11-M Verdicts Due Today

By lunchtime today, we should all know the verdicts decided by the court deliberating the case of the Al Qaeda operatives charged with attacking Madrid in 2004. South of Watford has an interesting post about the possible outcomes, and how they might affect the forthcoming general elections.

Another thing he points out is a poll in Público which reveals that 1/3 of PP voters still believe that ETA was involved in the bombings. Astounding. This is almost certainly as much because of the seeds of doubt sown by the PP in the months and years since the bombings, as it is thanks to the wild conspiracy theories spread by El Mundo, El COPE, Libertad Digital, Red Liberal, Telemadrid etc.

Like the Fox News channel, the first three on that list often rail against what they call 'the mainstream media' (they love the abbreviation 'MSM') which refers to other media source but themselves. While El País may have the edge on newspaper readership (Christ it's a dull read, though), El Mundo is one of the most popular websites in Spain, ranking considerably higher than ElPaís.com. This says to me that however skewed and unbelievable their news coverage might be, El Mundo is the mainstream media (just like Fox News is, just as El COPE is).

I first came across these bizarre conspiracy theories while reading Libertad Digital. For those of you who haven't read it, it sums up the false-centrism of the hard right in Spanish politics. A lot of waffle about economics (that's where the 'Libertad' seems to come from), accompanied by vitriolic 'news' 'reports' all targeted against the Socialists, the Basques, the Catalans, history, free speech, democracy and modernity. Give it a whirl, it'd actually be hilarious if it weren't the 20th most popular Spanish website.

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