Where are the news?!

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    I never had a TV before moving to our new place. Now we have started to watch the news during lunch. We keep shuffling between A24!, TN, TVP... but none of them has news like I have seen elsewhere.


    'The news' as I know it is a series of brief pieces starting from worldwide politics to local politics and then domestic news, some cultures and society and it is over in 30-40'.

    Here in Argentina I have yet to find a service on foreign politics, and pieces are veeeeeery long... We start and end our meal with the same piece non-stop where the same images and words are repeated endlessly. The pieces are always about robberies in Buenos Aires or disgraces: yesterday it was a girl who died in the delivery room, the day before it was a child run over by motochorros. While they certainly deserve to be on the news, they are not worth half a hour. Maybe a quick mention of 1 minute.


    The only foreign news are about US politics toward immigrants and tourists in the US. Basically, is foreign policy by the 'medio argentino' needs, not an education on global facts.

    Maybe I am missing the right channel - what is the Argentinian channels with news along the line of BBC or CNN?

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    To be honest most of the news reporting here is utterly moronic and caters to the lowest common denominator. One expects news to go round and round if you leave the channel on, but Argentine news takes it to another level.

    For example, they may be reporting on someone important being released from jail and all they have is a 30 second clip of a man being escorted through the gates carrying a brown paper bag, so for the next half an hour whilst the studio guest is being interviewed, that 30 second clip will run looped, non-stop, ad nauseum. It drives me fucking crazy, so I switch channels, throw the remote at the TV or start shooting aliens on my PC instead.

    And then we have the dramatic music which they like to add to important stories, bringing the level of reporting down to trashy soap opera. And every news news item is URGENTE! Wtf is that?

    And let's not even talk about independent reporting because it practically doesn't exist here. EVERY media outlet has an agenda which they ram down your throat, bare-faced. TN and C5N are prime examples.

    Ever catch Los Leucos on TN at 10PM? It's a father and son news show and boy do they bang on about that cringeworthyness in the opening credits, as if we give a shit about photos of dad holding little five year old Diego in his arms on some fucking beach near Carilo. The first 30 minutes is given over to a patronsing Leuco senior diatribe, nine times out of ten being an attack on Cristina, her husband or anyone remotely connected with her. I swear the man will have CFK engraved on his tombstone and his words are delivered as they were the tablets of Moses. Nauseating in the extreme.

    And who do they always drag before the cameras? Margarita Stolbizer, who talks so much that she barely comes up for air. Elisa Carrio, whose craving for attention is only equalled by the size of the foot which she promptly inserts into her mouth every time she opens it, followed by a list of other instantly forgettable luminaries whom they park in the guest room and wheel out when someone shouts 'Action!'

    I know the BBC is not 100% balanced and let's not even talk about CNN and Fox, but for the love of God, bring me some balanced reporting from somewhere, anywhere please in this drama, tribal obsessed country.

    • Official Post
    Quote from Splinter

    For example, they may be reporting on someone important being released from jail and all they have is a 30 second clip of a man being escorted through the gates carrying a brown paper bag, so for the next half an hour whilst the studio guest is being interviewed, that 30 second clip will run looped, non-stop, ad nauseam.


    Ditto! Don't they get tired to speak about it? 'cause at a certain point it is so evident that their are dragging it endlessly and it is all mere speculation, personal opinions, made up stuff just to fill in a 30 minute space.


    I remember that during hurricane Irma, on TN there was a lady who was invited on the set only because she was a Dominican living in Argentina.

    I wish I had taken a picture of the TV screen back then -- it was absurd. The caption read:

    Juanita Solis

    Dominicana


    Another time, TN was making a service on a car accident at a roundabout on the route from Mar del Plata to Tandil. Everybody had gone by the time the TV team arrived at the scene, but they found some standby-ers (who stopped to watch the rescuers / the accident) and interviewed them endlessly. The caption was:

    Rosa y Juan Oviedo

    Manejaban por la rotatoria

    Last time we watched TN, there was a 30' coverage at the Retiro microbus station on a father who got into a fight with his daughter because she wanted to go on holidays with her boyfriend and the police had to intervene. They said people were not stepping on the micros because they wanted to watch the scene. No actual information was provided (did the girl lie to her father and they met accidentally at the station, each one heading to a different destination? or was a family holiday and she arrived with her boyfriend and there was no space available)? So the journalist (should we call them like this? sounds offensive to real reporters) interviewed the people who saw the scene. Nobody understood anything about it, yet they were on camera for many minutes just saying "I think maybe...."

    Like anywhere else, they probably cater to what their audience wants... you are not their audience. I hope this model has come after some market research, but it seems in general Argentine's are happy enough watching the news and have not much interest in what is happening in other parts of the world. I do see here more people watch the news while eating lunch or dinner. I understand why they would do this on the lunchtime or evening news on a general channel, but don't understand why a dedicated news channel (TN) would not be more in-depth, widespread, and well, interesting.


    I think that explains it, but I agree the quality sucks. News here is almost entertainment show level and normally has not a lot to say. It just follows the general awfulness of TV in Argentina across the board. Take America or Trece, two of the biggest channels. Follow those from 7am in the morning to 11pm in the night. What actual quality shows are there? Stupid celebrity focused debate shows, horrible cheap novellas, lowest common denominator game shows, and the news.

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    I enjoy reading la NACION and I'd like to see something like it on TV. I don't know how many people get their news from newspapers, in this country, so I am pretty puzzled (if not troubled) that there is no Argentinian news as we know it. ?<br>
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    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    I'm old enough (sigh) to remember a day when, to find out what happened that day, you actually had to take action: pick up the newspaper, turn on the radio/TV (at appropriate times only) and read/listen/watch as you received information.


    Well, hasn't that all changed now? The basic problem is simple and unfixable: too many sources of information. CNN/Fox/TN/, etc., are on the air twenty-four hours and all those moving mouths and busy fingers are compelled to say or type something. It was so wonderful when Ed Murrow, Walter Cronkhite, et al, came on for a half-hour and told us things we didn't know. Now, we know everything, all the time.


    Something gained? No doubt. Something lost? Yeah - privacy and sanity.

    Cablevisión has a package with both CNN International and BBC, and I think DIRECTV does as well. CNN International is repetitive, but has some interesting specials, especially on emerging countries in Africa and Asia. Irritatingly, too much sports coverage. Very little news of the UK, US or EU. I would hang myself from a NutterButter display rack before watching FuxNews.