Come together, right now (like an alliance)

 

    

 

The United States elections for president and congress members are coming up. The date is November 3^rd. A story calling my attention is that two eternal contenders have decided to work in alliance during this process. No, they are not Biden and Trump but the rivals of Hispanic TV – Telemundo and Univision. On Friday, September 11th, while everybody was remembering the victims of terrorism, Telemundo Network announced on its website the launching of a fact-checking platform it named T Verifica.

Every fact-checking platform is intended to prove if what is released like truth is indeed, or it’s not, or has no enough data, or is needing more consistence, or it’s posted diverted to outbreak some kind of reaction across the people.  In general, every journalist has the needed training to verify each incoming and outcoming information, but the overwhelming flow of social media makes the credible news organizations to have specialized teams only in this job, and it’s a pretty huge job, by the way!

In smaller credible news organizations, there are specific protocols followed up before releasing any story. For example, when the corona-virus crisis began, an editorial agreement was no statistic to be published unless the source is a government agency. It was the time when even the dogs assured to bark breaking data, and many media spread like pollen.

When the journalistic actuality is urgent or very-high importance, like an electoral process, wins no the first one who says it but who says it correctly. And the electoral periods are these year’s season when much information is released like real but it can result a bluff created by advocating campaigns for bringing the contenders down.

 

    

 

The Latin American experience

The fact-checking processes are not instantaneous (who swears it, lies). They demand time, personnel, and money. That’s why the good stories last to release or they’re never released until having the certainty you are not fail along. The solution many media have found is not sharpening the clow to take out the eyeballs to the competitor and serve them to dinner. When the Panama Papers were disclosed, the journalists were amid a data ocean, especially amounts, and the teams of one only medium were not enough in time and space to understand them and explain them to the audience.

Essentially, the Panama Papers were a detailed list of companies in the Americas clearing money through off-shores in tax-heavens (Panama is one of them). Then, you chose any country, including Peru, and the hare jumped up easily. The problem was it jumped high and long, so one only hunter was not enough. Then, the press consortia started, that in the Peruvian chapter, and for that investigation, began with IDL Reporteros.

The Odebrecht Case came later, when the Brazilian justice found a rare accountability at a laundry where, added to leave pretty clean clothes, the money was cleared to serve for bribery to win public works. The sophisticated scheme required the media to recruit lawyers and system engineers due to much information was encrypted or encoded.

A media crew from Mexico to Argentina joined to the effort, and there’s no little one in the Peruvian case but at least half a dozen including investigative websites, newspapers, and TV networks. The case is still open and maybe it lost relevance because of the corona-virus pandemic, but only in the national reality, it has our last four Peru’s Presidents and a recurrent presidential candidate under investigation. Right now, it has begun to shock the Mexican politics.

Related to Brazil and the pandemic, the few transparency that Jair Bolsonaro’s administration gave to his data –perhaps to hide a terrible crisis management—forced five big media (including Rede Globo and Folha do Sao Paulo)joined a consortium to offer their audiences with a timely statistic based upon official numbers from states’ Health secretaries. As Brazil is a federal republic, although these entities share their information to the local Health Ministry, they are independent in their decisions.

Mr Bolsonaro claimed in the 75^th United Nations General Summit that Brazilian media are guilty to draw him a uneffective profile for the emergency management. The issue is the gentleman truly makes the necessary for this country’s journalism to blame it straight on his face.

In Peru, the issue related to corona-virus was not necessarily the statistic (in fact, there are even three surveys now). Actually, the main problem has been fake news. Although a consortium was not formed to verify which news is true or which is a cave-time myth, media like La República o el Comercio have activated fact-checking units, while the other credible are doing the contrast by using the classic method. Worldwide, EFE and France Presse agencies have specialized bulletins in verifying data.

As we are watching until here, the credible media are encouraging to offer you guaranteed contents. That’s why we advise when you have a news, before asking what says, ask who says it. If your answer continues to generate doubts by yourself, ask me on my Twitter account.

 

    

 

It’s not extravagant

And that’s how we get to Verifact, the American alliance which the eternal Hispanic contenders –Telemundo and Univisión—are although to be honest, it’s about more than one year and a half that both networks are learning they are not competence in between, neither their similar in English language, but the long list of fake news that President Donald Trump tells or posts on his social media.

Just for the record, both networks seem not to be related. Telemundo is part of NBCUniversal media group, a division of Comcast, while Univisión is owned in part by Saban Capital Group and formerly by a México’s Televisa and Venezuela’s Venevisión joint-venture. Another medium that is part of the alliance (joined by 12 members) is the popular USA Today newspaper, that during its time revolved the printed news concept with local editions in the largest cities in the U.S.

I told all this because I think that considering the times we are living when pandemic has demanded us to give our best with the less available resources and the need you to have quality information, the consortium or alliance scheme should be an idea the media (especially outside the largest cities)consider like a way to offer quality content not affecting our brand character and serving the markets following us faithfully.

Also, few people know that the journalists on a developing assignment use to collaborate no matter the media they belong to. When the deadline is on, it’s when everybody compete to have the best frontpage. So, it’s nothing strange. Everything depends on the good will of owners and editors.

I also see another benefit to the alliance or consortium model based on that old and known quote – the unity makes stronger. In electoral times, many media believe to be powerful when the commercial strip is full, but they become vulnerable at the time of coverage precisely because the smart candidate knows more than his or her survival, the news company’s survival is playing on. So, the first one that he or she will attack is our credibility.

In the consortium or alliance model, the candidate will follow to hire an ads campaign, but this will not slam the editorial guideline because the media will be really strong, especially in smaller markets like counties or districts. Of course, the media must understand that power gives no right to commit crimes. If we kick off that principle, the truth is going to break out fast, and if one goes wrong, everybody goes wrong.

Finally, I would remind to the public and the media that two recent events (added to Odebrecht) demand us to consider the idea of the alliance or the consortium – El Niño and the corona-virus. If we remember the amount of fake news and rumors produced in both coverages, we will understand why we have to join. We deserve to the people, so if we think of them, we will try to try at least. Let’s interchange numbers?