El País releases guide to debunk myths at Christmas dinner

El País releases guide to debunk myths at Christmas dinner

The PRISA group has launched a video guide offering arguments to refute the supposed lies spread by reactionary relatives during Christmas dinners. The material, shared on social media, covers feminism, electric cars, the Valencia DANA (flash flood), and even forest management. This initiative trinc a 2024 government manual for journalists detailing how to cover immigration. Now, the target is the average citizen, who sits across from family members disagreeing with the official narrative.

The video presents itself as an educational tool against disinformation, but its format—a sort of audiovisual catechism—has caused controversy. The guide does not just provide data; it tells viewers what to think and how to argue. It marks the line between informing and indoctrinating, a boundary increasingly blurred in a self-proclaimed independent outlet.

Myths the guide aims to debunk

The content addresses four fronts. On feminism, it challenges the idea that women are overrepresented in certain areas. On electric vehicles, it counters arguments regarding their economic and environmental viability. Regarding the Valencia DANA, it fights theories circulating online about disaster management. In forestry, it dismantles the belief that clearing river vegetation prevents floods.

The selection is no accident. These are exactly the topics dominating Spanish dinner table conversations for years. The guide turns Christmas dinner into a cultural battlefield, with the blessing of a media outlet claiming plurality.

Response: Between mockery and denunciation

Reactions were swift. Many readers received the video with ridicule. Critics noted the channel has three million subscribers but fewer than 50 'likes' on the video, suggesting massive rejection masked by the platform. Others recalled that Norway, cited as an example of ecological transition, is one of Europe's largest hydrocarbon exporters, a detail the guide conveniently omits.

Some argue the guide is a simplified version of the talking points distributed by the government to friendly media. The synchronized messaging—same approach on La Sens, Antena 3, El Periódico, and 20minutos—is seen as proof of orchestration. "Eleven principles of socialist propaganda," some joke, citing the classic manual.

The existing manual for journalists

This is not the first time the Executive has tried to shape the narrative. In 2024, the government published a guide for journalists on reporting immigration, with explicit language recommendations. That document was criticized for bias and treating professionals like minors. The new video guide extends this logic to the general public: it is no longer about guiding the press, but telling citizens what to answer in their own homes.

The difference is one of degree, not substance. The goal remains the same: controlling the narrative when polls and daily conversations escape its influence.

Is this journalism or activism?

This question looms over the entire issue. A media outlet can and should combat myths, but doing so via a video that dictates arguments and ridicules dissenters is not journalism; it is activism. El País has moved from reporting on myths to manufacturing an instruction manual for cultural warfare.

The irony is that the guide accuses relatives of repeating mantras, while it is itself a compendium of mantras. The difference is that some are repeated at a bar counter, while others are broadcast from a studio with public funding.

Outlook

Expect such products to multiply. Proximity to elections and declining traditional media influence push PRISA to double down on combative content. The guide does not seek to convince a relative, but to shield the already convinced. In this trench, dialogue is the first casualty.

It remains unclear if the average viewer—that person peeling shrimp while watching TV—wants instructions. Experience suggests they do not.