One of the most comical situations this week has been the meeting of two presenters who are the paradigm of manipulation and entanglement: Pablo Motos invited Sonsoles Ónega to present her new book on El hormiguero. During the conversation, Motos asked her about the VAT on books and she complained that it was 21%, considering that if it were lower she would sell more books and people would read more. Both presenters criticized that the VAT on books was the same as that on cigarette packs. “The VAT on books should not exist if you want a cultured country”, said Motos, and they hinted at the possibility of campaigning for the government to reduce it, pointing to Pedro Sánchez as responsible. “What happens is that the president of the government is in China, but well, he will get there eventually...”, said the ant tamer.Neither Motos nor Ónega knew that, in reality, the VAT on books is 4%, and the next day both had to correct themselves on their programs. Motos corrected himself hastily, blaming the guest: “Sonsoles Ónega proposed to the team that we talk about the VAT on books. We said yes and nobody checked the data”. That this slip-up with the VAT on books happened in the context of Atresmedia is very significant, considering that the group has Grupo Planeta as its main shareholder, one of the major players in the publishing industry. It must have caused internal tensions that, within the same business ecosystem, such a basic error about the sector has been spread. It highlights the lack of knowledge of the cultural industry within the same conglomerate. Ónega, affected, was undergoing therapy with psychologist Rafael Santandreu, taking advantage of having him as a guest: “I beat myself up. I’ve been anxious all day, Dr. Santandreu, for not having confirmed the data. I apologize. I did it without any intention of misinforming or manipulating”, she assured. And she asked the “doc” for advice on how to overcome the ordeal. Santandreu consoled her with the argument that he had sold more than a million books and also did not know the percentage of the tax. He reassured her with his usual fallacies: that to not worry, he only had to want to do so and that one mistake cannot overshadow all the good you can do. Using his simplistic explanations, he appealed to the “virus of terribilitis” as a mechanism to overstate concerns. Ónega thanked him for the good advice and moved on to more consultations for the “doc”.The chain of blunders is fascinating. They are wrong about the VAT on books in a company mostly owned by one of the major publishing groups. Ónega, to get over the upset, was having therapy, calling "doctor" a guest who is neither a doctor nor has a doctorate in anything. And the psychologist, instead of denying it, legitimized his authority by appealing to the sale of more than a million books. Luckily, the presenters called for "a more cultured country."

Monday, The Anthill He invited the president of the Andalusian Regional Government, Juanma Moreno Bonilla. Pablo Motos was still recovering from the Marc Giró tsunami on the last show and found solace in the PP politician. With elections about to be called, the interview can be considered the first act of the pre-campaign. In fact, right at the beginning, Motos asked him about the election date, which Moreno Bonilla placed in June.

Wednesday morning, the Spanish Prime Minister regretted, in a parliamentary session, that Iker Jiménez, presenter of the program Horizonte, on Cuatro, had an audience. He did so with resignation, after pointing him out as a source of lies and misinformation linked to right-wing parties.Sánchez has caused a Streisand effect. Mediaset has closed ranks with the presenter. The same evening, Informativos Telecinco reported on it, and several stars rushed to support their colleague. On Wednesday night, Iker Jiménez felt powerful and euphoric: “Well, well...”, he exclaimed at the start of Horizonte, playing the interesting card. He boasted about the large number of supportive messages he had received. And he invited Pedro Sánchez to the program, admitting that he was surprised by the importance the president had given him. “I even like it”, he said. He proudly assumed that Horizonte was annoying to power because it was a space of freedom. He took credit for the audience and the investigative capacity. “For a journalist like me, who has a bit of an ego, being there in that debate also fascinates me”. Carmen Porter, Jiménez's wife and co-presenter, joked: “You haven't done me any favors, I'm the one who has to put up with you. And I have to take that ego home with me. I don't know whether to thank you, Mr. President, or ask you not to mention him again, because if you do... he'll get carried away!”. Needless to say, Horizonte saw a surge in audience after the controversy.Pedro Sánchez's comment has activated what we could call strategic victimology: turning facts into proof of truth. Iker Jiménez and other presenters who attack the left have long maintained the narrative of dissent persecuted by power. Sánchez's comment serves to confirm it. The Spanish president's words do not erode Jiménez's credibility, but rather reinforce it and validate the supposed interference of political power in the media sphere. Mediaset, an expert in manufacturing artificial conflicts, could not have imagined a better spectacle than this duel. Neither Iker Jiménez could have aspired to more, nor Pedro Sánchez to less.The other presenter who had a busy day was Pablo Motos, after one of his panelists, Rosa Belmonte, disparaged a Cuatro panelist, Sarah Santaolalla, with a very sexist comment. The next day, the presenter apologized. The controversy is so elementarily sexist that it does not need to be elaborated on. However, the facts are not accidental. Belmonte throws the dart because she is in a space of complicity, sharing that mental framework. The laughter of Motos and Juan del Val, and the fact that the presenter was unable to immediately reject the offensive and crude comment, demonstrate this. Laughing is taking a position, and the late apologies the next day are part of a simple damage control. Because both El hormiguero and Horizonte have long used informational degradation as a promotional engine. These are the kinds of low blows that bring them new followers.

On Tuesday, Pablo Motos interviewed Nacho Cano in The Anthill to promote his show. But it wasn't exactly the musical side of things that interested the host. Aware of the artist's ideologically delusional trajectory, he wanted him to talk about political issues. Furthermore, the Mecano member knew perfectly well that with the plush ants he'd find the perfect environment to unleash his conspiracy theories, and he already entered the set with a mysterious book under his arm. The show has become just that: a hotbed of characters unleashing their reactionary side against Pedro Sánchez. The Anthill It serves Motos to enhance this idea of a community oppressed by the absurdity woke.

On Tuesday, actress Karla Sofía Gascón returned to The anthill Four months after their first visit, the reunion between the presenter and the guest was radically different from the relationship they established on the first day. The change in attitude on both sides had a clear trigger: the scandal of the actress's xenophobic, Islamophobic, anti-Catalan, and classist tweets that affected her image days before the Oscars gala.