The infiltration of banks into the published opinion

Jon González presents himself on X as an industrial engineer and often speaks – on social media, but also in the press – about the sustainability of the pension system, in rather apocalyptic terms. Journalist Yago Álvarez Barba has revealed, however, that BBVA, where he is a senior manager, pays his salary. That is to say, his main income comes from his position at a company that directly benefits from the perception of insecurity in the field of public pensions, as this encourages the hiring of private retirement plans. In his articles in El Mundo, González signs off as an “industrial organizer engineer and disseminator of the intergenerational challenge”, but no matter how much he takes refuge in the formula on his X account that the opinions expressed are only his own, there is a possible conflict of interest in sight and, at the very least, the reader deserves to know his relationship with the bank. In fact, the same newspaper does indicate that Rafael Doménech, another of its columnists, is director of studies at BBVA.

This difference in approach applied by the newspaper is what allows Álvarez Barba to go a step further. Noting González's tweeting frenzy, who sends messages at all hours of the day, including working hours, he wonders if all of this is being done not just with the entity's consent, but as part of his job. It is legitimate for a bank to disseminate narratives it deems beneficial to its business, so it is the media's job to identify these potential conflicts of interest. This does not mean that the data presented by González may not be correct, but one must be transparent when explaining where each person is writing from. Otherwise, when the relationship hidden under the rug emerges, a sense of deception is perceived that causes the analysis to end up disqualified, clouded by the shadow of suspicion.