After the morning magazines of private television channels picked up on Margarita Robles' video, which the PP disseminated accusing her of supporting Trump, it was interesting to see if the midday news programs would repeat the thesis. It was necessary to check if the PP was capable of setting the journalistic agenda. In the midday edition of Telediario on La1, they denied the PP's version by offering the Moncloa version of the "I am comfortable". On La Sexta noticias, Helena Resano warned that the confusion had been intentional. And she added: "The hoax, the lie, was spread that Robles was with Trump. But Defense confirms that what she says is that she is comfortable. The Popular Party didn't care and bought the lie that she was supporting Trump".
However, not all news programs were quick to clarify it so quickly or to point out the PP. In the midday edition of Telecinco, they used the video as bait and asked: "Who is lying?". They invited the viewer to guess by offering the two options: "I am with Trump". or "I am comfortable". and they asked: "Let's see, what do you understand?". leaving it to the audience's free choice. In the evening edition, Carlos Franganillo was much clearer and distanced himself from the mystery and guesswork, explaining the confusion about the unintelligible images: "The PP has indeed wanted to give them a meaning with the intention of showing a double game by the Government", he said, and added: "The PP on its social networks interpreted that content as unintelligible to make it seem that Minister Robles was supporting Donald Trump and confessing it to the ambassador". It was very clear. His colleague Ángeles Blanco confirmed it: "Yes, but none of that happened and a new recording that we learned about today reveals the minister's true words clearly". The video explained the context of the confusion, the PP's lie with the out-of-context phrase and the misleading subtitles. The narration emphasized that "the reality is quite different". The new full sequence demonstrated the conversation about the room temperature and the phrase "I am comfortable", and explained how, despite everything, in the afternoon the PP reiterated the lie.
In the midday edition ofAntena 3 noticias the video included Robles' phrase, inaudible. They neither translated nor explained it, nor did they talk about the PP, but it reinforced the idea that the minister had contradicted Sánchez. In the evening edition, they asked: "What did the minister really say?", as if it were a mystery, and Vicente Vallés performed a juggling act. He proposed a convoluted theory instead of explaining the lie promoted by the PP: "This chat has caused quite a few comments throughout the day. But what matters is not what they said when the cameras were present in the room, but what they said when the cameras left. And that is ignored". Suddenly, the scene that had circulated all day and that Susanna Griso had used to inflate the issue no longer had any value.
All of this demonstrates the long reach of lies and their high profitability when it comes to causing confusion.
