Pedro Sánchez does a favor to Iker Jiménez

Wednesday morning, the Spanish Prime Minister regretted, in a parliamentary session, that Iker Jiménez, presenter of the program Horizonte, on Cuatro, had an audience. He did so with resignation, after pointing him out as a source of lies and misinformation linked to right-wing parties.Sánchez has caused a Streisand effect. Mediaset has closed ranks with the presenter. The same evening, Informativos Telecinco reported on it, and several stars rushed to support their colleague. On Wednesday night, Iker Jiménez felt powerful and euphoric: “Well, well...”, he exclaimed at the start of Horizonte, playing the interesting card. He boasted about the large number of supportive messages he had received. And he invited Pedro Sánchez to the program, admitting that he was surprised by the importance the president had given him. “I even like it”, he said. He proudly assumed that Horizonte was annoying to power because it was a space of freedom. He took credit for the audience and the investigative capacity. “For a journalist like me, who has a bit of an ego, being there in that debate also fascinates me”. Carmen Porter, Jiménez's wife and co-presenter, joked: “You haven't done me any favors, I'm the one who has to put up with you. And I have to take that ego home with me. I don't know whether to thank you, Mr. President, or ask you not to mention him again, because if you do... he'll get carried away!”. Needless to say, Horizonte saw a surge in audience after the controversy.Pedro Sánchez's comment has activated what we could call strategic victimology: turning facts into proof of truth. Iker Jiménez and other presenters who attack the left have long maintained the narrative of dissent persecuted by power. Sánchez's comment serves to confirm it. The Spanish president's words do not erode Jiménez's credibility, but rather reinforce it and validate the supposed interference of political power in the media sphere. Mediaset, an expert in manufacturing artificial conflicts, could not have imagined a better spectacle than this duel. Neither Iker Jiménez could have aspired to more, nor Pedro Sánchez to less.The other presenter who had a busy day was Pablo Motos, after one of his panelists, Rosa Belmonte, disparaged a Cuatro panelist, Sarah Santaolalla, with a very sexist comment. The next day, the presenter apologized. The controversy is so elementarily sexist that it does not need to be elaborated on. However, the facts are not accidental. Belmonte throws the dart because she is in a space of complicity, sharing that mental framework. The laughter of Motos and Juan del Val, and the fact that the presenter was unable to immediately reject the offensive and crude comment, demonstrate this. Laughing is taking a position, and the late apologies the next day are part of a simple damage control. Because both El hormiguero and Horizonte have long used informational degradation as a promotional engine. These are the kinds of low blows that bring them new followers.