When I read that Mediaset’s new leadership banned talking about politics on their programs, I thought of Helen Sinclair, the Broadway diva who plays Dianne Wiest in Bullets over Broadway, who covered John Cusak’s mouth while she was always repeated again: “Don’t speak! !!” I know censorship is more gray than melodramatic, but how can we avoid fantasizing about executives in scarves and turbans pouncing on presenters and other viewers to stop them from saying something they aren’t want to hear?
Unfortunately, the veto doesn’t seem to affect areas that straddle the vague line between news and entertainment, such as the morning show on Telecinco, an insatiable generator of tension, jokes and interested misinformation, but rather, and I think exclusively, Sálvame and der wayward Jorge Javier Vazquez; I doubt that Mediaset fears that the survivors will stray because of the rise in the CPI or that a couple will ask Sandra Barneda during a confrontational fire for pictures of Minister Escrivá explaining the period for calculating the pensions. That they’re trying to silence a moderator used to defending public services, the LGTBI+ collective or animal welfare tells us everything we need to know about the company’s new direction.
Gary Lineker, the veteran striker-turned-sportswriter, was fined for taking to Twitter to criticize the UK government’s anti-immigration policy; The BBC does not allow its staff to comment on politics. Interestingly, other moderators who supported the Conservatives or criticized the opposition were not retaliated against.
Censorship has equated two characters with as little in common as Jorge Javier and Lineker, neither of them are allowed to talk about politics, or rather, surprise, they are not allowed to talk about politics that don’t conform to their channels’ editorial line.
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