Ana Pastor vs Iker Jiménez: the big difference between two programs about the catastrophe

If anyone still has doubts that Sánchez's government and its affiliated media live locked in a bubble, yesterday it became even clearer.

The anger of the people of Paiporta, the courage of King Felipe VI and the cowardice of Sánchez
The shameful situation shown by Iker Jiménez from the ground zero of the cold drop

This Sunday night, two national Spanish television channels broadcast special news programs on the cold snap catastrophe, hours after the outburst of anger by the residents of Paiporta against Pedro Sánchez. I think that these two programs exemplify two very different ways of doing journalism in Spain. Let's get into the details.

Ana Pastor's program on La Sexta

On the one hand, a channel close to Sánchez's government, La Sexta, broadcast a program hosted by Ana Pastor, a well-known left-wing journalist. You didn't have to be a great fortune teller to imagine what it would be like. The program featured the socialist minister Óscar Puente, who took the opportunity to criticize the King's visit to Paiporta; the socialist mayor of Paiporta, Maribel Albalat, and the socialist mayor of Aldaya, Guillermo Luján. To give this a bit of variety and to make it not seem like a PSOE advertorial, they also contacted the mayor of Utiel, from the PP. Three politicians from the PSOE and only one from the PP.

This ideological "variety" was completed by the leftist journalist Ignacio Escolar, director of the pro-government media Eldiario.es, the journalist Lucía Méndez, a great admirer of Pedro Sánchez, and journalist Pilar Velasco, who compared yesterday's protest against Sánchez with the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler:

"It is an attack on the president of the government. On the official car. It is an image very similar to that of Donald Trump and the gap in his head. This is unprecedented."

Let us remember that in that attack Trump was shot in the ear and one of his followers was murdered. At this rate, we will soon see journalists close to the government comparing what happened yesterday in Paiporta with 9/11 or the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Iker Jimenez's show on Cuatro

Let's move on from journalism in the service of power to real journalism. Yesterday Iker Jiménez cancelled his program "Cuarto Milenio" and broadcast a special program on "Horizonte", the program broadcast by the Cuatro channel on Thursdays on current affairs. There were no politicians on the program. The participants in this broadcast were mostly the same as those from last Thursday's program, mostly regular participants in this program and with different ideologies.

In this program there was harsh criticism for the autonomous government (of the PP) and especially for the socialist government of Sánchez. There was also praise for King Felipe VI for his bravery while Sánchez fled like a coward from that protest. The King even received praise from a left-wing republican like Beatriz Talegón. Once again, it was a program that sought contact with the street, but above all it was an uncomfortable broadcast for the political power and specifically for the government, which is what any journalist who fulfills his professional duty in a situation like this should be.

The difference between living inside a bubble and living outside it

Although our leaders sometimes seem to forget it, we live in a democracy and that means there is political pluralism and informational pluralism. Everyone freely decides what they want to see and through which media they want to be informed.

For my part, I have been clear for years that I avoid getting information from those whose function in journalism seems to be to defend a government, whatever it does. That is precisely what La Sexta has been doing since Sánchez came to power in 2018. Of course, a true democracy implies the existence of media and journalists who are critical of political power, which is what Iker Jiménez did yesterday, once again, with his program. Those who want to live in a bubble like our rulers already have La Sexta.

+ UPDATED 17:14h: I have praised the programmes that Iker Jiménez has been doing from the affected area, and I think it is only fair to also comment on this video recorded by a neighbour and published today on Twitter, in which we see a contributor to the program, Rubén Gisbert, kneeling in the mud for no reason:

Lo de gisbert es de tener 0 vergüenza
min 0:50 pic.twitter.com/QAzr4VukJE

— raaxon (@raaxon_) November 4, 2024

Iker Jiménez has posted this video, clearly upset, criticizing this action and apologizing for it:

Estoy perplejo. Un video de Ruben Gisbert, persona nacida allí, me ha amargado el día. Mancha una labor encomiable que estamos haciendo y no nos merecemos,
Tomaré mis medidas. pic.twitter.com/QvMCfqJVJT

— Iker Jiménez (@navedelmisterio) November 4, 2024

An hour ago, Gisbert posted this video admitting that he knelt in the mud to give it more authenticity for a fake live stream. Honestly, the explanation doesn't make any sense.

ESTO HICE Y ESTO ESTOY HACIENDO, DIFUNDIR POR FAVOR pic.twitter.com/eqednEY9vb

— Rubén Gisbert (@gisbert_ruben) November 4, 2024