Telesur's Agenda

Telesur’s coverage over the last couple of days is a good example of the kind of agenda-setting the network’s trying to do. For starters, Telesur has chosen not to cover the Academy Awards at all. The top story over the last few days has been a wiretapping scandal in Colombia which has gotten very little coverage so far on other networks, including major Latin American newspapers.

The scandal is about agents of the DAS (Colombian intelligence service) who allegedly wiretapped journalists, Supreme court judges and members of the political opposition. There have been contradictory claims that Colombian drug lords were behind the operation or that Uribe’s Colombian government itself was responsible.

Telesur’s coverage includes an accusation that the U.S. provided the surveillance equipment used, which hasn’t been reported elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Chavez government has just announced that it will be supporting a search for a Colombian presidential candidate in 2010 who shares the Venezuelan government’s ideological approach.

So Telesur’s heavily reporting a scandal that could damage the Colombian president, while the Venezuelan government looks for a candidate to oppose Uribe in 2010. That seems to be both agenda-setting in Telesur’s choice of stories as well as news coverage with a pretty clear agenda.