Notebook: Foreign Report
Video: The world has gotten smaller. And so has the number of people to tell us about it.
Now when we need them the most, there are fewer foreign correspondents.
Last month, the Boston Globe announced it would close its last three overseas bureaus to focus on local news.
Others may follow suit. The owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer said recently: "We don't need a Jerusalem bureau. We need more people in the South Jersey bureau."
It could be a trend. A report from Harvard's Shorenstein Center found that since 2002, there are about 50 fewer newspaper reporters working overseas. In broadcasting, it's no different. The networks -- including CBS -- have made big cuts in their foreign bureaus.
Ironically this is happening just when "globalization" has become part of our lexicon -- and global events are having a political and economic impact in our own backyard. Maybe we need to realize that "foreign" news is more "local" than ever.