Anyone know if Spanish media is pushing ETA as the culprits?

[AP]

Or are the arrests today resulting in the line that it's Al Qaeda who's responsible?

I'm very curious about how people are responding and making up their minds.

I presume that RW media would want to help Aznar. But I can't see how they get so many people in the streets angry at Aznar if the media were on Aznar's side.

Anyone know what the story is in Spain?

[DeepModem Mom]

1. This GD report from a poster in Spain is helpful:

"Lefergus70 (20 posts) Sun Mar-14-04 07:35 AM
Response to Original message

17. Sunday morning in Madrid


It's 8 a.m. and my wife, who is Spanish (I'm originally from Massachusetts) just left for the local polling station; she's been selected to be part of the citizens' committee that will have to supervise balloting all day and counting after the poll close.

She and my four daughters will be voting today, and they are very angry at the ruling PP government for (1) very possibly bringing the Iraqi war to this country and (2) very possibly covering up details in the investigation of the bombing for political puposes. How does the rest of the country feel? The answer, which we'll have tonight, might give us an inkling into how Americans will vote in November. Control of the media is an issue here too. For example:

At 7.45 p.m. last night we noticed that the two government-controlled channels, TV-1 and TV-2, as well as the Madrid regional channel, Tele-Madrid, also under the wing of the ruling conservative PP, were back to normal programming. And so was Antena-3, a private channel sympathetic to the government. Only Tele-5, which is at least partially owned by Italy's Berlulsconi, broke into its regular programming at that moment to announce the arrests of non-ETA suspects in advance of a statement by the Interior Minister. Tele-5 stayed with the story until the minister came on 25 minutes later, while the others stuck rigidly to their regularly-scheduled programs, which included a soccer match, until an instant before his address - then they went back to the programs.

Meanwhile, CNN-International - which we receive as mon-cable with a few other foreign channels through our block TV dish - had Brent Sadler live with the angry mob demonstrating before PP headquarters, shouting "Tell us the truth!". CNN-i never let up on this story since the first breaking news and has been covering it as if it was another 9/11. Last evening, while the official Spanish TV channels were giving slight attention to the supposed islamic link, CNN-i was weaving it into every report. We kept checking the French channel TV-5 and noticed that they were also on top of this. Friends with cable have commented that the BBC was also constantly contrasting the government's ETA-did-it messages with the non-ETA claims.

The main opposition party, the PSOE, has been respectfully quiet during these delicate moments. But the government's leading candidate for the presidency, Mariano Rajoy, was seen last night on TV playing victim, angrily denouncing the mobs outside PP headquarters, suggesting that this was a staged and illegal demonstration by an unnamed opposition group. In part, he was probably right, because a lot of the signs looked excactly alike and didn't appear handmade. However, non-militants were swelling the gathering; I know, because my eldest daughter and her friends told me they were rushing right over."


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1228350

[AP]

5. Very interesting.

(but why so at odds with arcos's post?)

[arcos]

2. I receive TVE...

It is funded by the government, but it is -usually- not very biased. They really haven't been pushing either ETA or Al Qaeda, they usually (at least in the last couple of days) limit themselves to reporting.

The day of the attacks they reported ETA was probably responsible, but they have been reporting recent developments too.

[REP]

3. I Have Seen Pictures of The Protests and Memorials

and have seen a lot of "ETA are Assassins" handbill-type things. My impression is that most assumed it was the ETA, but I could be wrong.

[arcos]

4. yeah, at first the government and everyone else automatically blamed ETA

because they have over 40 years of being the only ones causing terrorist attacks.

But the large scale of the attacks, and a very different modus operandi made some people question it, and later more information became available linking it with Al Qaeda.