By José Lorenzo García.
Over forty years ago, when I arrived at Spanish Television (TVE) from EORTV to work as a programmer for dramatic content, I enjoyed observing my office colleagues. The programming staff of the Second Channel consisted of a group of no more than fourteen people. We all worked in a large open-plan room where isolating oneself from conversations and the surrounding work environment was nearly impossible.
I watched that diverse atmosphere where many talented screenwriters and adapters came seeking work, some opportunists, collaborating directors (the best ones weren't permanent staff back then), producers with projects, established and emerging film directors, famous actors, writers from all tendencies: Antonio Gala, Rafael García Serrano, Alfonso Paso, Pepe López Rubio, Álvaro de Laiglesia, Carmen Conde, Calvo Sotelo, Lola Salvador, Juan Tébar, Claudio Guerín, Carlos Vélez (the communist Isaac Montero wrote under a pseudonym), Pepe Bódalo, Rodero... Also inhabiting that space on the days he hosted his prestigious program Estudio Abierto was José María Iñigo, with his great team of collaborators and his beloved secretary Olvido Sánchez...
I entertained myself back then by mentally sketching the personalities of that diverse, creative, and needy fauna. Within my imagination as an impertinent and presumptuous young man, freshly graduated and licensed (I was only 25 years old), I probably made too many value judgments.
Now that I have free time, I've become addicted to late-night television talk shows and their radio counterparts at dawn. Recently, my fellow diners at a modest restaurant also discussed their family addiction to these programs, and a small debate arose between the restaurant owner and the political views of the TV panelists. I personally watch them almost daily, switching from one to another with a certain relish, searching for something new to take with me mentally. Although almost all are similar, occasionally a bombshell appears (recently the case of our former FES Jorge Verstrynge).
This television genre that began as a free refuge of radio has become an inexpensive and simple ingredient to fill prime time on most channels. Quality TV is very expensive. Literary rights, films, series, sports, contests, etc., are difficult to acquire in such a competitive market. It takes a lot of Mediaset's checkbook to achieve success. The discussion format, contrasting and diverse dialogue done with courage, creates addiction and fills an evening schedule.
Let's examine and analyze some of the representatives and stars of our audiovisual media coverage:
FEDERICO GIMÉNEZ LOSANTOS
In my early university career days, as a collaborator at UCM's Department (during Ángel Benito's period in Communication Sciences and my old great friend, benefactor and his admirer, Felicísimo V.), I remember coinciding with him in some Department meetings. He is the quintessential example of a brave, clear, sincere panelist. He says, with sarcasm and good humor, what he thinks about almost everything. He confronts everyone and almost everyone fears him. He's always a sure bet. His danger is the reiteration of themes and obsessions (11M, Juan Carlos, Gallardón...) but on many occasions he is the only one who says what everyone thinks but doesn't dare say publicly. I believe they will never silence him. Radio suits him better than television. His mischievous child-like physiognomy is too evident. His dawns at six in the morning on Es Radio are incredible. On many occasions, listening to him in bed, I've woken my wife with the spasmodic laughter his sarcastic comments provoke. The intelligent use of brave and clear humor is what works best in audiovisual media. I think IntereconomíaTV made a good signing by incorporating him into their television talk show.
CARLOS HERRERA
Excellent radio communicator. Likeable. Southern sense of humor. He appears neutral but his bias shows. His bows and incense to the First Magistracy of the State are too obvious. They're not subliminal, but very evident. His passion is pop music. He reminds me of those marvelous voices from the SEU radio school, the CAR-REM, which gave so many prestigious actors, dubbers and announcers to the golden age of Spanish radio in the sixties (those whom the indefatigable journalist Federico Sánchez Aguilar knew and trained). Carlos is not a panelist, but a columnist. Perhaps he lacks political and cultural preparation for it. In his incense to royalty, he has the invaluable help of Mr. Onega, once positioned in the first column of ARRIBA (the Colmena, which had previously belonged to the unforgettable journalist Pedro Rodríguez), when it was only the organ of the National Movement.
ERNESTO SÁENZ DE BURUAGA
Solid professional, his period as Director of TVE news in the first Aznar era was quite effective. He responds to news challenges; I remember the excellent coverage of the Biescas catastrophe. He is also a respectful and calm man. He lets people speak and seems malleable in a perfect Christian democratic line for COPE. His military surname connects with the winners of the civil war and brings resonances of another illustrious and good announcer from Franco's regime: Solchaga, who burned out on TVE in 1975, giving the health reports of the Head of State.
MARÍA ANTONIA IGLESIAS
She is an explosive volcano of journalistic communication. Unfortunately marred by her defense to the bitter end of Felipismo, of which she was head of news at TVE. During my time as Head of Broadcasting at that institution, I patiently endured her haste, pressures, demands to be at the edge of the news most favorable to power. Fortunately, the great director of TVE in that period, Ramón Colom Smatges, with his recognized authority and for the sake of ratings and proper channels, was able to stop some blows from those pressures. The best thing I remember about her from that era, despite her political positioning, was the enormous interest she always maintained in Don Manuel Fraga's trajectory and that objective report she did in full Felipismo when PILAR PRIMO DE RIVERA died (March 23, 1991), the founder of the Women's Section of Falange. Despite her apparent ferocity, there seems to exist in her a pious background. She is a regular debater on Telecinco.
ALEJO VIDAL-CUADRAS
His father collaborated as an illustrator in the select and luxurious FET magazine Vértice (period of the unforgettable Falangist writer SAMUEL ROS, 1941). Very experienced politician full of dialectical resources. Very clear liberal rightist line who knows how to center, temper and finish off his adversaries. Black beast of Catalan separatism. Aznar had to offer his visible head to the nationalists to govern with consensus and compromise. A value to consider in the future for a possible renovation of political manners.
JORGE VERSTRYNGE
In the sixties he was recruited by the FES of politics/economics for the cause. It seems he had a great Nazi/fascist streak back then. The unmentionable JFK (one of the great FES leaders of Economics then) recruited him. We called him Jorge the Belgian. At a conference that the French neoliberal Servan Schreiber (founder of the weekly L'Express) attempted in 1968 in shirtsleeves at the Faculty of Law defending neocapitalism, Jorge (to the expectation of the surrounding students) challenged him appropriately in his language, from leftist positions. He has given political swings and is an excellent professor whose students apparently compete to attend his classes. Intelligent, vehement and defender of lost causes, he is an ace up the sleeve to liven up any television talk show on social and geopolitical topics. His active participation in anti-eviction platforms has given him more popularity than in his time as Secretary General of AP with Fraga at the helm. Recently several channels compete for him.
FERNANDO SÁNCHEZ DRAGÓ
Great consecrated writer from controversial positions and iconoclastic, almost anarchist attitudes, not politically correct. He was an excellent presenter of book programs on TVE2 and other related channels. He addresses almost all social topics but is always more comfortable with cultural and literary approaches of which he is a great expert. From critical and never hagiographic positions he has always vindicated José Antonio's thought and attitude. He has carried out some joint actions with the Hedillists. A few years ago, on the occasion of José Antonio's centenary, he confronted the political commissars of the PSOE at TVE to bring forward a program of his literary talk show dedicated to the founder's literary court. He always livens up any talk show.
EDUARDO GARCÍA SERRANO
Son of the unforgettable Falangist writer RAFAEL GARCÍA SERRANO, he seems linked to his father's thought. His historical-cultural clarifications about the topics raised in debates are usually disconcerting for his opponents. He almost always uses arguments of authority, which are always in books. Sometimes he abuses them and becomes repetitive. On the ideological topic he shows caution (especially since his confrontation with a Catalan councilor whom he called vile for authorizing some rather gross videos) but always coherent. When the much-touted historical memory of Zapaterism came up, I think he didn't dive too much into the pool to rescue his mentors. He is always an excellent panelist with short but accurate interventions.
JAVIER NART
His mastery in the forum of advocacy is admirable. Naturally that has given him an enormous advantage to move in the realm of talk shows, where (from time to time) authentic amateurs and novices attend (especially some quota woman, whom I prefer not to name). His radical independent position serves as an excellent counterpoint to liven up any serious debate and increase the share.
HERMANN TERTSCH
Very peculiar idiosyncratic panelist. Aggressive, sharp, hammer of heretics (both leftists and fascists). I have always admired him for his courage in analyzing the capture of some official or unofficial media by dogmatic and sectarian progressivism. He has radically changed his old progressive positions, an excellent international analyst who apparently was expelled from El País for his dissonance. Recently he left IntereconomíaTV due to disagreements with the nightly talk show presenter for having brought the fascist Verstrynge and getting involved with him in a childish dispute. I think it's the biggest mistake he could have made in his entire journalistic life. The transfer to 13TV has not favored him.
Perhaps another day we will continue the analysis, expanding the spectrum. For now, this is what there is.
8 responses to My Favorite TV Commentators
Rafael García Serrano is as much a Falangist as I am an astronaut. Of all the panelists, the discourse that most closely approximates our positions is, without doubt, Jorge Verstrynge's.
Comrade J.C. is truly good and charitable.
The comment he makes about María Antonia Iglesias couldn't be more compassionate.
The truth is I can't stand her. I know she's a woman, an older person, that she's delicate in health, but you must forgive me, when I see her face on TV I rush to the remote control and change the channel.
I'm accused of certain balance in my usual comments. I don't like to draw blood, I prefer a certain sarcasm and to highlight the contradictions of people and institutions. Aggressiveness, vehemence, in my opinion, is reserved for verbal discourse and heated discussion, which is when it becomes necessary to illustrate the content so it reaches the furthest corner. That is, when one is totally convinced of what is argued and said, to have credibility, it is necessary to reaffirm it with non-verbal gestures.
I think there are too many bad-sounding phrases, insults and rudeness on the net. We should try to avoid these excesses. Anyway, I'm Libra, I can't help it.
In the "Wiki" -not always reliable, but approximate- it says that the half Belgian half Tangerine Verstynge began his political career within French neo-fascism, later evolving toward national communism, which he apparently confesses in a book of his, which I haven't had the curiosity to read: "Memoirs of a Cursed One". My memory of those years is that he flirted with the FES, was in its surroundings, but, fortunately for us, never joined. It wouldn't have been possible due to his racist convictions. I get the echo of how he argued against the communists -they were dumbfounded- from a more radical materialism than theirs: he came to say that Marxism was not a complete materialism, that it suffered Christian adherences, that concern for the disinherited was one of them, and that the best social organization would be that which resulted from recognizing the inequalities that naturally occur among living beings: a sort of biological materialism from which resulted a very educated neo-Nazism but scarcely compatible with our Christian inspiration.
You're both right, Lorenzo and Plupi: Verstrynge never joined the FES. You'll remember -in addition to the assembly at the Faculty of Law that Lonrens refers to- a FES council meeting where Rafael Millán (and perhaps JFKrohn) spoke of that possible recruitment. Right there we dismissed it, for the reasons JR recounts. And see you later, Lucas. The topic didn't come up again.
I really like Lorenzo's chronicles. For the topics he addresses (and which he masters like few others) and for the kind and objective way he presents them. I know he has a special predilection for María Antonia Iglesias, because although she is very partial and sometimes intolerant, she has evident qualities for controversy and is, surely, less unpleasant than she appears. And although it bothers silly feminists, because she is a woman and we cannot, nor do we want to, shed the gallantry we learned as youngsters. And since her health is a bit compromised, all the more reason.
Verstrynge is more brilliant for his gestures of May '68 than for the things he says. He doesn't catch my attention, frankly. Those jumps and pirouettes so surprising, from León Degrelle to Alfonso Guerra, passing through Fraga, to adorn himself with the very serious topic of street harassment, well, it doesn't impress or convince me; although I don't judge his intentions, which I don't know. I wouldn't have selected him for the honor roll that Lorens put together. It's a bit, and poorly compared, like placing El Cordobés in a lineup with Antonio Ordóñez and Morante de la Puebla at the Maestranza. It just doesn't fit on the billboard. Nevertheless, he can be entertaining for a while, because he's clever and doesn't hold back before the audience. Sánchez Dragó, who really knows and has his ideas in perfect deliberately disordered order, treats him like an old friend and applauds him.
Anyway, Lorens and Plupi, I love reading you.
I apologize for the typo about my admired EDUARDO GARCÍA SERRANO (not Federico, which is the name of another old friend and comrade with surnames SÁNCHEZ AGUILAR).
Balanced article about an important cast of panelists.
Balanced if not to say "too" balanced, bordering on the politically correct, since practically all the curricula of those affected ooze soap, despite the fact that some of those mentioned, in recent times, have done practically nothing but ooze venom.
So measured and balanced that it almost reaches the point of seeming obituaries, because of that thing that when someone dies, they usually say "Fulano has reached the hour of praise" (even Carrillo, upon his death, was spoken well of -although it's true that not in this space, as on the other hand, is Justice-).
As a suggestion, very personal of course, the author should not restrain himself from saying more truths than those already mentioned, no matter how much such truths, now omitted, smell or grate. Truth is truth after all, and as such must be accepted, whether one likes it or not.
As a correction, with all my fraternal zeal, remember that the son of the great Rafael García Serrano mentioned in this article here, is called Eduardo, not Federico.
In any case, and as good Elobey says, Strength and Honor...
Federico García Serrano or Eduardo? Of all those named, my countryman Carlos Herrera is the most elegant and pleasant, Rafael García Serrano, very cultured, but seems distant from the Falangist ideas of his father Rafael, he's closer to AES, Federico is a liberal in all the bad sense of the word, a fierce enemy of Falange, Hermann seems tormented by something and Ernesto neither fish nor fowl, the real cracks and those closest to the cause, Fernando Sánchez Dragó and, yes, Jorge Verstrynge, many things he says sound to me like a left-wing Falangist as Platform 2003 would say, fighting for social justice and the most disadvantaged and against PP's economic measures,, total Falangist, statements against the government delegate in Madrid, well the same as Fe-la Falange, and it's that extremes meet and ideas endure even if in the subconscious.
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