Mediaset has a social image problem that it has been trying to remedy for two years. One of the first steps has been to invest in its news services with the incorporation in the management of Francisco Morenoone of the great promoters of proximity television from Televisión Canaria. During this time, the communication group has recovered the disappeared Cuatro News (which opened Iñaki Gabilondo with the birth of the channel in 2005) and Telecinco News has made a great leap forward, renewing its scenography and signing on Carlos Franganillo from TVE.
This is an attempt to give more strength and visibility to a newsroom that during the two decades with Pedro Piqueras at the helm has maintained the balance of independence from power. A difficult task in such a polarized society. On the other hand, the editorial line of Informativos Telecinco continues to be closer to the street than to the heated arguments of one party or the other.
However, it is an impossible mission to modernize Mediaset’s credibility if these news programs coexist with conspiracy programs that try to disguise themselves as journalism. Without being anything of the sort. It does little good for Franganillo to produce an excellent and accurate coverage of the tragic DANA if other spaces are plagued by naysayers, saviors and merchants of hate.
This is what happened on Sunday night on Cuatro, with the program Horizonte. When Iker Jimenez jumped from radio to TV and succeeded in incorporating the narratives of cinematographic filming into his suspense format. He went beyond the basic discussion of paranormal occurrences and dressed the subjects with recreations that created a unique atmosphere. The lighting, the execution, the props, the sets, the intonation…. immerses the viewer in the suspense that is the foundation of Fourth Millennium. He continues to do it masterfully. Asking questions all the time.
But the licenses with which a paranormal story is approached are not the same as the prudence on which the journalism that explains the reality that affects each one of us in our daily coexistence is based. This is where the deep problem arises that provokes Horizonwhich has become a debate in prime time which gives voice to people who conspire without any rigor. A program that gives veracity to morbid, fascination and obsessions of some. It even forgets that it is not possible to propagate without any proof that there are a multitude of dead people in a flooded parking lot in a shopping center in Valencia. A situation that has been denied a few hours later.
Iker Jimenez is one of our best communicators, his passion works like clockwork on the mystery ship. But you can’t approach a program about ghosts in the same way as a current affairs program about a natural and social catastrophe. Here you cannot give authenticity to any confabulation. It is reckless. Even more so when it is evident that in this program there are mercenaries of hatred who take advantage of the misfortunes of others in order to force fears, feed non-existent wars and create scapegoats. that provide a breeding ground for confrontation, generate social disaffection and, as a consequence, shake the future of our democratic welfare state. They achieve this by using the victims and their pain. With much warlike tone, with little caution. With much sensationalism, with little collated data. With much intensity, with little depth. They even think they are freer than the rest of mortals because they can say the first thing that comes to mind. But freedom is not to say the first thing that pops into your head. Freedom is not to scare. Freedom is living together with a conscience. The conscience that thinks before it speaks.