On Saturday morning, television channels were focused on the PSOE and PP congresses. These types of committees are events for internal consumption by the membership, but there's a clear element of showboating as an attempt to clean up its image. For obvious reasons, the Socialist Party's meeting generated much more media buzz.
TV3 linked up with 3/24 to provide continuous coverage leading up to Pedro Sánchez's appearance and speech. Channel 1 delegated coverage to the program. Morning 360 Javier Ruiz, who was doing a special. It competed with another special from La Sexta, that of Antonio García Ferreras and his own In the red hotBoth programs are characterized by the same informative tone through the discussion that appeals to emotion, impatience, and exaggerated narrative intensity to turn journalism into a media spectacle.
Both programs took advantage of the simultaneous committee sessions to turn the pre-event into a long-distance dialectical battle. Journalists requested statements from members of both parties as they arrived at their respective venues, aligning their interventions. The news of the sexual harassment accusations by Paco Salazar, deputy secretary of the Socialist Party's organizational committee, became a very tasty ingredient to liven up the analysis. The morning novelty broke with the expected inertia and gave the show a boost of energy.
On La 1, Javier Ruiz prioritized emotional upheaval over political bias. He maintained the plurality of positions in exchange for raising the decibels of the discussion. In cases like these, Paco Marhuenda's complaints never fail to inflame the atmosphere. However, the headlines echoed Sánchez's messages: "The captain does not ignore it", read the on-screen sign, paraphrasing a phrase from the Spanish president.
On La Sexta, Antonio García Ferreras did not hide his narrative enjoyment when it came to undermining and eroding the socialist committee. He resorted to what he himself called "Our specialty in federal committees": It was an on-screen alert, in the form of a mobile phone, announcing with an alarm the leaks they received via text message from within Congress. An exhibition of their anonymous sources who, logically, were giving a biased interpretation of what was happening behind closed doors. In the red hot He provided coverage very much in line with Atresmedia's interests, discrediting Pedro Sánchez and his ideas. Morning 360 and In the red hot, turned supposedly informative coverage into an over-the-top overanalysis of events. A complete infoxication that went beyond the facts, where the presenters' personal interpretations, their tone, approach to the topics, selection of anecdotes, and choice of guests shaped programs with greater ideology than the federal party committees themselves.
