Creating the Telesur buzz
The New York Times' Juan Forero joins in the Telesur buzz, hyping the channel as Chavez's Al Jazeera before it can even show one program. There are three ways for Telesur to become the anti-US channel that these articles seem to anticipate:
1) Years of time and millions of dollars invested into a legitimate news agency (or at least a television version of Prensa Latina).
2) Significant continued media buzz such this article.
3) One stupid comment from a US official denouncing the channel.
Chavez would like to hype this channel and the anti-Chavez forces would also like to see some US panic over it. It benefits both sides to bring up the tensions in the region. Fortunately, US officials have been restrained in public.
Assuming this channel doesn't go off the deep end with their propaganda, the US should avoid treating this media outlet any differently than others. In a few months, when a US official makes the rounds to the regional media, Telesur should be offered an interview. We should encourage NGO's to offer the same media training to Telesur journalists that we offer others in the region. And above all, we should not hold this media outlet to higher standards, nor should we respond to ridiculous allegations made on the network.
Not responding to the allegations may turn out to be the hard part. To fight for ratings, the channel will probably try serving some O'Reilly like red-meat from the Chavez side of the spectrum. It'll gain some ratings, but will only be preaching to the converted.
Finally, I did find one point about the article disturbing:
1) Years of time and millions of dollars invested into a legitimate news agency (or at least a television version of Prensa Latina).
2) Significant continued media buzz such this article.
3) One stupid comment from a US official denouncing the channel.
Chavez would like to hype this channel and the anti-Chavez forces would also like to see some US panic over it. It benefits both sides to bring up the tensions in the region. Fortunately, US officials have been restrained in public.
Assuming this channel doesn't go off the deep end with their propaganda, the US should avoid treating this media outlet any differently than others. In a few months, when a US official makes the rounds to the regional media, Telesur should be offered an interview. We should encourage NGO's to offer the same media training to Telesur journalists that we offer others in the region. And above all, we should not hold this media outlet to higher standards, nor should we respond to ridiculous allegations made on the network.
Not responding to the allegations may turn out to be the hard part. To fight for ratings, the channel will probably try serving some O'Reilly like red-meat from the Chavez side of the spectrum. It'll gain some ratings, but will only be preaching to the converted.
Finally, I did find one point about the article disturbing:
In a recent visit to the station's headquarters, in a large building adjacent to Venezuela's state television, one program coordinator, Noel Cisneros, wore a T-shirt for Colombia's Marxist rebel group...Are you kidding me? Let's put it this way, if the station's target audience are FARC sympathizers, they aren't going to be taken seriously in the region and are going to quickly find themselves going under in the ratings.
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