61 journalists and the garlic soup

The list of 61 journalists friendly with the PSOE for Leire Díez that has been circulating these days has the unmistakable taste of garlic, delicious if you don't plan on smashing your face into someone else's lips, but not a culinary discovery that should make you call your friends to tell them you could make soup out of it. Right-wing journalists rage about it, point fingers on social media, and promote their particular walk of shame, or public shaming with tweets instead of wilted escaroles. Obviously, there are journalists sold out to political parties. And quota journalists who travel from one talk show to another carrying the talking points sent by the politburo fresh each morning. But not all journalists specialized in a political party are puppets, nor are all panelists on someone's payroll for a party.

The branch of political journalism (done well) is delicate because it deals with the volatile commodity of access. As they take your calls and pass you information, your status increases. But the danger of ending up instrumentalized also increases if you get drunk on that access. It's not always about ego. I've known more than one or four who you see trying to believe a thousand and one lies packaged by party plumbers so as not to admit they've been swallowed whole. It's not an edifying spectacle. There are two premises for not burning your fingers. Cross-reference the information, because there are dossiers that give off the stench of rocafort cheese left in the sun, and if you make a deal with a source, the main benefit should go to the reader, not the source. And be willing to betray – I can't think of a gentler word – a close contact if it's time to report on them in negative terms. The decision tree isn't much more complex than that, but it's hard to apply. On the list of 61, it's obvious that there are journalists who crossed the line long ago, but it may be that others were just good at ambivalent seduction. You have to look hand by hand, to see who has burnt fingers and be careful with wholesale finger-pointing.