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 to bump your nose 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 get angry about it, point fingers on social media and promote their particular walk of shame, or public shaming with tweets instead of wilted lettuce. Obviously there are journalists sold to the parties. And quota journalists who travel from one talk show to another carrying the talking points sent by the politburo fresh every morning. But not all journalists specialized in a political party are puppets, nor are all panelists renting their behinds to a party. 

The branch of political journalism (done well) is delicate because it deals with the volatile commodity of access. As they pick up the phone and give you information, your status increases. But so does the danger of ending up instrumentalized 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 operatives to avoid admitting they've been swallowed. It's not an edifying spectacle. There are two premises for not burning your fingers. Verify the information, because there are dossiers that give off the stench of Roquefort cheese left in the sun, and if you agree to something with a source, the main benefit should not go to the source, but to the reader. And be willing to betray – I can't think of a milder 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 a long time ago, but it's possible 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 accusations.