The special envoys
A special correspondent makes sense if the news story takes place at a party, a celebration, an anniversary. In this case, it's fun, woman of color, to ask ordinary people questions, to be there sharing their excitement. "And how long have you been waiting to see your idol?" If it's a catastrophe, it doesn't make much sense. Before, when there were no cameras, the special correspondent reported on the war, the truce, and the cries of the victims. They were the "eyes" of those who wanted to know. Now, having journalists from news programs "on the ground" only clutters the area, because there are so many of them and they all want the same thing. The cameras, all in the same place, show us the same thing. It's understandable that twenty journalists ask an artist twenty times who designed their outfit. But it's not understandable that twenty journalists ask the same survivor twenty times what the minutes before the tragedy were like. What's the point of a studio there, at the scene of the events? It doesn't help to inform, it only helps to feed the hype. We want to see wreckage, people crying, personal belongings scattered on the ground, people talking about "luck" (who are being pressured to talk about "luck"). And we want to be genuinely affected.
In a situation like this, with the entire press scouring for any opportunity to "report from the ground," it also makes no sense for the government—in this case, Pedro Sánchez—to boast about the good communication that has existed with the victims' families and the journalists. Granted, there was no communication in the tragic case of the Valencia storm, but the fact that there has been communication in this case is no reason to boast: it goes without saying, it's impolite. What should a family member watching TV do if a president comes on bragging about having kept them informed? Kapuscinski said that a good journalist was the first to arrive at the scene and the last to leave. But that was before the in-depth programs. Now there's no last one to leave, because they'll always be there, always.
