 | ||
Dear Jason, Is there any job that can’t be outsourced? Millions of American workers have lost their jobs as employers have moved operations overseas. It’s true for manufacturing, data processing and customer service. Now it’s true for local news. Media giants including Sam Zell’s Tribune Company have begun to send local reporting jobs abroad. To the Philippines. According to a major story by This American Life, several prominent media corporations have outsourced local news production to Journatic, a company that hires underpaid workers in the Philippines to create local news stories for newspapers in the United States.1 Tell Tribune Chairman Sam Zell: Local News = Local Journalists Journatic’s employees attach fake bylines to their stories to hide the company's outsourcing scheme. The Tribune Company has bought into this deception, hoping people won’t notice the journalistic sleight of hand. A whistleblower at Journatic who figured it out had this to say: "It's sort of a tattered product that's being written overseas, halfheartedly edited and just kind of slopped on the page." Most readers of the Tribune Company’s many print outlets would be outraged to know that local reporting is being produced in news sweatshops abroad, where writers make between 35 and 40 cents per story. Local news organizations must be accountable to the communities in which they operate. That means hiring reporters who work among us and walk the same streets, who have direct ties to the people and issues that affect our lives. That’s not what Zell thinks. He’s using Journatic's assembly line, which involves writers in the Philippines, editors in far-flung corners of the U.S. and even paragraphs that are auto-generated by computers, to repackage local press releases and publicly available information as real reporting. It’s not. Demand Local News from Local Reporters. Tell Sam Zell to Stop the News Deception Zell, who has a notorious disregard for journalists,2 hopes that he can save money by fooling Americans and faking local news. His Tribune Company holdings stretch from New York to Los Angeles, from Chicago to New Orleans, and include dozens of daily newspapers and local TV stations. Since he took the helm at the Tribune Company, Zell has slashed more than 200 newsroom jobs. Now, with this Journatic deal, it’s clear that Zell’s assault on journalism isn’t over. Sign our letter to Zell so that the Tribune Company chairman and media executives across the country know that you can’t fake local news. With your help we can return local reporters to local beats. Thanks, Libby, Tim, Misty and the rest of the Free Press team P.S. Like our work? The Free Press Action Fund is powered by donations from people like you. We don’t take a single cent from business, government or political parties. Please keep us going strong with a gift of $10 — or more — today. Thank you! 1. "Switcheroo," This American Life: http://act.freepress.net/go/10976?t=9&akid=3659.9578237.CCYpD3 2. Sam Zell "F&@k You" to his journalist: http://act.freepress.net/go/10974?t=11&akid=3659.9578237.CCYpD3 3. Journatic has a well-established history of attacking local news. Read more: http://act.freepress.net/go/10975?t=13&akid=3659.9578237.CCYpD3
| ||
Free Press is a nonpartisan organization building a nationwide movement for media that serve the public interest. Learn more at www.freepress.net.
Join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.