At the Media Panel, Marc Cooper, formerly of LA Weekly, current teacher at the USC Annenberg School said that the Sacramento Bee called him and wants to use the staff of Neon Tommy to cover the gubernatorial race because they don't have the staff to do it.

"Neon Tommy, Tommy the Trojan." Said Cooper. Which made us think for a minute that it was a play on prophylactics - but then it would be Neon Jimmy. Tommy is apparently the nickname for the school mascot.

Uhm, okay.

Anyway, is it wrong to want someone who is old enough to have voted in the recall election to be covering the highest office in the state race for the biggest paper in the state capital?

CLARIFICATION:
Cooper sent us this:

Allow me a clarification on the above piece. We have had only one third-party contact with the Sac Bee regarding a possible collaboration on the Governor's race. There is no sense that the Bee will "outsource" its coverage to Neon Tommy. Any reporting done by USC students on this issue would supplement not supplant the work done by the Bee. To date, this is just an embryonic notion which, from our perspective, we hope will materialize in a fruitful way for both organizations. But it should be crystal clear that Neon Tommy is NOT being called upon to provide principal coverage of an issue that is of prime expertise for the Bee. Thanks.

Marc Cooper
"Neon Tommy"
USC Annenberg School

UPDATE: The original headline to this post was "Sac Bee Outsourcing Governor Race Coverage to College Paper". And due to the implication, it was changed to reflect what actually happened, which is Marc Cooper SAID that to reporters and around 200 people at a panel.

Also see: LAT FOB: Media: Where Do We Go From Here? Panel