We must recognize the danger of media manipulation and the blatant nature of financing this manipulation with our taxes. Without a doubt, they have sold us very defective political products. Every step of its remedy will be positive. Journalists and citizens in general should also provide obvious solutions to the problem.
Any step in the indispensable democratic regeneration of Spain, however small, costs a more than notable effort. There is fierce resistance to any progress in this direction. The Government has finally approved, among other measures, a plan to guarantee the transparency of the media and combat disinformation. Establishes a media registry in which those who do not dedicate themselves to this function have no place, the introduction of limits on the funding that public administrations dedicate to the media to prevent pseudo-media from being financed with our money (as is currently the case), a more rigorous evaluation of the audience data for which they receive this money or improve the system to be able to rectify false or openly biased information. The entire democratic regeneration plan is contained in 31 resolutions that will be implemented over three years.
These measures follow in the footsteps of the regulation that governs the European Union and that obtained the votes of the Popular Party, but now – they and their media terminals – are shouting to the sky, assuring that “Sánchez goes to the media”. , as El Mundo headlines on the front page this Tuesday. This comes from the very day of the announcement. In general, the more manipulative they are, the more they oppose any measure aimed at ending the hoaxes. ABC and other newspapers considered it a “direct attack on the media”. They even call Sánchez a liberticidal censor in the underworld of hell.
Professional journalists, not necessarily conservative, fear any regulation with a romantic vision of what our profession used to be. The problem is that it is no longer one, because of the dirty interferences that have made it a prostitute. Stopping the hoaxes in one way or another and knowing the financing of the media and according to which criteria our taxes are distributed in institutional advertising, is a necessity.
Hoaxes have become a global problem. They are the most effective weapon of the far right to attract supporters with little insight and a lot of resentment. US Vice Presidential Candidate JD Vance Legitimized Trump in Front of CNN Cameras in Hoax About Migrants Eating American Pets. He admits it’s a lie, but it’s in their interest to say it. During the televised debate, in which the Republican candidate made a false accusation, the moderating journalists immediately refuted his remarks. It was a hoax and that’s what they said. In Spain, this is not done, with some exceptions. And it needs to be fixed. Haitians have had problems because of Trump: threats against them have multiplied. Authorities have been forced to close schools and local buildings such as the city hall due to bomb threats, and the university has taken “extreme precautions.”
The lies of the Spanish media are not harmless either. Not at all. They have elevated many undesirable politicians, installing them in power despite the truth of their actions. It is our tax money that has financed all this, the money dedicated to this purpose that has increased uncontrollably for years.
Esperanza Aguirre, since she took power for Tamayazo, has spent more on advertising than on research, up to three times more. We already know very well that in the entire democratic history of Spain, it is difficult to find a more corrupt government, a more rotten organization than her government. The leaders of the Madrid PP have already accumulated more than 100 years in prison for corruption. Vice-president Alfredo Prada has just been convicted in the City of Justice case. The court considers proven the rigging of 24 contracts for 40 million euros between 2005 and 2011, now evaporated like so many others. And in practice, there has only been a half-built building and more than 200 million euros thrown in the trash. Aguirre, the goddess of the pond, free as the wind and, meanwhile, exhibiting through the media her work of destabilizing the current government.
Ayuso wants to bury public money again by revitalizing this specific pufo. She is the heiress of Aguirre who shares with her an astonishing impunity. When to investigate the scandalous cost overruns at Zendal Hospital?
As Esther Palomera explains in this data-rich article, Ayuso spent at least €41.5 million on advertising campaigns contracted between 2022 and 2023. However, they have given it a magnificent result.
It is not a cover for the 7,291 elderly people who died without medical assistance during the pandemic, in the only community that promotes such a cruel protocol. Little of the fraudster boyfriend, he also mounts lawsuits, who “declared false expenses for almost 1.7 million euros”. None of his policies in favor of the rich, of tax cuts for them at the cost of the deterioration of essential public services, completing the work of his mentor Aguirre. No manipulation or censorship through Telemadrid. None of the threats against journalists from elDiario.es and El País. Getting to the point of letting go of his umpteenth media massage in the program of the producer of Ana Rosa Quintana, with Ana Terradillos, this Tuesday that she will not attack the journalists, without anyone reminding her of the truth.
But you can also visit the Galicia of the current president of the PP and stubborn supporter of the overthrow of the government. 45 million euros is the amount that Alberto Núñez Feijóo allocated, as president of the Xunta, to private media publishing companies. And so it was until the last day. He programmed more than 3.5 million euros in subsidies to communications companies when he had already announced his departure from the Galician government to move to Madrid.
All this is just the tip of the iceberg. A lot has already been published. And they have not even slowed down the task, quite the contrary. They have also been joined by publications directly linked to the bulosphere, real time bombs that systematically act with all kinds of hoaxes, exaggerations and insults against the government. Or rather against society because lies wreak real havoc in all circumstances.
We will have to see these measures develop, all the democratic regeneration that is required. From the outset, we must underline the danger of media manipulation and the blatant nature of its financing with our taxes. Without a doubt, they have sold us very defective political products. Each step of its remedy will be positive. Journalists and citizens in general should also provide the obvious solutions to the problem: rigor in information first and selection criteria, each.
