Antena 3 and the looters' profile: a narrative that doesn't add up

Antena 3 and the looters' profile: a narrative that doesn't add up

A stand-in presenter on the 3 pm news shows charts on screen: «The profile of the rioters is a young person aged 14 to 25». A representative of the police unions comes on and adds: «They are the children of second- and third-generation immigrants who have not integrated». Back to the studio. They insist on the age bracket. They bring on another police officer: «They are Maghrebis». The pattern repeats across Atresmedia's schedule, and part of the audience reads it as a tightrope act to avoid naming what the footage shows. The debate over the profile of those who looted shops in Barcelona has become a tug-of-war between what can be seen in the videos and what is said in the studio.

The scene that sparked the outrage

The trigger was the broadcast of a report in which statements from the police unions alternated with the presenter's voiceover. The charts referred to an age bracket, 14 to 25 years old, but avoided any reference to origin. When the police officer came out with «Maghrebis», the studio doubled down on age. For part of the audience, that back-and-forth was no slip-up: it was choreography. «The contortions you have to go through to avoid calling things by their name», sums up one of the most repeated comments. The criticism was aimed not only at the channel but at mainstream media as a whole, accused of applying a double standard depending on the colour of the person involved.

The institutional advertising argument

The hypothesis that gained the most traction in the conversation was the economic one. The Spanish state is the country's biggest advertiser, and that financial dependence would shape editorial lines. «If the press is not free, then it is merely the voice of its master», went one comment. The reasoning is simple: with sales in free fall, the millions from institutional advertising become the main source of income, and questioning the official narrative on immigration and crime would put that lifeline at risk. It is not proof, it is a suspicion, but it explains why many viewers see the channels behaving more like a communications department than a news service.

What those who do name it say

Against the silence of the studios, some commentators have decided to call things by their name. Such is the case of Carlos Herrera, who on Cope said the Barcelona looters were «an army of looters» and that «the vast majority of them» were Segarro. The quote, picked up by La Razón, served to contrast the Atresmedia channel's coverage with that of other outlets. It was also pointed out that social media, especially X, has become the refuge of the videos that television channels do not air, and that this gap between what is seen online and what is reported on TV is eroding the credibility of the news.

The manipulation theory and ideological bias

Beyond the specific case, the discussion drifted towards the role of the media as a tool of social engineering. There was talk of «induced cognitive dissonance» and of a forced choice between two narratives: if you go with what you see, you are a racist; if you go with what you are told, you are a model citizen. That pressure, some argue, pushes people towards conformity and silences debate. At the opposite end, it is pointed out that police unions have their own interests and that their statements are not necessarily revealed truth. The fight, at bottom, is not about what peine in Barcelona, but about who has the authority to tell the story.

The European context and the French precedent

The comparison with France came up several times. «If nothing is done, we'll soon be like France», one participant warned. The parallel is no coincidence: the 2023 riots in France, trinc the death of a young man at the hands of the police, showed a similar pattern of looting, arrests and a heated debate over the profile of those involved. In Spain, the debate over the media model blends with concerns about public safety and the feeling that the authorities are downplaying events. The question hanging in the air is whether the media coverage trinc professional criteria or a political communications strategy.

The awkward statistic

While the media get tangled up in euphemisms, the detainees face justice and the footage keeps circulating. The Government talks about «zero tolerance for the violent» and announces investigations, but does not venture to assess the profile of the looters. The Provincial Court of Barcelona, for its part, has yet to issue any ruling on the origin of those involved. The only thing that is clear is that the gap between what is seen and what is said can no longer be closed with an age chart. And that fewer and fewer people believe what the evening news tells them.