Zapatero Falls out with its Biggest Media Group

The Economist ^ | 1 October 2009 | The Economist

[J Aguilar]

FEW tiffs are as nasty as those between old friends. A bitter bust-up between Spain’s prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the media giant Prisa, publisher of the newspaper El País, mirrors the intimacy that once reigned. It also highlights problems on both sides.

[J Aguilar]

PRISA media group, after offering the false news that there were suicide bombers in the trains attacked on 3/11 through its popular Cadena SER radio network, giving the victory to the Socialists in the national elections, is now tasting some of its own medicine as Zapatero now favours a Catalonian media group come out of the blue. It well illustrates the way the media works in Spain. It is hard to separate chicken from egg.

Please, check the readers' comments, they are worth of it: The Economist is very shy when talking about the Continental European oligarchies.

[J Aguilar]

Ping!

[Cicero]

Thanks for the ping. I hope we’ll be seeing the last of Zapatero one day. It was very dispiriting to see Spain electing the Communists (which is what they amount to) back into power.

Some parts of Europe are now moving to the right under the economic crisis, and I hope Spain will, too.

[Scanian]

17% unemployment and stupid “green” economic plans can make a lot of folks change their tune.

[tanuki]

Actually, the comments are at least as good as the main story. This is hilarious! It’s like the Democrats in this country turning on their loyal flacks in the main stream media and setting up their own private propaganda mills. It’s like a media version of Kristallnacht, only bleeding ink instead of blood.