In the Argenzuela program of the C5N signal, Jorge Rial referred to the president Javier Milei and his controversial link with journalists. In a fragment of the cycle, the television host, accompanied by Diego Brancatelli, declared: “Milei, if you knew how much the journalists you consider friends laugh at you.” ‘The crazy man called me at 2 in the morning, you can’t understand him, he babbles’, this is what your ‘journalist friends’ say. “They’re all cracking,” the presenter concluded.
The link of President Javier Milei With journalism, it was consolidated as one of the most complex and polarized axes of his management, characterized by strong public hostility towards the general press and a selective closeness to specific communicators. Various media analyzes indicate that this relationship oscillates between open confrontation on social networks and complacency in exclusive interviews.
At the core of his anti-media narrative, Milei and his digital environment promoted forceful slogans; The president himself validated on his platforms phrases shared by his militants, referenced with the advisor Santiago Caputo, as “We don’t hate journalism enough”. This speech of systematic disqualification reached a critical point during an interview recorded for Public Television, where the head of state attacked directly, stating that “95% of Argentine journalists are criminals”, accusing them of being poisoned, of responding to spurious interests and of knowingly lying due to the removal of the official guideline.
In contrast to this scenario of generalized tension, a select group of television and radio hosts, such as Luis Majul, Alejandro Fantino and Jonatan Viale, They maintained a privileged and close channel of communication with the president. However, these links showed very dissimilar dynamics ranging from covert political advice to historical friendship and submission to the presidential environment.
On the one hand, Luis Majul, A regular interviewer close to the ruling party on the LN+ signal, he adopted the role of public advisor in moments of political weakness. After suffering electoral setbacks and image declines, Majul used his editorials and social networks to directly address Milei with a decalogue of management recommendations or “commandments.” Among those passages, the journalist strongly advised him to “end the intern.”“renew economic expectations”“apologize” and, fundamentally, “do not insult” and abandon behaviors similar to his former role as a television panelist.
The relationship with Alejandro Fantino It is hammocked on the basis of loyalty prior to political promotion. Milei publicly recognized Fantino and the late Mauro Viale as “the parents of the child”thanking them for being the first to give it space and air on programs like Loose Animals when no one took him seriously.
Among the anecdotes of friendship that intertwine the two, the moment stands out when, after the elections, a moved Milei thanked Fantino in Neura’s studio for sheltering him when he was suffering a “media blackout” by the big multimedia companies. The mutual trust is such that the president granted him extensive hand-to-hand reports where he allowed himself from singing a cappella to unleashing unfiltered outbursts against the opposition.
For its part, the link with Jonathan Viale was exposed in a highly controversial light due to a corporate and government backroom incident. During an interview recorded for the TN signal on the occasion of the financial scandal of the cryptocurrency $LIBRA, the strategist and presidential advisor Santiago Caputo abruptly interrupted the behind-the-camera recording. In an unedited video later leaked to social media, Viale was seen allowing himself to be interrupted while Milei responded to his legal responsibility.
Given Caputo’s direct order to “start with the question again” To prevent the president from getting involved in court, Viale agreed to reformulate his question, admitting into the microphone: “Yes, I realized… it could lead to judicial trouble.”. The episode generated a strong debate about the journalistic autonomy of interviewers close to power, forcing Viale himself to make a subsequent defense where he acknowledged that he lacked firmness to stop the advisor’s interference in the middle of the report.
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