Another red line exploded on the networks: The journalists’ children left over Diana Spain

If journalist Carmen Sastre had not turned it into a viral tweet, she would hardly have remembered the live report on the conviction of the State Inspector General that broadcast on 24 Hours shortly after 4.30 pm on November 20. Pero Sastre, former advisor to RTVE for the PP proposal, decided to cut 77 seconds of a video of the aforementioned information to attack public entity journalist Xabier Fortes, presenter of the programme. No nosh in 24 hours. the reason? The young detective who backed the TVE microphone on X’s syndicated news is a Fortis man, one of the most recognizable faces in the house. In his tweet, on November 20, Sastre stated that it was “strange” that Fortis was being “placed” on TVE in his family, to gain points for future opposition, when he had previously criticized “Families on TVE”. Without anyone trying to support him, the idea has since spread that the man from Fortis had received a favor from TVE. After this text, Twitter exceeded 2.4 million views.

LD Fortis was not the only similar case. Since November 20, at least three other journalists, all with distinguished professional careers, have been attacked using similar techniques. It’s about Jesús Maraña, information; Isaias Lafuente, de la Cadena Ser; and Esther Palomera, from elDiario.es. In no case was any evidence given to them of the existence of favoritism, but in all cases it was understood that the children had benefited from their parents’ position to attain a particular position.

Fernando Gonzalez Urbaneja, president of the jury, Quejas y Deontología del Perperiodismo, says attacks on journalists using their children are “regrettable” and “worrying” for the office. In his opinion, this constitutes “another test” of the fact that “social networks are absolutely irresponsible” and that “everything has value” in them. Moreover, people like them show that networks on the ground “ignore” the work of journalists, leaving media professionals defenseless against content publishers without any rigor. “All solidarity with these comrades. We cannot accept (behaviours like this). If you do not have an excuse to criticize someone more than you mention to your children, you limit yourself alone,” says María Rey, president of the Madrid Press Association, who believes that “the saddest thing” is that there are those who present themselves as “periodical” and venture into this type of practice.

It was Sastre’s letter against Fortis that generated the most controversy. At the same time, said in In harsher terms, far-right stories, such as those of provocateur Javier Negri, with some 400,000 followers were expressed in the tweet approaching three million views.

Another ultra user, Mr. Liberal With more than 160,000 followers on X, the famous broadcaster was accused of “assaulting” his wife. From Vox, its president in Cádiz, Ramon Omisquit, launched an attack by publishing – just like Negri – a first plan for Fortes’ son: “Acuerdate de él cuando que tu hijo o tu hija se tire 4 años esudiandoperiodismo para final en la list del paro. Ellos charge de tus impuestos. Esto es el socialismo”, señalaba. The message has reached millions of views.

Besides the criticism, there were multiple demonstrations in support of Fortes, in which public journalists such as Silvia Intexorundo or Carlos del Amor and other media outlets such as Luz Sánchez Mellado (El País) or Juan Gerado (ABC), among others. On Saturday, the TVE Newsletter Board published a letter condemning “insults directed at TVE workers”. “We remember that every person deserves recognition for their efforts, merits and behavior, regardless of their personal environment,” he said in a letter thanking Fortis, who explained in several tweets that his son studied Periodismo at Complutense, that his practices are unpaid on TVE.

“It’s annoying, with a non-renewable contract coming to an end,” sums up Javier Fortes over the phone, who assumes that journalists must accept that they can be “analyzed and criticized,” but sees the “villain” being used by a man. “By circulating frozen video images with the face and nickname, it becomes exposed to anyone who can say something on the street,” Fortis says, and he does not believe that such situations should serve to seed an exit from social networks. “If we leave this space in our hands of the channels, we will hardly go. We have to challenge the lies,” Anyadi Fortis.

In a phone conversation, Sastre denied that signing the 24-year-old Fortis man was “embarrassing”. “I am not saying that he had any favors. He said that he worked for TVE, and that is clear,” says the now-retired journalist, who confirms that he does not imagine the repercussions of his words. Given the effect, was I wrong? “I will not go back,” answers Sastre, who says that what she wanted was to overcome the supposed discrepancy between the appointment of his son de Fortes, and he believes that his priestess, when she was director, protested against what was then called the “parallel revision” of the TVE. But is it justified to point to the man from Fortis? She refuses to be “punched” by the young man, despite posting a video with her connection in which she says that her priest “ordered” him.

“The Steve Bannon Way”

A day after Sastre’s letter against Fortes, the name of Pablo Haro, a Fortes collaborator, trended on Twitter, which has more than 70,000 followers. Digital freedompublished in Harrow publishes the names and pictures of the daughters of a magazine editor information. Hiro’s first message against Maraña has received more than 320 thousand views.

Just as in the case of Fortes, other users reached out to the publication to attack Maraña, who declared in El País asked Haro whether he was aware of any irregularity in the Trayecttoria de las hijas de Maraña that would justify its publication. The answer was no.

“It’s about the level of using children to destroy journalists. It doesn’t seem to me that it’s unusual for them to attack on the same day journalists with a similar profile of the same regime,” Maraña says over the phone, and he believes distorting these kinds of attacks in detail gives them a bad reputation that their authors don’t deserve. “With the Steve Bannon technique, we flood everything with bass, and hope the rest of us come back,” he says.

“Pure Matonism”

Among the many supports received by Fortes y Maraña is Esther Palomera, Deputy Director elDiario.es. Specifically, at the origin of his defense of Maraña, Arturo Villa, a Twitter user with more than 71 thousand followers in X, posted a message in which a young man from Palomera appeared with Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlasca. Regarding this photo, Villa points out that Palomera’s son works for the public affairs consultancy Acento, founded by former minister and former socialist director José Blanco. The message, which had more than 147,000 views, without warning accused the 26-year-old Palomera boy of being “rich” and attacking the journalist on his behalf, even in crude terms. Villa justified his tweet by saying that in Brussels, where he lives, he “talks a lot” about…Lobbyists“, which is why he knows that Asento is “not good at all.”

Palomera, who has spent five years collecting network accounts and fake moderators posting that his son — a socialist youth activist — accused Ferraz when he wasn’t there, says by phone that at this point he doesn’t respond to that kind of comment. In fact, she regrets that the insults and lies directed against her and her husband, including her photos, on social media remained unpunished even when she reported them.

He also saw how his wife was used against Isaias Lafuente, from the SER series. An anonymous account of X, called UnblockHe posted a photo of himself and another of his 26-year-old son, with a message noting that he was able to write stories as a collaborator in EL PAÍS thanks to his priest. He responded candidly and the user posted the message and posted the account, but not before organizing a review of the classic tweet.

“The people involved with me, I’m in over my head. But I’m firm when it comes to my family. There’s a line that has to be drawn,” explains Lafuente over the phone, who finds the attacks on his son “totally unfair,” and whose El Pais master is now cooperating with the media without being on staff. “Things like this go beyond all limits, it’s a disgrace. It’s pure madness, it’s an insult,” Sinala.