Global News has announced that it is sending five of its journalists to foreign bureaus to report for Global National. This follows a similar move a while back to open foreign bureaus for the Canwest News Service print and web news wire. Among them are two Montrealers (and ex-Global Quebec reporters), Stuart Greer (in London) and Ben O’Hara-Byrne (in Beijing), as well as weekend Global National anchor Tara Nelson (in London).
(Full disclosure: I work for The Gazette, which is owned, along with Global, by Canwest.)
I fully understand why Canadian networks/news agencies always go to Washington and London first when they open foreign bureaus, but it still bothers me.
I mean, they speak English in those places. And thanks to the Internet, I can read any newspaper I want from either one. Or I can turn on my television and watch BBC World or CNN and so forth.
Like I say, I understand the reasons they open these bureaus first, but I think bureaus in Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Cape Town, Moscow, Dehli or any number of other places would be more useful and interesting to me personally.