London, Baltimore journalists to switch jobs

Reporters from London and Baltimore are planning to switch jobs for a short time to report on what they see in their temporary home. This stunt was inspired by the show The Wire, set in Baltimore. The Brits thought it'd be fun to see what it was like.

Democracy in America (The Economist):

AN IMAGINATIVE work of journalism or a stunt with a travel budget attached? Crime reporters for the Independent in London and the Baltimore Sun are going to switch places and report for each other's paper. The inspiration, as anyone with more than a basic-cable package could guess, was "The Wire": the Brit wants to know how accurately the show depicts the city. "The Wire" was far and away the best television programme ever created, and as someone who grew up in Maryland, I'm in favour of all things Charm City. As a reporter, however, I'm leery. I worry that what we'll get are two streams of reporting that will prove rather banal to anyone who knows either Baltimore or London. And so far, so zzzzzz: we have an American discovering that London is statistically safer than Baltimore, and a Brit discovering the opposite. I worry, too, that a mission to find out whether Baltimore is "like" a television show will result in checklist reporting (this is similar, that's not, etc). It also ignores what made "The Wire" great: not so much verisimilitude—if that's what you're after, just put cameras on corners—but old-fashioned narrrative control that enabled inventiveness and great storytelling. I expect that in two weeks the British reporter will find Baltimore much messier and duller than "The Wire". That's because real life is messier and duller than television.

I can't imagine this will be A) at all enlightening or even interesting to Americans, much less Baltimoreans, or B) at all accurate. I guess the only thing that intrigues me is that, in the end, how hard will the London guys go to reach a satisfactory end?

I hope they're good writers, regardless. While I'm skeptical of the overall "success" of this, I would bet that both sides are aware of the expectations of this project and have confidence that if things are flat, especially in Baltimore, these writers will be able pull it out.