By Carlos Miller
The Miami Herald’s oxymoronic decision to outsource the production of “community” news sections to India comes at a time when most major newspapers and organizations are shutting down foreign news bureaus.
And that, of course, comes at a time when the United States is steadfastly increasing its military presence abroad, engaging in two wars and on the brink of invading a third country or is it a fourth country?
Which comes at a time when Osama bin Laden, whom President Bush vowed to track down “dead or alive” in 2001, is producing more videos than Britney Spears and is supposedly residing in Pakistan, which incidentally, is next to India, which will soon be producing advertising supplements for the Broward community section of the Miami Herald.
This also happens to be a time when thousands of self-described”pro-life” Americans remain dedicated to a warmongering president.
A time when the price of gasoline has doubled since the invasion of Iraq, even though American petroleum companies have seized the oil refineries and are no longer able to blame those dreaded Muslims for running up the price of oil.
A time when an ever-increasing number of Americans are purchasing gaz-guzzling Hummers, a vehicle designed for off-road use, that will never leave the city streets.
A time when the United States produces more than 25 percent of the toxins released into the world’s atmosphere as the oceans continually rise and the climate continually changes and our forests burn to cinders yet many politicians, right-wing radio pundits and, of course, thousands of blind Americans claim there is “no evidence” of global warming.
A time when communist China is supplying our capitalist country with an endless supply of toxic toys.
A time when the American dollar is worth less than the Canadian dollar for the first time in its history.
An extremely medically advanced time when 50 million Americans remain without health insurance.
A time when the price of property is rising more than twice the rise of wages.
A time when conservative politicians who preach an antigay agenda turn out be closet queers.
I’m hoping 2008 with be less of a paradoxical time.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Fernandez, as I mentioned in a
5 responses so far ↓
1 chill // Jan 1, 2008 at 2:12 am
We can only hope. Let’s try to make it a better year.
2 alesh // Jan 1, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Osama bin Laden . . . is supposedly residing in Pakistan, which incidentally, is next to India, which will soon be producing advertising supplements for the Broward community section of the Miami Herald.
You can debate the pros and cons of outsourcing to India, Carlos, but equating it to bin Laden this way is some xenophobic bullshit.
3 Carlos Miller // Jan 1, 2008 at 3:25 pm
And a happy new year to you too, Alesh.
The point is, the media has shut down international bureaus because they feel there is not enough important international news to justify the costs, even though they’ve done it this way for decades and were still able to make money.
But even by shutting down the bureaus, they still want more profits, so they decide to outsource the production of “community” news sections to India.
Black is white. White is black. Night is day. Day is night. It’s all backwards. It really has nothing to do with xenophobia.
But I guess during these backwards times, it might as well because nothing else makes sense either.
4 alesh // Jan 2, 2008 at 7:50 am
Yes yes, happy new year, and congratulations on the new URL! (Yours shall be an example of how easy it is to start blogging for free and migrate to a “real” domain with relative ease on Wordpress.)
The important thing to remember is that “production” here means “layout.” Layout of all those (how many are there, anyway?) different section is repetitive, medium-skilled “intelligence work,” exactly the sort of thing most ripe for export overseas.
I might have said that moving these jobs overseas (and more will come, I think) will allow the Herald to hire more reporters, but I know that’s not true, just as you know that this isn’t about increasing profits — it’s an attempt to slow the rapid _collapse_ of profits, which is effecting the whole industry (and the Herald somewhat disproportionately).
The thing to realize is that there are jobs that are better done here, and EVERYTHING ELSE should be outsourced to wherever it’s cheapest. When that happens, everyone wins — you, me, the McClatchy shareholders, the news-consuming public, and yes, the folks in India, who believe me need those jobs more then we do.
For a much more convincing proof of this then I could muster, I direct you to Thomas Friedman’s ‘The World is Flat.’
5 Carlos Miller // Jan 2, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Alesh,
Whether you call it “production” or “layout”, it essentially means somebody here is losing their job, which means that somebody will be filing for unemployment, which means that somebody might be losing their home in a foreclosure.
The decision to outsource might make some Wall Street investor a few extra thousand dollars in a year, but it has a negative effect on the economy as a whole.
It is a myth that newspapers are not making money. Even in a recession, newspapers are still profiting.
Because newspapers are so profitable, investors know they can squeeze them out for even more profit, which is why foreign bureaus are shutting down and other jobs are being outsourced.
I really don’t see how “everyone wins” when jobs are outsourced.
Perhaps those people in India need the work more than we do, but if the United States is going to move towards providing jobs and money for poor countries out of the goodness of their hearts, then let’s start by not spending billions in killing Iraqi civilians.
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