The declassification of a vast amount of documents related to the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein poses a number of significant challenges for journalism today. A myriad of reports have immediately appeared mentioning this or that person. Press Ctrl+F to search for names, and scroll down to download! For example, we know that José María Aznar, Ana Botella, and her son-in-law appear in the documents. But, so far, no one has linked this mention to any possible criminal activity, much less to the prostitution and pedophilia ring he maintained. The most relevant apparent link between them at the moment is the speech Aznar gave during his period of delusions of grandeur when he justified going to the Gulf War at an event for a foundation funded by the millionaire. However disastrous this insecure figure may have been in Spanish history, we can agree that the mere inclusion of his name in a two-million-page document is hardly scandalous and might even be considered newsworthy (when the obvious intention is to tarnish his name by associating it with the disgraced magnate).
It's another matter entirely if the reason why Aznar received a package from him is discovered and sheds light on any relevant issues. I'm concerned that the release of these two documents will amount to nothing more than an uncritical purge of names. Let's see who, in this alphabet soup, is the first to spot someone familiar, preferably from the opposing camp. If there isn't a genuine investigation from this point onward, and we're left with the response dictated by the perverse rhythm of immediacy—effervescent and flashy, but deflating like beer foam—we will have missed a golden opportunity to demonstrate the power of journalism in the data age.
