On their 24-hour news channel, Spanish public broadcaster TVE has decided to fabricate a parallel reality to the Diada, the Catalan National Day, in its live broadcast of the rally, presenting it as a minority event whose participants "aren't demonstrating for Catalonia, but for a delusion that doesn't currently represent us [Catalans]", as one of the interviewees, president of the pro-union SCC (Catalan Civil Society) Mariano Gomà, said. A live demonstration of post-truth, alternative facts and fake news.
Alongside Gomà were José Ramón Bosch, former president of the SCC; Juan Arza (pictured), one of the founders of SCC; Pedro Jiménez, journalist for Spanish radio station SER and Nicolás Redondo Terreros, former candidate for president of the Basque Country for PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) and currently a lawyer and a director of Spanish construction company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas.
⏺ Abrimos tertulia con José Ramón Bosch, Nicolás Redondo, Pedro Jiménez y Juan Arza https://t.co/UgbaPCtB3M pic.twitter.com/DhhmnIp6uF
— 24h (@24h_tve) 11 de setembre de 2017
The main screen showed the participants' comments, perfectly describable, whilst two shots to the side showed the rally using very long-distance or close-up framing, classic tricks to prevent viewers from being able to get an idea of the scale of the event. The speeches made were all inaudible behind the comments around the table.
Bosch started moderately, talking of a "holiday" and "the families" attending. He quickly clarified that "more than half of Catalonia isn't in favour of independence", before getting into a mess explaining that "more than half of my family is at the rally" and that his cousin "is the mayor of my town for ERC [Catalan Republican Left]" and pro-independence.