I open the Twitter feed of some newspaper editor or other and I read nothing but lies; I check the Instagram of unprejudiced reporters and see how their hooligans applaud every hoax they reproduce; I look at the Facebook or YouTube of so many false communicators now called infuencers and I am shocked to see how, without the slightest restraint, they dedicate themselves to spreading the greatest infamies among their tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of followers”.

By Dardo Gómez

This is how my friend Juan Tortosa opened his first column of the year in “blogs.publico.es”; he also laments the time we decent people, who want to live in a decent society, waste in denying the falsehoods with which so many unpresentable people who pretend to be communicators infect the world of communication.

It is clear from the text that my friend Juan, faithful to his hope that at some point we will be forced to respect the public’s right to information, is close to being fed up, although I don’t think he can cope with it. I understand, with more than fifty years of journalism behind me, I do not remember another time with so many irresponsible people on the loose… And I say “on the loose” with full responsibility for the word; because I believe that in a society willing to defend itself from hatred and its consequences, this type of scoundrels should be kept safe.

There is no freedom of expression, stricto sensu, to which they can cling to justify their indecency because they are prevaricators, they know perfectly well the damage they are doing but they are confident that, at some point, all this rubbish they distribute will serve them as a passport to some office if the wicked triumph. Which is not out of the question…

False plurality of information

Adolf Hitler’s campaign manager, Joseph Goebbels, is credited with the phrase “A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth”; it is totally false and equally perverse. Nevertheless, it worked for German National Socialism, and this genocidal man was instrumental in getting the majority of the electorate to elect Hitler’s delusional lunatic to the Chancellorship. From there he was able to implement his sinister strategies of cruelty.

Goebbels and his journalists continued to blow smoke out of the presses in order to instil in the poor people a delusional anti-Semitic identity to justify a hatred that filled concentration camps and ended the lives of millions of human beings.


(Hitler and Goebbels during a walk in the Berchtesgaden mountain residence of the Berghof in June 1943. WALTER FRENTZ)

Spreaders of the same sectarian messages are now present in many Spanish editorial offices, and so-called experts walk the talk shows of radio and television stations protected by the directors and managers of those stations, who claim to believe in a false plurality of information.

This makes my friend Juan Tortosa desperate. He is tired of having to deal with the apathy of his professional colleagues, who do not understand that democracy and freedom are daily militant assets. Juan, moreover, believes that the immoral are getting the upper hand.

Maybe so, but only for the moment and for a moment that is about to expire…

Lies have short legs

A large part of European journalism has not been fooled by the false concept of this silly “plurality of information” and has clearly assumed its social responsibility in the face of the risk that disinformation poses to democratic society.

It is likely that European journalism is more aware of the old atrocities of this Nazism disguised as neo-liberalism than their Spanish colleagues, and that is why they have decided to stand up to those who aspire to inaugurate a new era of misfortune in this century.

Edwy Plenel, a prize-winning journalist of “Le Monde”, who co-founded and co-founded the “Le Monde” magazine who co-founded and is currently editor of “Mediapart”, warns of the dangers of this discourse that combines the ideology of the extreme right with the socio-economic myths of neo-liberalism: “This is not an opinion to be disputed or refuted, but a criminal ideology whose mechanisms are the same as those that, through the illusory construction of a Jewish question, have in the past dragged Europe into an abyss of crime against humanity”.

Although there are some leaders of the ultra-right who still have Jews as the main object of their hatred, most Spanish retrogrades and their scribes direct their anger and falsehoods against migrants, feminists, people who do not share their social identity and, of course, against workers’ organisations.

It is true that in Spain, in matters of communication rights, we have always been and still are lagging behind; probably because we have the highest volume of ignorance per square metre of newsrooms. This is not scientific, but it is clearly verifiable in daily experience.

But the changes that are taking place beyond our borders, which Vox wants to make higher and higher in order to avoid contamination with humanity, are just a few steps away from our reality.

Lessons are also coming from the United States

After the 2020 elections, President Donald Trump took to the television and said: “If we count the legal votes, we win easily. If you count the illegal ones, they will try to steal from us”. More or less like what José María Aznar did from the Moncloa after the 11 March 2004 attacks in Atocha with his tour of newsrooms to blame ETA terrorism; but the ending is different.


(Jose M.Aznar)

The editors of the Spanish media headlined with Aznar’s lie, even though their correspondents bellowed from all latitudes telling them they would make fools of themselves. And they did…

In the United States, on the other hand, when Trump launched his attack on the electoral system of his country in the face of a result that was adverse to his aspirations, the journalism simply pulled the plug.

ABC, CBS and NBC interrupted the rebroadcast of the president’s speech and told their audiences that the president was lying. “Here we are, again, in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States, but correcting the president,” the NBC anchor commented. CNN’s Jake Tapper commented, accusing Trump of “trying to attack democracy with a feast of lies”. Only conservative mogul Ruper Murdock’s Fox stayed true to Trump’s message and lies.

The next morning The New York Times hit the streets with a front-page headline that said the president had lied.

In the first week of this year, a British court sentenced The Mail on Sunday to a fine of more than a million dollars for violating the privacy of American actress Meghan Markle by publishing a letter from her to her father. In a personal statement released after the trial, the plaintiff said: This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever been afraid to stand up for what is right. While this victory sets a precedent, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a sensationalist industry that drives people to be cruel and profits from the lies and pain they create.

Let us not despair; there are those who are already taking a cue from professional behaviours such as those outlined above that are already running through Europe; they are not smarter than the worst of ours, they just have a greater sense of professional dignity and more respect for people.