New York Times goes for Gold*, **

L.A.'s top food critic could be headed to New York.

Larry Wilson at the Public Eye reports that Jonathan Gold, the Pulitizer-prize winning food critic for the LA Weekly, was offered the job of restaurant critic at the New York Times. He would replace Frank Bruni, who left the critic job in May.

Gold's decision was made easier this week when his wife, Laurie Ochoa, "parted ways" with the LA Weekly. She was the paper's editor in chief.

LAist speculated about the move a few days ago, but concluded Ochoa had been fired and Gold was staying. Wilson seems to have heard more current whispers.

*Updated, 6/7: Let's not send out the goodbye cards just yet. Assuming it's authentic, Gold posted a comment on Wilson's blog to say the New York Times has not offered him a job. Here's the comment:

Thanks for the nice words about Laurie. She molded the Weekly into the best alt-weekly on the planet, and Los Angeles is a much poorer place without her at the helm. But I can say definitively that I have neither accepted nor been offered a position at the NY Times.

The ceviche at Mo-Chica is epic, by the way.

**Updated, 6/9: Larry Wilson takes himself to task for jumping the gun.

The virtue of cheap*

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times profiles reluctant visionary James Macpherson, who has changed the course of journalism by hiring Indian workers for cheap to transcribe Pasadena City Council meetings and rewrite city press releases for his online publication, Pasadena Now:

It’s not easy being a visionary, he said: “I have essentially been five years ahead of the world for a long time, and that’s a horrible address at which to live because people look at you, you know, like you’re nuts.”

*UPDATED: (Via LA Observed) Macpherson blogs about his system of using nonprofessional sources to gather video and audio so that it can be used by reporters in India to write a story under the direction of a trained editor. The whole thing reads like a long rationalization: If one experienced editor oversees an operation, it doesn't matter how untrained or distant the newsgatherers might be. Indeed, if you set the standards low enough, most anything is possible.

Obama and the BCS*

Since Southern California is home to the Rose Bowl, the Coliseum, UCLA and USC, I figured President-elect Barack Obama's comments on 60 Minutes about reforming the Bowl Championship Series might reverberate on the local sports pages. Well, sort of.

Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times had this to say in his column in Thursday's paper:

Take out a quill -- the kind Thomas Jefferson used to pen the Declaration of Independence -- and declare this:

President-elect Barack Obama will solve the Middle East crisis before he solves the Bowl Championship Series.

He'll get the polar ice caps to stop melting before he gets "sensible" people to come to a college football consensus.

Sure nothing is likely to happen, but that shouldn't stop us from speculating.

After some prompting, Larry Wilson, public editor of the Pasadena Star-News and my former boss, gave his thoughts on whether talk of BCS reform should be cause for panic (displayed in the most civil manner possible) in the Crown City. Here's what he had to say:

gary, indeed such an obamaorama of a solution to the mighty woes of the ncaa gridironers would mean an end to the messy but lucrative bcs. but wouldn't it then create a neat and also very lucrative series of playoff games which historic and large stadiums such as the [Rose Bowl] would bid for -- and wouldn't the bowl be the likely place for western regional games? and then every five years it would still likely host the final national championship as well. so i say this is obama's way of repaying his pasadena debt. lw

While the BCS already rotates the "championship" game in this way, the Rose Bowl would have to give up the Pac-10/Big Ten match-up under the playoff scheme. Would a regional playoff game attract the same level of excitement as a traditional rivalry? Is the Tournament of Roses ready to embrace a more egalitarian system? Wouldn't the Coliseum make a play for the playoff action?

I'll be waiting for the Pasadena paper to provide some answers.

*UPDATED: My former editor, Bob Rector, whose columns appear in the Star-News, weighed in on the Obama plan. The chances college football drops the bowl system for a playoff series: A big zero. Bob elaborates:

For one thing, the Pac 10 and Big 10 don't want to further diminish the Rose Bowl game, which would undoubtedly happen in a playoff scenario.

Second, there's too much money to be made under the current arrangement. Dump the bowl games and you're dumping the cash.

Bob did some consulting work for the Rose Bowl and has a severe addiction to UCLA home games. His column on the Obama plan, the BCS and ESPN dominance of college football is scheduled to run in Friday's paper.

The Public Editor's take

Larry Wilson, public editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group and my former boss at the Pasadena Star-News, has some thoughts on the cuts announced last week at his papers.