TeleSUR, the Latin American news multimedia announced today the launch of TeleSUR English, a news site oriented to English-speaking audiences covering the global journalistic agenda. …
[The president of TeleSUR, Patricia Villegas], who leads the seven-country owned public company, described the initiative as “a long-term bet and part of a geopolitical and communication strategy in the field of global information.”
TeleSUR English will show video content, recognized opinions, special coverage and a major audience participation.
TeleSUR English will produce audiovisual content through the staff writers and producers in Quito, Ecuador.
The site will feature special productions with Laura Flanders, Rebel Diaz, Roberto Lovato, Tariq Ali, Bill Fletcher Jr.
Also, they will participate in the site recognized bloggers as Daniel Kovalik, Ricky L. Jones, Vijay Prashad, Horace Campbell, Belen Fernandez, Bill Bowring, Deric Shannon, Roger Burbach, Cyntia McKinney, Joe McIvor, Costas Panyotakis, Howard Friel, Simon Butler and Oscar Guardiola-Rivera.
And columnists such as Michael Albert, Walden Bello, Phyllis Bennis, Noam Chomsky, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Steve Early [Ed.: I think they mean Steve Earle], Linda Gordon, Arun Gupta, Pervez Hoodbhoy, John Pilger, Marina Sitrin, Norman Solomon and Hilary Wainwright.
TeleSUR is the Latin American news signal with headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela. It is operated by the Nueva Television del Sur C.A., a public company funded by the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela.
It was created in 2005 as a space to defend and promote the processes of change in the region and the world.
It isn’t hard to see where this is going, but the Miami Herald has more:
Telesur was the brainchild of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and designed in part to counter the narrative of regional outlets like CNN en Español. …
The station is also at the vanguard of promoting Chávez’s legacy, paying Oliver Stone $3 million to produce a documentary called “My Friend Hugo.”
Hugo Chavez and Oliver Stone, hard to say which is more disgusting
Right. TeleSur is for those who think CNN is too conservative, and Hugo Chavez was mainstream. What will TeleSur cover in addition to Latin America?
[Villegas] points to the fact that the new website inaugurated its coverage this week with reports about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from Gaza. …
Tarik Ali, a Pakistani author and columnist, has been with Telesur since its inception. He will be hosting an English-language interview show called “The World Today,” broadcast four times a week.
He said that referring to Telesur as a mouthpiece of the Latin American left is hypocritical.
“The global corporate media is the mouthpiece for the system of the market — its political aims, its wars…[But] no one ever refers to American networks as mouthpieces of official propaganda, which they are,” he said. “At English-language Telesur, we come with a different philosophy and have a different world view…But we will not make up things, we will not make up lies, we will not show documentaries with certain things cut out, all of which has happened on western television at one time or another.”
Lifelong Marxist Tarik Ali, in his younger days
It won’t be easy to get to CNN’s left on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but I am sure they will try. Cynthia McKinney will feel right at home.
UPDATE: In poking around for image files, I see that McKinney claims to be working on a doctoral dissertation on…Hugo Chavez. I can’t wait to read the part where she talks about the toilet paper shortage.
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