James Macpherson responds - and points out some errors of my own

You'll recall that on Saturday, February 14, I wrote a post entitled "Outsourced News" which discussed James Macpherson's Pasadena Now.

Macpherson has responded, and for those who don't see my Disqus comments, I'm reproducing his response in full here.

When you write (eloquently if without regard spelling) "Although I live for opoprtunities [sic] to slam Maureen Dowd, I'm forced to admit that she did uncover some issues with the accuracy of the Pasadena Now coverage" you utterly miss the point.

The worker queried was not a writer or "reporter" but one of our cut-and-paste personnel who copies event listings into our calendar section, verbatim.

How disingenuous of Dowd - and you! - to cite this person's comments as evidence of ignorance on the part of our writers.

More to the point: What "issues" did Dowd uncover? Every single article and fact we publish is vetted by the editor here in Pasadena.

Even more to the point: Our writers in India are provided with full research background, interview transcripts, and photos - when they produce articles, they have full facts at their fingertips.

FYI, our content is now bolstered by Andre Coleman, for years the city reporter for the "Pasadena Weekly." Our stories are authoritative and collaborative, blending articles written here with articles written elsewhere.

We have signed up 37 advertisers in a month and are flourishing; the Pasadena Star-News has laid off many and forced unpaid furloughs on the remaining.

If you were to take the time to investigate the model we are developing you would discover it has much to offer to save American journalism and is far from the lame caricature you present.

Macpherson raises some valid points, which I'll investigate in the future.

But the best part of this whole affair is that James Macpherson, the Foothill Cities Blog's "Centinel" (see this post), and I all agree on one thing - Maureen Dowd is not a shining example of American journalism.

(Now we'll see if Dowd avails herself of the opoprtunity to leave a comment in this blog. And yes, "opoprtunity" was intentional.)