitt's SGV Trib piece on the election mentions the arrest of two teenage girls after they were caught by the city councilman whose very signs they were vandalizing at the end of the article—short shrift. Although the headline says the race was "nasty," the story gives us little evidence of how and why. (What is nasty, actually, is the not-so-veiled threat that Mayor Tessitor makes about his Planning Commissioner, Jeff Johnson, saying he "might want to seriously consider resigning." Is this justified? Well, we'd have to know what the city manager did during the election to know, wouldn't we? And why is only one side of this entire debate quoted in the article?)

Meanwhile, City Editor Edward Barrera writes his monthly column explaining why the Trib decided to wait until after the election to cover the arrests in more detail (comment on the article at his blog here).

Here's the situation: two girls, likely being paid by their mom, whose father was recalled from the city council, were putting stickers on the likely illegally posted campaign signs of their dad's old political opponents. One of these same opponents, a sitting city councilman and a retired police officer, saw them, called the police, and they got arrested for vandalism. Regardless of anything else, that is a damn interesting set of facts. There is plenty there to draw out of an obviously nasty political situation—besides the obvious draw (I think, at any rate) that usually city elections don't involve such arrests, justified or not.

1) Why couldn't the paper have simply covered the event in a balanced way? By not covering controversial campaign events such as this one, I think the paper assumes such stories aren't real stories, thus, by default, favoring whichever politician doesn't want the story published. In this case, the story was obviously being worked up by "the opposition," but why couldn't the paper just say that instead of burying it?

2) On a more practical level, even if the coverage had been biased, was Clifford's win ever in doubt? I didn't think so, and if covered with even a modicum of balance I don't think it could have affected the election one iota. Former Mayor John Harrold, his public access TV star-power notwithstanding, has been reduced to official gadfly status for some time now.

[Updated: I will say that the Trib's city editor deserves kudos for publicly explaining the paper's reasoning on this issue; and, further, if it weren't for Allison Hewitt's reporting I would have much less to talk about on this blog. I'm trying to throw out some constructive criticism, not throw mud.]

Foothill Pages

Azusa, Duarte, Glendora, Monrovia, are [were?] all covered by Foothill Pages, yet another attempt at a local website.

Changes to the SGV Newspaper Group?

Kevin Smith in the PStar:

"Larry Kline, a veteran executive of newspapers from California to Florida and states in between, has been named publisher of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group."

Props

Thanks to SGV Trib City Editor Edward Barrera for the link. I agree it is hard to find good local blogs. As time goes on, however, I do think there will be an increasing number of them. I guess the good folks at placeblogger are banking on that.

Of water districts and gadflies...

Check out the blog of Steve Scauzillo, opinion page editor for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. Posts and op-ed pieces like this one are worth the trip:

NOT many people give a rat’s patootie about making sure local water districts don’t rip off ratepayers. Barbara Mee did.

When I covered water, landfills, air quality and other environmental issues during the far-more polluted 1980s and 1990s, the Glendora environmental activist was often spotted in the meeting halls of these obscure local agencies, ferreting out waste and corruption. She was quite tall, classy, and she always greeted you with a smile and a wad of documents.

We call these people gadflies. But that doesn’t do them justice. They are the shoe leather of democracy, helping wear an enlightened path to the darkened cubby holes of government.

Editor's Corner Blog

More on the excellent SGV Tribune article on local law enforcement and public records access (mentioned in a previous post) at the blog of Edward Barrera, the paper's city editor, here and here.