Journalists must ignore attacks and do the job

BarcelonaHow can you run a newspaper that is in Trump's crosshairs? Journalist Martin Baron did it between 2016 and 2020 when he was at the helm of the iconic Washington Post, and in front of an audience full of colleagues and journalism students, he explains what his obsession was: "To prevent Trump from getting into my head." The objective was, therefore, that he would not condition his work as director. "As journalists, we must ignore the attacks and focus on doing our job: uncovering the facts, contextualizing them, and disseminating them. He [Trump] said he was at war with the media. And I replied that we were not at war with him, we were simply doing our job, dedicated to the First Amendment of the Constitution." It is unlikely that the young students listening will receive a lesson as profound as that of the veteran American journalist, winner of 16 Pulitzer Prizes, one of them for uncovering the scandal of abuse in the Church at the Boston Globe.

But Martin Baron is not alone in this auditorium at the UPF's Faculty of Communication. By his side are, no less than, a Nobel laureate, the Belarusian Svetlana Alexievich, and a Cervantes Prize winner, the Nicaraguan Sergio Ramírez. All three have just received the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award given by El País in a year as significant as its fiftieth anniversary. The conversation between the three taking place in Barcelona is the icing on the celebration.

Alexievich represents an approach to journalism different from Baron's, as she writes books after years of research, but the objective is the same: to find historical truth. "My method consists of speaking with 700 or 900 people to write a book. For me, the only truth is the testimonies. I like to enter their homes, see the temperature they have, the smells, the inflections of their voice..., details that help me reach the soul," explains the Nobel laureate.

In the Q&A session, journalist Elena Sevillano, moderator of the event, inquires Baron about Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Bezos, disappeared

In the question turn, journalist Elena Sevillano, moderator of the event, inquires Baron about Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post and the changes he is introducing to the newspaper to please Trump, which have basically consisted of massive layoffs. The American then resorts to irony and says that he is "a different person, with a different body and a different wife." "Maybe we should put up posters with his face and the slogan 'Missing'," he says to the laughter of the audience.