Bolivia: Bolivian Television’s Watchdog · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Blogs in Bolivia have yet to achieve the level of being a primary source of information to compete with other forms of communication.  Television continues to dominate the manner in which citizens get their news and where they follow current events.  A blog called La TeVelisión [ES], written by Rodrigo Serrate aims, as his tagline states, “for a better television that we all deserve.” His criticisms and observations about the state of Bolivian television leaves neither side of the political spectrum off the hook.
Serrate wrote a follow-up post regarding an issue that caused great concern among many bloggers.  In an earlier Global Voices Online article, bloggers were not pleased with a decision made by the state-run television channel to change is traditional tri-color logo that represented the Bolivian flag.  In its place was a logo that closely resembled the whipala flag that, which many complained, did not represent the entire country.  Serrate soon discovered that the channel had backpedaled and introduced a new logo that went back to the three colors of the Bolivian flag.  He applauded this decision, although laments the fact that all of the sets, microphones and other items with the old logo had to be replaced yet again.
In his most recent post, Serrate took some screenshots from the news broadcast of the television channel Sitel.  In a story about some of President Morales’ recent controversies of corruption within his party, the news channel accompanied the story with caricature drawings of an angry Morales. He wrote that the host would say, “this is how our President Evo Morales Ayma looks after these cases of corruption…”  His article titled “This is News?” emphasizes that this is no way for a serious news channel to operate.
Tanta gente que egresa como periodista y se muere de hambre por no conseguir trabajo en un medio de comunicación, especialmente en television, ya es hora que a los ineficientes se los bote y se de oportunidad a nueva gente llena de ideas y mejor preparación.
En caso de Sitel, a todo el mediocre equipo de prensa le hace falta una limpieza y por supuesto, al propietario algo mas de conciencia.
There are too many graduates with degrees in journalism that are struggling to find jobs in the media, especially in television.  It’s time to get rid of the inefficient people and make way for new people with a lot of ideas and better training.  In the case of Sitel, the entire mediocre news team should be wiped clean, and the owner should become more conscientious of the work.
On the larger screen, Luis Rodríguez of Diseccionando a la Musa Perdida [ES] provides his own analysis of the most recent Bolivian movie called Los Andes No Creen En Dios (The Andes Don’t Believe in God) set in the early 20th century.  Even though the production, and in particular the sound quality, were of high quality, Rodriguez left the theater with a bad taste in his mouth, as his major gripe had to do with the script and the actors.
O una supuesta cholita que se expresaba igual que las actrices de Televisa. No es que tenga algo en contra de esa mega productora de novelas, sino que la actriz encargada de representar a una cholita encarnó a la típica, cruel y malvada, madrastra que lucha por la fortuna del moribundo marido, y que no sabe más que responder a gritos con un tono de voz a la defensiva. Y pasó eso durante toda la película. Las cholitas no hablan ni gesticulan así, tampoco creo que vean muchas telenovelas. Al menos no en la década del veinte
A supposed cholita (indigenous woman) expressed herself in the same way as the Televisa actresses.  It is not that I have anything against those mega productions of soap operas, but the actress playing a cholita resembled the typical, cruel, and evil stepmother that chases after the husband’s fortunes, and who doesn’t know how else to respond except with yelling in a defensive tone of voice.  This happened during the entire film.  The cholitas do not talk like that or make gestures like that, and I don’t think they watch too many soap operas either, especially during the decade of the 1920s.
This time, last year:
Miguel Esquirol of El Forastero, guest wrote an article about the great “Charango Controversy,” in which many Bolivians were upset when Chilean President Michelle Bachelet presented U2 singer, Bono, with a charango as a native Chilean instrument.  Many identify this instrument as typical Bolivian.  In addition, this controversy was soon overshadowed by a strange and tragic bombing in La Paz, in which the bomber proved to have an odd background that many bloggers wrote about.