More bad news - the wife just got the sack!! The Daily Telegraph -- where she worked as office assistant/fixer -- is shutting its Paris bureau. Her boss Colin Randall is also out. See the news on his own blog. Let us leave aside our personal interest, but what does this say about the future of journalism? The BBC, I note, is also axing one of its two correspondents' jobs in Paris -- this at a time when demand for "product" has never been greater, what with the proliferation of tv and radio outlets, plus online. What is happening is that technology is allowing more to be done from "hubs". If you can access the French newspapers, radio and TV by Internet from head-office and get the news-wires as well, you'll have a fairish picture of what is going on -- and you'll save a fortune in housing costs and other expenses for an expat. correspondent. The objections to this trend seem to me to be so glaring that I am dumbstruck. Everything is going to be reduced to cliché. There'll be no-one challenging the "accepted version" of a story, because no one will have the on-the-ground authority or knowledge to have an opinion. You can see how this will effect stories like the riots in the banlieues. Political correctness and cant will rule. Independent thought will go out the window.