As was to be expected, this Saturday was a good day to see how the right-wing newspapers grabbed all the radishes by the leaves. Let's compare the headline of El País, “The government lowers the VAT on electricity, gas and gasoline, and limits dismissals”, with those of the three musketeers of wrath: “Sumar's snub bursts Sánchez's anti-crisis announcement” (Abc), “Sumar embitters Sánchez's plan with an ambush in Moncloa” (El Mundo) and “Sánchez succumbs to Sumar to avoid a crisis in Moncloa” (La Razón). It was a trifecta loaded with emotional words (snub, bursts, embitters, ambush, succumbs) that managed to spread a fog over the news that most affects its readers, which are the measures themselves. Anything goes before conceding good news to their audience that could lower the levels of tension to which they subject their flock. It is significant that all the Catalan newspapers that report the news on the front page focus on the what and not on Sumar, a party to which the cave only pays attention as a potential destabilizer of the government.
It is evident that Sánchez's measures have a point, or fifteen, of electoralism: they are chosen not only for their impact on the pocket of the respectable, but also for the calming effect they may generate. But, despite everything, this is information, which should be the protein of journalism. Squabbles and political theater are understandable in this hyper-media age, but certain media outlets follow them in a way that I am convinced is counterproductive if they over-amplify the puppet show and then lose sight of the crux of the matter. Statistics show how saturation with news is growing. But, what if in reality what causes the weariness is the excess of tension-filled narratives and vain overreactions?
