We need to start being ruthless with knee-jerk journalism in Spain

I was born in 1975, so I spent much of my childhood and youth witnessing the corruption scandals of the socialists.

Sanchez is cornered by socialist corruption and his only defense is already burned
A mountain of manure invades La Moncloa and the synchronized public detects Chanel No. 5

During Felipe González's term in office (1982-1996), these scandals became a daily occurrence, just as they are now under Pedro Sánchez's mandate. Just like today, then there was an independent press that did its job and a press faithful to the power that tried to cover everything up, but that did not want to limit itself to the shameful job of being a shoe shiner for the government.

That's when what we see now began to exist: media and journalists acting as attack dogs of political power against independent journalism, pointing out the media that do their job and trying to discredit them so that they don't bother those in power.

There are faces that have changed and some newspapers have joined that group, but some media continue doing the same thing as at that time. Let us remember, without going any further, the case of a famous socialist newspaper describing journalists critical of the González government as a "crime syndicate." I was 17 years old when that rubbish was published and I will not forget what they did then.

Let us recall, for example, the recent complaint by the aforementioned socialist newspaper about opinions expressed at friends' meals, spontaneous gatherings and WhatsApp groups, regretting that the authorities do not act against these private conversations, confusing today's Spain with the totalitarian regime that George Orwell described in his famous novel "1984".

In 1996, when Felipe González was finally ousted from power after 14 years of scandals, the journalism on the knee of the socialists kept its power and prestige intact. The first was maintained, to a large extent, thanks to the Popular Party, which maintained an absurdly servile attitude towards this socialist journalism. The second occurred because of the ridiculous journalistic corporatism that considers the members of the guild who act as political commissars as "companions", as if being a journalist at the service of power were as respectable as being one in the open. This is how we got to the current situation, with this journalism on the knee doing the same thing it did 40 years ago and, in addition, trying to censor alternative media such as social networks, as if this were a dictatorship.

I don't know how long it will take for Pedro Sánchez to fall, but I know that he will fall in the end. Felipe González's government seemed more eternal, but in the end it fell. I know perfectly well what will happen next: I will continue publishing in the open air just as I have always done. This blog has already witnessed three different governments of the PSOE and the PP and has always maintained a critical position with respect to political power, whatever its colour.

What cannot happen again is that knee-jerk journalism gets away with everything it has done. We have to start being ruthless with it. We have to stop being soft and kind with propagandists who live off subsidies (that is, our tax money) and who use the political favor they have obtained to trample on our freedoms and persecute those who try to defend them, which is what is happening today in Spain.

In particular, we need to ensure that all subsidies to the media are finally abolished, as they have become a way of putting journalism at the service of the political power it is responsible for supervising, and that all public media are closed or privatised, as they are unfair competition and act as propaganda organs for the government in power. If a political party does not consider this, it is because it wants everything to remain the same, with a legion of journalists writing at the behest of those in power.

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Photo: PSOE.