US media ignore Ecuador chaos and anarchy

While chaos and anarchy break out in Ecuador, the US media ignored the attempted coup. Are there more important topics on their mind, or is it simply that no one cares?

If you prefer to think outside the box, would you go to a little box called television for information? Because if you do turn to TV, you are likely to not find what you are looking for. But what if the story is big and the media is just not covering it?

Violent clashes, chaos and anarchy broke out in Ecuador. But the attempted coup d’état was not being focused on by the main TV networks in the US.

Instead, a CNN presenter, reporting on the situation around the world, put on a pair of underwear and informed the world that the Naked Cowboy – one of New York's main tourist attractions – has decided to not run for President.

Ecuador has blown in major political turmoil, but the headlines in the media are about something a little less serious. This is what some of them read on Friday: a good day for ducks in a rural area somewhere in the US, and a step-by-step guide on copying pop star Justin Beiber's hair cut.

There are over 200,000 Ecuadorians living in the New York area, without counting the undocumented population. All of these people could have been glued to their television sets to watch what happens back in their homeland. But where do they go for information, if the big networks don't cover the situation in Latin America?

In an Ecuadorian restaurant with several TVs on, RT did not see one mainstream network broadcasting.

An Ecuadorian man living in New York, Romano, said, TV news is just not reliable. He prefers something much simpler. "The best is to have a telephone. And to talk to your friends on the phone," he said.

Another young man on the streets of New York told RT he doesn't watch Fox or CNN. "They don't have much truth in there", he said.

Media critic Danny Schechter said the assumption on behalf of networks is that nobody cares about what happens in Latin America. "That's not true", he stated. "Nearly half of our population is Hispanic now, coming from Latin America, and yet the media shuts them out."

But if the media shuts out the people, the people could end up shutting off the media too.

RT asked Ecuadorian taxi driver if he knows who Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Anderson Cooper are. He simply said, "no".

Unless the big pundits want their names remembered it could be time to re-consider what stories their networks cover. Keeping their mouth shut when real news happens may not be the best way to get those poor ratings up again.