Relationships between politicians and journalists are always complex. The former need to be "understood" and treated well by the media, while the latter foster relationships of trust to obtain scoops and privileged information, although closeness can be compromising for both. Having contacts and interlocutors shouldn't entail, as often happens, excessive familiarity or closeness. It's all very well to brandish the phrase "any information or article that doesn't upset someone is nothing more than propaganda," but the reality isn't so clear-cut. Journalists often like to act as a laborer, and the media no longer stand on their own two feet. There's no balance between a massage and the most furious discrediting. Neither at one extreme nor the other does the journalist perform their function. We citizens want verified and properly contextualized information. Readers, listeners, or viewers will decide whether to criticize or court the media. As the media has weakened and become more dependent on public funds, its tone has changed, taking sides with some potential funders. It's obvious that objectivity, like freedom or utopias, can only be approached without being completely achieved, but certain offensive biases should be avoided. It should be imperative to strive for neutrality, especially in public media.
Among the many evils generated by the Process, The impact on journalism was no small feat. In fact, we still live in the wake of a practice in which many journalists became activists, even sports journalists and weather forecasters. One only needs to look at news programs, talk shows, or reports from public or most private media outlets. It's frustrating that so little has changed today. The pro-independence trend is unbearable and, at this point, incomprehensible. It has little to do with the political will expressed by the public, and even less with reporting approaches based on truth and meaning. A tendency toward editorialism prevails among many journalists, given to pontificating in a highly biased manner based on the personal commitments for which they were promoted. There is still an excess of propagandism in the service of "the cause." This is not the role of news professionals. Not mixing opinion with information is the first thing taught in journalism schools, as well as honestly distinguishing between what is relevant information and what is not. Everything related to political information needs to be contextualized and explained. The tendency to make a mechanical rewind of asses Behind a lectern doesn't help either the political or the journalistic consideration. Over the years, and even now, I'm surprised that the most fervent defenders of the independence movement in the talk shows are, in fact, journalists.
In his latest memoir, writer and journalist Antoni Puigverd eloquently portrays the all-too-frequent promiscuous relationships between journalists and politicians in relation to the Trial. He recounts a meeting at the Palau de la Generalitat with Carles Puigdemont and the country's leading communicators—note I don't say journalists—in which the president asked them for support for the declaration of independence he was planning, and they told him to go ahead, that they would sell it to the public in the appropriate way. The author proudly claims to have been involved rather than self-critical. The portrait of these communicators associating themselves with power is shocking, and it's surprising that it didn't generate a scandal and that they weren't criticized for their lack of scruples regarding professional ethics. If they had acted like real journalists, they would have reported on the meeting, criticizing the attempted manipulation. Rahola, Basté, Terribas et alii They continue to pontificate, day in and day out, about the proper practice of the profession. Things should change, and not now in an ideologically inverted manner given the shift in hegemony. What has happened up to now cannot become the norm. The Catalan media ecosystem itself, especially in the digital sphere, is completely fictitious and self-serving. A large portion of media outlets are created or maintained with public money, regardless of their distribution. Shameless partisan ties with the buying and selling of titles under the promise of millions of euros from politicians. This has happened, and everyone knows it. Maintaining doped media prevents competitive media from emerging. Salvador Illa's government has practically not addressed the issue, at least not yet. It's good that it is cautious and not doing the same as the others. However, perhaps things should be balanced and prioritize professionalism over the prevailing bias. Cutting the politicized remuneration of private media, or ensuring proper functioning of the mechanisms available in public media. A pro-independence politician before he was one mainstream He made the phrase "let prudence not make us traitors" an election slogan. The era of José Montilla's tripartite government clearly illustrates where the misuse of the media in the hands of propagandists can lead. The Ministry of Culture constructed and disseminated the narrative that the Trial would be, with the well-known dire consequences.
