El Vocero is also the best-selling newspaper in Puerto Rico.
In spite of being a IAPA member for over 20 years, El Vocero did not meet with the delegation, choosing instead to issue an open letter published in the Wednesday, January 14 issue. The letter makes a big deal of the investigative journalism awards El Vocero has received over the years, such as the 1995 Scripps Howard First Amendment Award, and IAPA's own First Prize in 1996.
The open letter questioned IAPA's decision to make a resolution condemning governor Rosselló for coercing the press in its assembly in Guadalajara last October without first having done an investigation into the accusations made by El Nuevo Día. It complained that the Association only heard testimony from El Nuevo Día before making the resolution, and that such a procedure could undermine the organization's credibility. The rest of the open letter goes on attacking El Nuevo Día's position in its dispute with governor Rosselló.
El Vocero's position in this controversy appears to be motivated by concerns that have nothing to do with freedom of the press or democratic accountability. It is a widely known fact that its owners are planning to start a new daily, which will compete for the general consumption market now dominated by El Nuevo Día.
The new paper, which reportedly will be called El Nuevo Mundo, will be directed by Luis Dávila-Colón, a pundit and commentator well known for his extreme right-wing views on everything and for his unconditional support for Rosselló. In his ghastly columns, Dávila-Colón would slander and defame everyone, from the independence movement to environmentalists and everyone in between, weaving all kinds of half-baked conspiracy theories. Most observers agree he really went overboard when he alleged that pro-independence leftists had infiltrated and taken over Puerto Rico's advertising industry. His rants about nationalist subliminal messages in advertisements left a lot of people wondering about his sanity.
Dávila-Colón was a columnist in El Nuevo Día until last year when Antonio Luis Ferré heard of his plans with El Vocero, and fired him immediately.
The likeliest possibility is that the government advertising (worth $500,000 a month) that was pulled from El Nuevo Día will be used to subsidize this new paper, to be operated by the owners of El Vocero and edited by Rosselló's unconditional ally Dávila-Colón. In this way the governor could use public money to finance an uncritical propaganda newspaper, and at the same time punish El Nuevo Día with cut-throat competition.
All this said about El Vocero, I must give credit where credit is due. In the last few months it has been undergoing a transformation into a real mainstream newspaper, although without letting go of its morbid crime reporting. It is now hiring real good reporters who can write something other than crime stories, like Maria Judith Luciano who just came in from El Nuevo Día. It is also beefing up its arts and entertainment section with some good movie and theater critics, as well as the knowledgeable music critic Jorge Meléndez. And to top it all off, it's brough on board the outrageous comedian Sunshine Logroño with a hilarious humor column.
But these positive changes in El Vocero are co-existing with disturbing changes in its editorial stance. Whereas it used to be mostly non-ideological, it is now showing a blatant right-wing pro-Rosselló slant in its reporting on Puerto Rican politics. We got a harsh dose of this new style of activist pseudo-journalism last November 19 when the paper reported on the Puerto Rico Supreme Court's decision to allow pro-independence activist Juan Mari-Brás to vote in our elections even after he renounced to his American citizenship (read about it in issue #21). The headlines screamed that the Supreme Court supported independence from the US ("Supremo apoya separatismo"), a totally false, irresponsible and hysterical claim. The subtext under the headlines even used the word 'nonsense' ("cantinfladas") to describe the court decision.
In its zeal to please Rosselló, El Vocero is also reaching new depths in smear journalism through a series of articles by Javier Maymí attacking the integrity of Uruguayan newspaper editor Danilo Arbilla, who headed the IAPA delegation to Puerto Rico.
Another reason El Vocero and the Ferrés are at each other's throats is the creation of Primera Hora. This new daily newspaper, started by the Ferrés a couple of months ago, is competing for the cheap trash journalism market, until then monopolized by El Vocero. Primera Hora, which is a lite version of El Nuevo Día for those people who don't like long words and don't want to do any serious reading, sells for the amazingly low price of 25 cents. El Vocero responded by lowering its own price to 25 cents too. Primera Hora does have some good writers, like Oscar Serrano and Maritza Día-Alcaide, but they'll never get a chance to do any serious investigating or writing there.
Viglucci assured the delegation that the real issue is not freedom of the press, but rather El Nuevo Día's privileged position in Puerto Rico's newspaper market. In his view, it had become part of the government's communications apparatus and therefore a recipient of a huge amount of taxpayers' money.
Angulo's and Viglucci's testimony to IAPA makes it evident that the San Juan Star is positioning itself as Rosselló's lapdog newspaper.
The San Juan Star, founded in 1959, has always been a right-wing newspaper. Its editorials have never been favorable to Puerto Rican nationalism or to progressive causes like labor, peace or the environment. Whereas El Nuevo Día is at least for now opening up its opinion pages to some voices from the left and the independence movement, the Star's op-eds remain overwhelmingly right-wing. Its columnists now include the obnoxious, ultraconservative and homophobic Gloria Soltero, the insufferably arrogant Robert Becker, the smug and self-righteous Heriberto Acosta, and the incurably reactionary Guillermo Moscoso. But to be fair, the Star has also had some really fine journalists like the late Harold Lidin, Beatriz de la Torre and Manny Suárez.