The latest edition of The Drinnan brings word that Television New Zealand may be reconsidering the role of its dedicated New York correspondent Tim Wilson.
 
No surprises there. The state broadcaster has recently been laying off full-time reporters and cutting news budgets like billy-o, and running the accounting ruler over Wilson’s duties would probably be no bad thing.
 
As the Herald’s media columnist argues, much of what Wilson reports seems to be of so little consequence that one can't help but wish that if there was a big story his parent company simply took a feed from one of the major Anglo-American networks.
 
Take this piece Wilson filed recently from outside the memorial service held for Michael Jackson. Other than a New Zealand accent, what did it actually add to what already was an exhaustively reported international story?
 
But even if Wilson’s dispatches were of the reportorial quality of a Graham Greene character, there still would be a business case for making do with an American or British reporter who knows the terrain at least as well and would likely come at a fraction of the cost.
 
The old romantic idea of a foreign bureau and correspondent seems outdated anyway in an era of instant Anglophone news, especially in respect what's already the world's most-covered media city.
 
Much better to use what resources a news company might have available for foreign reportage on places where reporters are fewer on the ground, English isn’t as widely spoken and there’s a clearer regional relevance for New Zealand viewers.
 
So how about Hong Kong? If Tim Wilson’s not up for it, we can think of at least one zesty Kiwi currently living there for whom the correspondent’s hat could prove an interesting fit.