Return to 2016 to cover up Rajoy's appearance

BarcelonaIt is common, when someone publishes a topic, for a finger to be raised and to ask: “Yes, okay, but why now?”. In my experience, most of the time a topic is published when it is finished, but it is true that there are coincidences that make one raise an eyebrow. This Thursday, for example, while a former Spanish government president like Mariano Rajoy was appearing as a witness in the trial of the Kitchen case (a not unprecedented, but totally exceptional event), The Objective released a supposed exclusive video of the PSOE federal committee from October 2016, which ended with Pedro Sánchez's resignation as secretary-general.

The videos did not contribute anything informative, but they did serve the PP to try, at least on social media, to divert attention from what was happening that day at the National Court.

But it wasn't just something from The Objective, which is a media outlet specifically anti-Sánchez where those loyal to Antonio Caño ended up when he was fired from El País, but also from El Mundo. This newspaper was opening its website all day, not with Rajoy's statement but with that of Javier Hidalgo, former executive director of Globalia and Air Europa, before the Senate's investigation committee on the Begoña case. The reader will wonder what Hidalgo told the senators to deserve such treatment. Well, the answer is nothing, because he invoked his right not to answer.

There is no journalistic argument that can sustain this decision. El Mundo could have opted to open with the conflict in the Middle East, which could have been . The next day, no right-wing Madrid newspaper considered that Rajoy should open the front page, which El País did. In Catalonia, La Vanguardia also considered it, while the rest, including ARA, opted for Sant Jordi.