Iker Jiménez has become one of the key names to understand the most controversial side of the DANA coverage that devastated several towns in the Valencian Community on October 29. Coverage in which hoaxes and misinformation have been common, issues that have considerably tarnished the ‘Horizonte’ and ‘Cuarto Milenio’ brands, the programs directed by Iker Jiménez for Mediaset. To the point that an advertiser, the ING Direct bank according to El País, has decided to withdraw its advertising from both programs.
El parking de Bonaire. The issue that has caused the most controversy is the Bonaire underground parking lot: in the program on November 3, false information was given, claiming that there were dozens of bodies submerged in it, when none were later found. Jiménez also expressed it with great drama on his social networks: “In the Bonaire parking lot there are many bodies, many bodies. Many.” The issue was denied a few days later and the information from Bonaire became almost a symbol of bad journalistic practice around DANA.
The defense. The situation has led Iker Jiménez to prepare a video that he has posted on his social media accounts and that presents a chronology of the events, exposing media outlets that speculated about possible deaths in the parking lot before Jiménez himself reported it. The powerful video has also been discussed: tweeters like Dani Domínguez have pointed out the problems it presents. For example, other media outlets cited by Iker Jiménez speculated about the possibility of deaths, but did not confirm it. Jiménez, too, has discharged himself of responsibility by accusing his sources, not assuming it. And also, the conspiratorial touch: in ‘Horizonte’ it was suggested that there were deaths but that it was not being communicated to the public due to hidden interests.
The withdrawal of advertising. These are details that go beyond a specific bad practice, and that have led to the withdrawal of ING advertising according to El País. In the firm’s statement, made public by various media, the bank specifies that “the decision to withdraw ING advertising from a program, network or medium is made based on different factors such as content or commercial strategy, and in “No case is related to specific programs or presenters. For this reason, after the controversy generated in recent days in a very sensitive social context, we decided to modify our advertising grid.” At the moment, the hashtah #AdiosIngDirect is trending on Twitter, with 40,000 tweets for and against the firm.
More hoaxes. Bonaire has been the most representative example of a program that has always been criticized for its unethical treatment of information, in line with other programs that have been accused of disguising very clear political proclamations or demagoguery as entertainment. pure misinformation. Other controversies that have recently plagued the program have been the behavior of its regular collaborator Ángel Gaitán, who raffled off aid for DANA on Twitter and began dubious practices with the donations he collected, or Rubén Gisbert, a Putinist conspiracy theorist (like Beatriz Talegón, another collaborator from ‘Horizonte’) who pretended to get mud on himself before connecting with the program or sneaked into a nursing home to spread hoaxes
Complicated situation. Iker Jiménez has weathered the storm as best he could. For example, he has distanced himself from the actions of Rubén Gisbert publicly and has fired him, and has justified hoaxes like the one in Bonaire with long personal videos, in which he accuses other media outlets of calling for his head. In Mediaset, without a doubt, they remember cases such as ‘GH Revolution’ or ‘La Noria’, programs that had to close due to the rout of advertisers (after the rape of Carlota Prado and the interview with El Cuco’s mother, respectively) .
A history of hoaxes. It is unlikely that the history of cancellations will be repeated with Jiménez’s programs, because those cases were flagrant assaults on journalistic ethics, or directly on legality, so most likely the withdrawal of ING Direct will be an isolated case. However, Iker Jiménez’s relationship with poorly verified information goes back a long way: wanting to distance himself from supernatural information, he was able to open ‘Horizonte’ in 2020 on the occasion of COVID, where the program became one of the propagators of hoaxes about the most controversial pandemic on the grid.
It’s all a lie. It was then that he had collaborators such as National Police sub-inspector Alfredo Perdigueiro, sanctioned for spreading hoaxes. The program became a spokesperson for the most popular conspiracy theories about COVID, such as the idea that the pandemic was a Chinese biological weapon. Later, in 2022, the program also dealt with the climate emergency with conspiracy theories and falsehoods that were discussed by different advocacy organizations. fact-checking. History repeats itself, although this time the consequences seem more serious.
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In WorldOfSoftware | DANA has focused its attention on crisis management. And after the case of Valencia, Andalusia and Catalonia they have been clear about it
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