Chile Forum

I just subscribed to Santiago Times Online in order to beef up my knowledge of current events in Chile. So far, the paper seems quite balanced and thorough to me though I don't have anything to compare it to (as I don't yet read Spanish).

When reading articles from most major US papers I tend to take them with a grain of salt. Does anyone have good insight as to the true freedom of the press in Chile? Is the Santiago Times relatively unbiased? For the most part I am reading business and political stories. I would hate to discover later that the Santiago Times is skewed like the New York Times (for example) and things are not what I came to believe. (For me, the New York Times demonstrates a liberal leaning bias).

Dagny wrote:…… liberal leaning bias).

That would be a quite accurate description of the editor and ST in general but no one else is doing what they do (translate articles from the Chilean press into English). They occasionally have original reporting on topics. Other than that, read with open eyes.

Dagny wrote:(For me, the New York Times demonstrates a liberal leaning bias).

It's not just you!

Dagny wrote:...a liberal leaning bias...

Now that depends on your positions on the political spectrum… I am sure for some, these editors are to far to the right. Just like how the people/parties that are centre-right are too far to the left for those that believe in far right ideologies.

j. Ro wrote:

Dagny wrote:...a liberal leaning bias...

Now that depends on your positions on the political spectrum… I am sure for some, these editors are to far to the right. Just like how the people/parties that are centre-right are too far to the left for those that believe in far right ideologies.

Well said. El Mercurio was paid millions by the CIA back in the day and the US govt itself has disclosed it was for propaganda purposes. (FOIA Chile)

I am really hesitant to jump on this subject at all, because the Chilean Expat English media / web site circle is so small. We really need more.

From a publication editorial standpoint some people might think they have a bias one way or the other politicaly, which every news organization tends to have depending on their perspective. Setting aside the translated articles, I have always found the original articles to be rather lacking on depth and perspective. Their writers are often intern / packpacker types with very limited knowledge or experience of Chile. So for example, you get this kind of stereotypical view that every Chilean is still spending their days and nights recovering from the dictatorship, or some comment about the dictatorship slipped in to articles that really had nothing to do with the subject. It is that 'I just got off the airplane, and this is all I know about Chile' perspective which is bias more out of ignorance than intent. Some of their articles are quite good.

As an organization however they have seriously alienating the established expat community with their buisness practices. I know many that simply want nothing to do with them now. The most disturbing I have been told by a buisness in Chile just a week or so ago is that they paid for expensive advertising packages, and the advertising campaign was never run. I have actually been asked in conversations if I had any association with them before people would do buisness with me. Whatever is going on, they need to clean it up.

Strange how many expats adopt some of the sleazier and slimier business practices of the "locals". Definitely the bad way to go "native" so to speak.

I have also seen/heard of bad practices by foreigners that piss off the locals from a hostel owner who constantly fails to pay the monthly rent and places that run programs for language and cultural exchange that charge first world prices for their overseas gringo clients but rely on "volunteer" or minimum wage labor.

Given the natural tendency for chilenos to start rumoring behind a foreigners back, they do not help the cause of expats in general within Chile.

Regarding more English media. The ST once had a competitor but they folded for some reason a couple of years ago after a transition from print to Internet. This publication was much more inclusive to English speakers from around the world - UK, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians - than just having a US centric left political viewpoint.

take one look at their pricing structure and you'll know they don't have the sharpest knives in the drawer working there:

$9.99/month = $120/year

OR

pay a year in advance for $175.

just go to the site and copy/paste the headline for an article into google, and you'll find the entire article for free -- and look, it's for free on THE SANTIAGO TIMES! probably a way for them to try and drum up some business, but man they are stupid.

For a tiny taste of Chilean news in English, try the globabl post - I can't post links yet, but it's just globalpost with a dot com at the end. Certainly not daily, and it has its share of bias, but it is interesting none the less. Also el mecurio "emol" dot com, has headlines and maybe a few articles in english on their website.

Lunkey wrote:take one look at their pricing structure and you'll know they don't have the sharpest knives in the drawer working there:

$9.99/month = $120/year

OR

pay a year in advance for $175.

just go to the site and copy/paste the headline for an article into google, and you'll find the entire article for free -- and look, it's for free on THE SANTIAGO TIMES! probably a way for them to try and drum up some business, but man they are stupid.

Yea, that seemed quite odd to me. I had to read it a few times to make sure I wasn't the one with a brain malfunction. And the sign-up process was quite odd:

-Click the link to PayPal
-Pay $9.99 US
-Send a separate email to ST detailing your PayPal transaction as well as your preferred USERNAME and PASSWORD, home address etc.
-A day or so later they email you saying you're "in"

Well, I spent $10, most likely won't renew and will search out free articles.

Just do what I do... and I think admin uses this as well.

I use the Google news service and have a few custom key word searches. With Chile being one, so I can get all the English news articles about Chile on that page. No fees involved and I have yet to run into a page that is blocked because it is a pay site or anything.

Hey, don't tell all my secrets.

Yea, I have a Google news rss feed setup in my browser with the key term "Chile".

I also read Spanish / watch the local news when I am in the mood for talking heads (man can they spend hours talking about nothing).

Here's the feed I'm using to get Chilean news from Chilean media:
http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_cl&t ... output=rss

I agree about the subscrption price of Santiago Times, they are a bit steep. I do buy either the El mercurio or La Tercera when I come into town so that I can practice reading Spanish and try to catch up on the regional news. Both would be considered politically right leaning papers. I do use Google news and search on Chile when I want to read news pertaining to Chile in English.
I also subscribe to Direct TV to catch up on global news with my choices being CNN, Bloomberg Financial and speaking about fair and balanced, Fox News. I really do miss MSNBC.