The Argentine TV news network Crónica is receiving criticism for its decision to show the below graphic when India Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Buenos Aires for the G20 summit.
Argentine TV outlet @CronicaTV displays this racist image with the headline “Apu Arrived” as India Prime Minister @narendramodi arrives in Buenos Aires for the #G20. pic.twitter.com/oNqZVpS4E5
— Patrick Gillespie (@Pat_Gillespie) November 29, 2018
Yes, that’s Apu, the Indian shopkeeper from The Simpsons.
The network also sampled the music from Slumdog Millionaire as background music for the Indian PM’s arrival, and flashed the words “Chiqui Chiqui Chiqui” across an image of Modi to mimic the music of the song.
Here’s Indian American comic Hari Kondabolu:
This couldn’t be true, right? https://t.co/xiEzNgpXip
— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) November 30, 2018
Upon the arrival of the Rwandan president Paul Kagame, Crónica TV said, “There is no auction.”
El presidente de Ruanda se llama Paul Kagame, no hay remate. #DemasiadoParaMi #MeDejaronSinPalabras #CerrameTodo #SeJodeSolo #PaulCagame 💩💩💩 #ShowDePlacas pic.twitter.com/4sCmpZh2LG
— Crónica TV (@CronicaTV) November 29, 2018
It’s true that Crónica is known in Argentina for its provocative, tabloid-like content, as the below tweet states:
100% true. TV Channel Cronica TV is famous for mocking at everything and being as politically incorrect as possible. Of course, you can imagine the local target audience for this kind of stuff. The problem is, that they don’t just make a joke and move on, they are very persistent
— Leandro Galeano (@LeaGaleano) November 30, 2018
Nevertheless, content like this is pretty ugly and probably shouldn’t make it onto a TV news network.