When 9:00 rolls around, better said 21:00 hrs, people in Chile are gathering in front of their televisions to watch the news. Actually most people are already there, attracted by the soap operas that air an hour beforehand, the lure of “onces“, or both. The news is a serious cultural happening: not only does it provide the fodder for the next day’s gossip but it  informs the populace on a smorgasbord of events, from the hi-brow to the low. 

Forty minutes into tonight’s broadcast I got a good dose of the low. Only in South America can a report on Catholicism include some cumbia and a note on soccer. To the outsider this sounds like I’m making it up. If I mentioned there were brightly colored parrots involved that’s when you know I’m kidding. It’s not a stereotype if we’re in on the joke, it’s just funny.

I never watched the news much in the U.S., it’s all the Michael Moore I took in as a college student. Plus if you grew up with Fox 7 as your news source you’d be turned off, too. However it’s pretty rad they covered the Venus Project.

Fox 7’s graphics and that voice bring me back; it’s if I can still hear the apocalyptic hysteria of their hurricane reporting. Miss you, Belkys.

The only thing that makes me wince about the news in Chile is Amaro Gómez-Pablos. I love TVN’s reporting, but I can’t stand Gómez-Pablos’ accent. It stomps through the soothing, chummy Chilean accent like a snobbish bull. Even though the Spaniards invented the language it was perfected in the New World. Numbers alone should eliminate that lisp and use of “vosotros.”

To end on a high note, here’s another example of Chilean journalism that I love: Caiga Quien Caiga (CQC). This clip not only puts on display a smorgasbord of accents but it brings in Miami Cubans. So we come full circle, in the most hilarious way.