I'm sick of hack journalists: real journalism died long ago in Spain

The commentary on the collision between Owono and De Miguel in Tenerife-Andorra turned an evacuation by ambulance and an ICU admission into a 'scare'. The problem is not the blow: it's how it was reported.

## A goalkeeper outside his box and a striker on the ground

The play is easy to describe and hard to digest. **Jesús Owono**, Andorra's goalkeeper, came many metres off his line to deal with a ball in midfield. He jumped towards **Jesús de Miguel**, Tenerife's striker, and struck him in the face. The striker collapsed, lost consciousness and was taken off the pitch by ambulance.

Up to that point, a serious sporting accident. The severity of the collision is beyond dispute: a goalkeeper who leaves his box to make contact at a rival's face height creates a risk no referee can correct afterwards. The image of the player lying on the grass, with the ambulance coming on, is the one that should shape the narrative.

## 'Let it all just be a scare'

The **El futbol español News** account posted the collision on X with a message that mixed warning with wishful thinking: 'A massive blow from Owono on Jesús de Miguel that sets off every alarm. A speedy recovery to Jesús, and let it all just be a scare.' The formula is common on social media: the severity is acknowledged and defused in the same sentence.

The problem comes when that 'scare' becomes the frame for the information. A player unconscious and evacuated by ambulance is not a scare. It is a medical emergency. And the subsequent admission to the **ICU**, in stable condition, confirms that it did not end in the scare the account was hoping for.

## The hack is not the one who tweets

Here it's worth separating two trades that get confused. The person running a sports news account on Twitter is not a journalist, even if they publish as one. The journalist is the one who has to verify, contextualise and, above all, not close a story with a wish before knowing the real extent of the harm.

The underlying complaint is nothing new: the pace of social media rewards quick reactions and punishes waiting. But an evacuation by ambulance demands waiting. The 'scare' is not a stylistic error. It is an error of judgement: the reader is reassured before there are facts. And when the fact arrives —ICU, stable— the narrative has already been written.

With an injured player involved, prudence is not a decoration: it is the only way to avoid getting it wrong in public.