It has been a while since they became fashionable on television, the cairns creative and humorous in tone, following in the wake of programs like Pieces, but what is not acceptable is to cross the line of lighthearted programs and use the formula for news. Last Thursday on La Sexta, a particularly unfortunate one was seen related to the death in prison of war criminal Ratko Mladic: "The butcher of Bosnia, cold cuts". I always tell my journalism students to avoid wordplay in headlines at all costs, as it is a distortion that distracts from their primary function. In this case, I understand that the writer thought they could afford this presumably ingenious formula to provoke a smile from the viewer. But in this case, the writer must always, and first and foremost, put themselves in the shoes of the victims of a bloodthirsty figure like Mladic, who coldly planned and executed the murder of 8,000 Bosnians in Srebrenica, the largest massacre to occur in Europe since World War II.

It is common that when a media outlet breaks an exclusive, they claim the topic and follow it up in detail, among other things to prevent others from appropriating it. "This topic must be ours," is often heard in newsrooms. This is precisely what is happening these days The Country with the news of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's penthouse, revealed on July 28 and which is still ongoing, to the despair of the Madrid president, who on August 24 complained that "the gum could no longer be stretched" on the penthouse, in that speech crowned by a very traditional "goodbye fish". But The Country has continued to publish information almost every day, and even a delicious piece on which the obsession of Spaniards with penthouses was analyzed based on cinematographic references such as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Barça's decision to suspend the tribute to the world champions has caused an earthquake on social media and a certain degree of discomfort in some Catalan press. Only this explains, for example, that this topic does not appear on the cover of the "Sport and be frankly hidden in the of World Sport. In programs like The Jugones beach bar, as was to be expected, they jumped on it and accused Joan Laporta of mixing politics and sport, of dividing Barcelonismo, and of positioning himself in favor of the independentists. And well, there are several reflections to be made here.

A few days ago, Vox spread the idea that they had banned the halal menu in Valencian schools. The majority of media outlets took the bait and debates for and against multiplied on social media. But it turns out it wasn't true. The newspaper El Paíspublishes this Wednesday a report by journalist Ignacio Zafra that is an example of good journalism. Zafra has looked into the details of the approved regulation, which only states that, in the case of meat, "the slaughter of the animal must have been carried out using a prior stunning procedure", and has confirmed with sources from the meat sector that most halal products already comply with this requirement. Immediately after, he called the Ministry of Education and they confirmed to him that the claim of the ban is false, and that schools can continue to offer menus according to students' beliefs, whether for religious, medical or any other reason. For example, if a vegan menu is desired.

From time to time a controversy erupts because a columnist reveals that an article has been censored, and announces that they are leaving the newspaper in question amid accusations of persecution and warning that freedom of expression is in danger. The latest example has been that of notary Juan José López Burniol at La Vanguardia. In these cases, I believe it is necessary to educate to explain why it is an obligation for newspapers to exercise censorship. The media have an editorial line, which is expressed through editorials, and then they have an expanded editorial line that draws a framework that includes everything that can be published in that newspaper. The premise is very clear: a medium does not have to agree with the opinion of its columnists, but it does have a social responsibility towards society and, therefore, must decide which ideas it wants to be a mouthpiece for and which it does not.

Who hasn't found themselves immersed, these hot days, in an absurd discussion with someone from Madrid or Aragon about whether Catalonia was ever an independent territory or if they were mere counties dependent on the Kingdom of Aragon? About whether Jaume I was Catalan or Aragonese? In these cases, it's always good to have a good historical summary at hand, like the one published these days in the newspaperEl Punt Avuiby historian Cristian Palomo. This is precisely one of the functions of the press: to translate historiographical (or scientific in general) erudition into educational pieces accessible to the general public. Not everyone needs to know the genealogical tree of the House of Barcelona inside out, but we should have some basics that allow us to easily and quickly discredit some theses.

If there is one thing the far-right does well, it's playing the victim. Since they present themselves as anti-system, any criticism they receive from the media is used to claim that the establishment is persecuting them, etc., and it's usually a discourse that resonates with their followers and from which they benefit. A textbook example has occurred these days in Germany, when the magazine "The Mirror has published a cover with a close-up photo of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, and the headline: "Germany's most dangerous man".

The fachosphere has been buzzing these days against the case of Wafae Atid, a young Moroccan woman who participated in the attempt of massive entry into Spain by sea through Ceuta and who explained her case to El País. In statements made in perfect English, Atid explained that in Morocco "men are above women" and at home they gave her problems, for example, when traveling alone or adopting a certain lifestyle. Automatically, some profiles took advantage to track her social networks and reveal that the young woman had been in places like Qatar or Indonesia and that there was no evidence that she was going through great hardship. A campaign quickly began against her, for being a fraud, and against El País, for giving her a voice.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso's all-powerful chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, has taken offense because a media outlet, in this case El País, published that the Madrid president has rented an apartment in an exclusive urbanization in Puerta del Hierro. "It's the first time a politician's home is being persecuted... Incredible," he tweeted.

Madrid has been a political pressure cooker for some time, but in this summer of high temperatures, fires, earthquakes, and migratory crises in the capital of the State, there is a ray of hope, a comment that is whispered and that more or less says this: "Finally, this is the last summer of our lives with Pedro Sánchez as president." So much so that a newspaper like The World has decided to create a permanent section titled "Sánchez's Countdown." The name is well chosen because it can be interpreted in two ways: Sánchez's own countdown to calling elections, or each reader's countdown to consign Sánchez to the dustbin of history.

On Monday, an unpleasant incident occurred in Ceuta that quickly began to spread across the networks. An extremist assaulted a journalist from the digital media El Pueblo de Ceuta believing, due to his appearance, that he was an immigrant. Firstly, it is striking that this individual feels so impunity to think he can assault an immigrant in front of all the media without repercussions. Secondly, the incident is a demonstration of what happens when racial bias is applied generically: a certain skin color equates to a specific human condition. The man ended up apologizing and acknowledging his error [sic], but that's not all.

Rodri's signing for Barça has caused considerable discomfort in the Madrid press. You only have to see the space they dedicate to it on the front pages this Monday. A tiny sliver on the front of "Marca" and a small box on the front of "As". If you don't look closely, you might think it's advertising for some product. The best player in the World Cup, who is also Spanish, is coming to play in the Spanish League, but the most important thing is the result of a friendly match for the Whites, for heaven's sake. But inside they can't downplay it, so what they do is try to answer the great mystery. How is it that Rodri, who dreamed of playing for Real Madrid from birth, hasn't fulfilled his dream and has joined the ranks of the eternal rival. The answer is very clear: just as Feijóo isn't president because he doesn't want to be, Real Madrid hasn't signed Rodri because they didn't want to.

When I was starting to worry about not finding good merchandise to start my summer shift in replacement of Àlex Gutiérrez, I came across a piece that, on its own, would be enough to write a whole week of Pareu màquines (don't worry, I won't). It's a piece from the supplement Yo Dona, from El Mundo, titled as follows: “Isabel Díaz Ayuso wears her summer fetish dress to La Paloma: plunging neckline and cut-outs at the waist to show off her abs”. I really don't know where to start.

AI threatens to collapse the music market. Last year, Spotify announced it had removed up to 75 million AI-generated songs, which competed with the 100 million tracks created (genuinely) by humans. The Swedish company has decided to put a stop to this and now requires that AI-generated music projects be identified as such. If they don't do so voluntarily, their review systems will flag them when detected. A service like Deezer explained, in April last year, that it received up to 18,000 AI-created songs daily. It's a tide of banal music, but one that aspires to be featured in some of the playlists that have massive reach and thus generate good income. In addition to labeling automatically generated tracks, Spotify commits to not integrating them into the lists it compiles. These are measures that should be applauded, provided they don't remain mere announcements and are applied effectively.

Just as thirty years ago there were families who supplemented their income by assembling pens at home, it seems that in Indonesia it has become popular to earn extra money by milking social networks. In the end, Facebook and Instagram gave 3 billion dollars to content creators who are capable of achieving a certain number of interactions. And, as an investigation by the Guardian revealed, the Asian country is home to a multitude of meme farms that flood political forums worldwide with junk and scandalous content. In some cases, they are the pawns who execute campaigns decided by state propaganda apparatuses: some point, others execute, and Mark Zuckerberg pays the bill, because he recovers all this toxicity in the form of advertising. The newspaper also explains that not all campaigns seem to have a genuinely political or ideological motivation. Some of these companies simply fill the ether of the networks with intoxications because virality – even if it is the virality of anger – brings them money. And this shows that the product has a fundamental design flaw, as it promotes the infoxication that damages democracies and spurs episodes of violence. 

Even the Sun, which is several million kilometers away from Earth since long before humans started drawing borders on maps, is susceptible to being incorporated into the narrative as a political element the day the Moon gives a momentary respite to its perpetual daytime exhibitionism. When Abc headlines "And we all looked at the sky" one must ask who this "all" is. Well, in this headline it refers to Spaniards, united by celestial fascination regardless of particularities... but Spaniards. Or La Razón: "And Spain melted into black". Fortunately, they accompany it with an image of yesterday's eclipse, because they could put this cover on any issue related to Sánchez, day in, day out. I also note that La Vanguardia and El Periódico, despite selling the vast majority of their copies in Catalonia, have opted for poetic titles but political subtitles, with a national mental framework: "Millions of people followed the historic solar eclipse throughout Spain" and "The eclipse paralyzes Spain for a minute", respectively. On the other hand, in El Periódico de Aragón – which has not lost its surname – the subtitle refers to the specific coverage in that community. El Periódico Mediterráneo also focuses on Castellón, from where it is published.

Journalism and gardening are two activities with more elements in common than one might initially think. Especially in the genre of interviews, where headlines that have been planted by the journalist are increasingly common, without the person spoken to having provided the seed or, at least, the watering can. At La Razón they interview the singer Julián Hernández. The headline they have chosen, and which they highlight on the cover, is this: “A rock band can end in a cataclysm”. Obviously, it is inevitable to think that he is talking about the lamented Siniestro Total, which he led. But let's look at how the exchange went: “Is every rock band a cataclysm?”, asks the journalist. And the answer is. “Ha, ha, ha. Well, as much as a cataclysm... A rock band can end in a cataclysm, yes. But it's a society, a very strange social, human union”. In other words, the idea of a cataclysm, which is what gives strength to the headline, not only did not arise from the interviewee, but when it is presented to him, he tends to downplay it and then, out of pure courtesy, elaborates a response in which he says that a band – in general, not his own! – can end in a cataclysm. (In the end, if we are hyperbolic, everything can end in a cataclysm, from a football match to a Sunday noodle dish.)I could find a dozen similar examples every week: formulate the question in bombastic terms, and even if the other person, defenseless, says no, you can headline as if they were actively denying it on their own initiative. To the aspiring journalists who read me, I give this advice for struggling in the murky waters of clickbait journalism. Ask the next interviewee as soon as you start: "Do you enjoy skinning street cats?" The answer – gulp, I hope! – will be an energetic "No!". But you will already have the headline ("I do not enjoy skinning street cats"). Then you can record half an hour more of conversation, to finish filling up.  

On Earth, it will be barely two minutes, but on Planet Journalism, the clickbait moon has long since settled right in the middle of the sunbeam of critical thinking. This need to try to capture the audience's attention with "content" – a terrible word when it displaces information– leads you to stumble upon headlines like “Experts agree: this is how you should dress to observe the solar eclipse” (El Español). Or also: "If you are going to see the eclipse on August 12, there is a dress code: «In the dark, orangey-red colors will disappear»" (Infobae). If I wear orangey-red, can I be seen through? Will my insides be visible? Well, I wouldn't like that; neither would I, it seems, anyone else. Then we have pieces like “What nobody is telling you about the solar eclipse” (La Razón). Spoiler: there are a dozen similar headlines and, to no one's surprise, they explain things that you can also find in the other 22,374 articles that have been written on the subject.

It's summer; it's time for Calippos, for playing Uno, for towels on the grass and for solving Murdokus, that delicious mix between Cluedo and Sudoku. But my son Quim puts me on the trail of a beastly story. In the Italian town of Manarola, an eight-year-old boy playing in the pool with his six-year-old cousin, pushed him, while playing, until he drowned him. When the little one's father saw it, he submerged the other child until he killed him. And, when the older boy's father saw the scene, he fatally stabbed the other father. They report it in Marca, on Telecinco, in the Portal de Cádiz and in several other media... but not in any Italian ones. Suspicious, isn't it? In fact, the first news seems to be from a digital outlet in Castilla-La Mancha, 1,200 kilometers in a straight line from the alleged scene of the events, which should set off all alarms. The article, moreover, does not cite any source, beyond the misleading generic formulations such as “According to information confirmed so far” or “According to initial reports”. Let's see: confirmed by whom? By the police? By medical services? It's not stated anywhere. Nor is any proper name mentioned. Everything suggests that it is a fabricated news story by someone and that other media have reproduced it without taking the slightest trouble to check if it was true.

The announcement of Silvia Intxaurrondo's renewal at the helm of La 1's morning magazine has left journalist and commentator Juan Soto Ivars in an uncomfortable position. In a podcast from the newspaper Abc of June assured to have heard in a kebab place how some RTVE workers were commenting that the journalist had already emptied her dressing room. That the information was more fragile than my bank account from the 20th onwards was already demonstrated by a fact: theAbc did not dare to make it news. But the newspaper's caution did not extend to pseudo-media such as ESdaily, which made a piece of it. “Soto Ivars discovers Silvia Intxaurrondo's best-kept secret in a kebab: end of her time at TVE,” they wrote. By the way, the headline deserves some award for its abstruse syntax because, with this picturesque order of sentence elements, it might seem that the journalist hides her secrets between layers of lamb strips and yogurt sauce.