As far as the papers go, you could read the serious reporting in La Prensa or La Estrella, but it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as picking up one of the tabloids, which managed to be SHOCKED every day by the latest car crash or accidental death. The prevailing sentiment in the tabloid newsrooms seems to be that no piece of information could serve the public interest better than close up shots of dead bodies and mostly naked women. As evidence, please see the following picture of a front page from La Critica taken in the middle of Carnaval celebrations:
(Editor’s note: Publishing the above photo proved to be one of the toughest editorial decisions we’ve had to make here. After several hours of heated deliberations, we decided we would be on more solid ethical footing if we blurred the face on the dead body. We couldn’t see any reason not to publish the picture of the naked lady, though).
When we get frustrated trying to decipher Spanish headlines, though, there are several English language news outlets we can turn to as well. La Estrella, for example, publishes a daily English section called (cleverly) “The Star.”
For my money, though, if you’re looking for hard hitting, not-afraid-to-ask-the-tough-questions, not-gonna-be-a-mouthpiece-for-the-government or big business English reporting, you’d be well served to pick up a copy of the (free) weekly paper, the Panama Post:
And then there’s TV. We don’t get to watch it as much as we like since we don’t have electricity in our site, but everytime we’re on the road, we luxuriate in its greatness. Classic US reporter behavior (eye contact with interviewee, non-expressive face, acting interested in what´s going on, etc..) is notably absent. And, in fact, it often seems like the anchors and reporters take a ¨we´ll get to you in a minute,¨ attitude towards the audience. For example, pretty much every time we watch the morning news, a reporter or anchor will make a cell phone call or check his Blackberry on the air. Here, for example, is TVN morning anchor Lucy Molinar trying to get in touch with a source as they cover a protest against proposed construction of a cell phone tower in a neighborhood of Panama City:
But nothing -- NOTHING! -- surpasses the greatness of Casimiro, Telemetro´s morning news puppet. He shows up frequently on a show called, ¨Debate Abierto,¨ which resembles your standard dry McLaughlin Group-esque chat format...until Casimiro pops up to do some hilarious puppet banter with the anchor:
Does he increase credibility? Not with me frankly. But he certainly does make debate about light-rail proposals a li´l more vibrant.
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