PARIS -- When loyal readers opened Spain's leading daily newspaper, El País, last Sunday, some may have spilled their morning café con leche.The 30-year-old, center-left newspaper -- long a reliable supporter of the governing Socialist Party -- published a huge, withering caricature portraying President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the helm of a sinking map of Spain, encircled by sharks marked unemployment and deficit. El País says the Captain Zapatero cartoon -- and searing critique of the Zapatero government's economic policies -- is simply part of its coverage of "el crisis."But others, inside and outside the government, suspect that the newly muscular coverage is a result of a backstage clash between the newspaper's parent company, Grupo Prisa, and a rival, Mediapro, over digital television rights granted to Mediapro by the Zapatero government.
The 30-year-old, center-left newspaper -- long a reliable supporter of the governing Socialist Party -- published a huge, withering caricature portraying President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the helm of a sinking map of Spain, encircled by sharks marked unemployment and deficit.
El País says the Captain Zapatero cartoon -- and searing critique of the Zapatero government's economic policies -- is simply part of its coverage of "el crisis."
But others, inside and outside the government, suspect that the newly muscular coverage is a result of a backstage clash between the newspaper's parent company, Grupo Prisa, and a rival, Mediapro, over digital television rights granted to Mediapro by the Zapatero government.
Has the long-term friendship between Spain's president and one of his country's leading newspapers, El País, broken down? A cartoon in the paper's 6 September issue portrayed President José Zapatero at the helm of a sinking map of Spain, encircled by sharks marked unemployment and deficit. There was also a searing critique of the Zapatero government's economic policies.Though the paper maintains it is simply its way of covering "el crisis", there is a suspicion that the change of approach by a paper that has long been regarded as a reliable supporter of the socialist party is fuelled by business matters. El País is owned by the Madrid-based Grupo Prisa, which lost out to a rival group, the Barcelona-based Mediapro, over lucrative digital television rights that were granted by the government. Grupo Prisa, one of the largest media groups in the Spanish-speaking world, has been battered by the downturn in advertising, having been forced to negotiate an extension on a bridging loan of €2bn.
Has the long-term friendship between Spain's president and one of his country's leading newspapers, El País, broken down?
A cartoon in the paper's 6 September issue portrayed President José Zapatero at the helm of a sinking map of Spain, encircled by sharks marked unemployment and deficit. There was also a searing critique of the Zapatero government's economic policies.
Though the paper maintains it is simply its way of covering "el crisis", there is a suspicion that the change of approach by a paper that has long been regarded as a reliable supporter of the socialist party is fuelled by business matters.
El País is owned by the Madrid-based Grupo Prisa, which lost out to a rival group, the Barcelona-based Mediapro, over lucrative digital television rights that were granted by the government.
Grupo Prisa, one of the largest media groups in the Spanish-speaking world, has been battered by the downturn in advertising, having been forced to negotiate an extension on a bridging loan of €2bn.
Ummm, years ago, yes. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
I wrote this in May 2008:
About media... The sad thing about Publico.es is that it is supposed to be on the left side in the media fight for the soul of the Spanish left (more pro-PSOE than the increasingly economic-liberal ElPais.es) and yet they reported the IMF thing about the mortgage market as if it were a serious opinion as opposed to evidence that even the IMF is not to be taken seriously any longer. And the director of Publico.es is Escolar of Escolar.net! Why bother starting a new newspaper of the left if they don't have their eyes on the ball?
Perplexity spreads in [Spain's ruling] PSOE - ElPaís.com
