Branding El Salvador's New President

by Bob Burton — March 18, 2009 - 12:14am
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The narrow election win of Mauricio Funes as President of El Salvador has spurred extensive media coverage on the political success of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, a center-left party that has its roots in the guerilla movement of the 1980s. However, none of the media coverage mentions the role of the Washington D.C.-headquartered political consulting firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. In a media release, the firm states that it provided "public opinion research and strategic advice" for Funes' campaign. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner has previously worked on campaigns for Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The firm's work for Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in the 2002 Bolivian presidential election was documented in the film "Our Brand Is Crisis."

Main Source: 
Los Angeles Times, March 17, 2009

Comments

Lots of news little depth

Submitted by Anonymous on March 18, 2009 - 11:39am.

I was struck by how little analysis the broadcast news outlets went into when reporting on the election of Funes. All the stories seemed to concentrate on the facts of the election, highlighting his party's Marxist past, or speculating on his relationship to the US. This video shows several examples of the lack of depth in coverage http://www.newsy.com/videos/el_salvador_s_leftist_leader/

Is it a sign of the state of journalism that so few broadcast outlets actually went to El Salvador to cover the election, or a sign of how little significance news outlets feel El Salvador has to their audience, or both?

Two Thumbs Up for 'Our Brand Is Crisis'

Submitted by John Stauber on March 18, 2009 - 11:00am.

[[Our Brand Is Crisis (Film)|Our Brand Is Crisis]] is one of the most important political documentaries I've seen, and yet it's like a best-kept secret, so few have watched it. Check it out.