Your City Council, Direct from Bangalore

Pasadena Now has hired two reporters from India to cover the Pasadena City Council, according The Los Angeles Times. At first this would seem counterintuitive, but the council meetings are broadcast on the Web, so connect the pixels.

While coverage of this story was straightforward, alarm was pulsing between the lines. The reporter from Mumbai has signed on for $12,000 a year, while the one from Bangalore will be paid $7,200 a year.

Alarm is understandable. If this is a trend, (and why wouldn't it be?) it won't be long before national and international reporting is outsourced. Think of the savings!

But before panicking, let's admit there are advantages. For example, it's unlikely that either reporter will have friends or family with business before the Pasadena City Council. Neither will have an unsavory personal relationship with anyone on the Zoning Commission.

And imagine for a moment, that we were informed about our policies in Iraq or Iran not by the distinguished New York Times reporter Michael Gordon, but by a stringer in New Delhi. I'm sure C-SPAN is available in Bangalore. Does that really have to be supplemented by an exclusive, off-the-record phone conversation with Dick Cheney? Did all that inside information available to the pundits at the Washington Post result in better coverage than we'd have gotten from Mumbai?

Personally, I'm looking forward to it. You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.