Stirring up the fire against Pedro Sánchez

That Spanish morning magazines organize the entire television narrative against Pedro Sánchez is already a classic. Both Telecinco and Antena 3 lean to the right, and any opportunity is good to attack the socialist government. The large fires in Madrid, Ávila, and Vall d'Uixó have now become the perfect fuel to further stoke the fire with the same virulence that the forests burn.To kick off the broadcasts, they have been fueling the melodrama discourse for days. They make video clips with images of the fires and properties devastated by the flames, combining operatic chants with the ambient sound of tragedy: cries, sirens, and screams. They revel in the misfortune of people who have seen their homes burn and, even worse, expose them to contemplating the devastation with reporters digging into the wound: “We accompany them for the first time and with our camera as a witness to see their reaction upon discovering, before their eyes, the devastation of the fire”. They make them explain, in detail, every burnt space, every charred object. To add drama, they also give the names of celebrities whose properties have burned down. The fire victims, after being interrogated about their losses and miseries, are asked about political responsibles. The false idea about the prohibition of collecting pine cones and cleaning the land is constantly repeated. And they take the opportunity to attack environmentalists and the idea of climate change. It is a mantra that each interviewee reiterates. Once the drama phase is over, the insults towards Sánchez are reiterated, which is the new informative trend. Underline, subtitle and amplify the insults hurled at socialist politicians in any circumstance. “Does he avoid people?”, they caption on screen. And they transcribe each of the outbursts, however vulgar they may be. The microphones barely pick them up, but transcribed on screen and repeated in a loop, they increase the feeling of tension. “Son of a b...!” or “Dog, to jail!” are inserts that, every now and then, are added to the reports. “Does Sánchez fear contact with citizens?” is the slogan they repeated to boredom during the Andalusian elections. “Can Sánchez escape the Paiporta syndrome?”, they ask themselves as if he lived sentenced to an eternal condemnation.But what they do, in reality, is the typical exercise of exalting the masses and associating Sánchez's figure with the natural reaction of insulting him. It is the same as sports news did when, during the Process, they wondered for days and days if in the stadiums where the Spanish national team played, the stands would boo some of the Catalan footballers. It is a way of exciting the audience and creating a kind of predisposition, a logical inertia, towards insult and tension as a popular right that invariably extends. It is the way to always guarantee the news and to consolidate and normalize the image of collective contempt.