How the media grows Vito Quiles

This Thursday, all news programs echoed the video by Vito Quiles, the far-right stalker who pursues and attacks people to turn it into propaganda. Public and private channels followed suit. This time, the images had gained relevance because the victim was Begoña Gómez, President Pedro Sánchez's wife. The premeditated violence of the sequence, recorded on mobile and edited by the agitator, provided the spectacularity that television often uses as a criterion for including events in its agenda.

And here lies the problem: the informational centrality given to far-right agitators. We saw an example on Els matins on TV3. To announce the program's content, they showed the video that Quiles himself uploaded to social media. They included his tweet as context, thus giving his digital profile prominence. When they delved into the facts with the commentators, they re-broadcast the video and included, once again, the social media profiles of this execrable character. Furthermore, Ariadna Oltra narrated the images, describing them from Vito Quiles's perspective. The journalist reproduced the stalker's gaze: “This video has flooded social media. What do you see? It's a video uploaded by Vito Quiles, the far-right agitator. It's an edited video. [...] Here you see Vito Quiles asking questions. This is Begoña Gómez with some friends. The friends defend her. [...] Quiles says he is the one being attacked by what he calls unes charos, when he was asking Gómez about corruption accusations.” The presenter then asks the commentators with a circumspect tone: “Where are we?” Well, we are facing the problem of providing a literal narration of a manipulated video and giving privileged centrality to the character. Making this narration, even using the contemptuous terms the stalker uses, is dangerously uncritical. Quiles does not ask. Quiles attacks using questions as an alibi. Broadcasting the images in full as the agitator serves them, repeating them, and giving them visual prominence, even with his social media profile, is amplifying his message. Els matins placed Quiles's tweet and his video at the center of the screen. Although the condemnation was strong, the television inertia in how it was presented is disappointing.

For years, emphasis has been placed on the precautions that the media should take when reporting on the far-right. If absolutely necessary, five seconds of the video can be pre-selected and reported on from a perspective that does not align with that of the propagandist, without mentioning charos or incorporating Quiles' victim narrative. However, there was no prior reflection or precaution from the program on how to handle it. Their videos are shown in full, their social media profiles are displayed, and their narrative is explained. It is all well and good to criticize Vito Quiles, but it would be much better to have a bit of self-criticism so as not to contribute to the growth of these vile characters by trailing in their filth.