In short, these are villains who vent their rage with scandal and lies to gain audience share. In this case, they use a child who does not yet have a will, and between his relatives and the journalists the kid is falsely transformed into a helpless character.

In Cuba libre, Cristina Melero (Kira Miró) is involved in nonsensical stories that she fully takes advantage of to capture an audience. She and her camera were the only means of communication that sneaked into the Cuban embassy while dozens of reporters waited at the door among many police officers. Guided from her boss’s mobile unit, she broadcasts everything that happens, and her boss does not hesitate to manipulate some recordings to make everything seem more “overwhelming”:

Right at this moment, there is a brutal police response to the violent reaction of the squatters (she says to the camera while tripping one of the squatters who runs out, falls to the ground, and is attacked by a policeman in the confusion). Record, record, record (she tells the camera operator), then stops a young woman without permission who is also running away from the conflict zone. With us, we have one of the survivors of the eviction. How does it feel to be a victim of police brutality? (TC: 00:14:45).

The journalist and the camera operator go to the Cuban embassy to get an exclusive interview with the Cuban ambassa-dor. “You are the most qualified”, says her boss. “I’m the only one available, get real”, she quickly replies as she slaps some makeup on her face in a frivolous odyssey of manipulated information.

In Volver, the aggressive hostess (Yolanda Ramos) begins the interview with a woman sitting on a sofa. She is standing in front of her with a cold, arrogant voice:

Host: I was wondering if you could explain what you have just told our editor. You told her something very important about this lady and her husband that relates her to the disappearance of your mother. Is that true or not, Augustina?

Agustina: I would rather not talk about it. They were my assumptions.

Hostess: Yes, but you’ve come to talk about that lady and your mother, right?

Augustina: Yes, but I’ve thought it over.

Presenter: What’s the matter? You don’t look comfortable. You look a bit nervous (she sits next to her on the sofa). I’d like to tell you that Agustina has also come here to explain to us that she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Isn’t that right, Agustina?

Augustine: Yes (she answers curtly)

Hostess: You have cancer, Agustina, but you shouldn’t be nervous. You’re with friends. Come on. Give it up for Agustina (applause). Agustina has a wish to go to a clinic in Houston. But to go to Houston, you will have to speak well. I remind you that you have made a commitment to this channel (Agustina is leaving)… Agustina, Agustina! (TC: 01:26:58)

The unethical female reporter that Almodóvar shows in other films is seen again in Volver with the woman who becomes a television villain with no sign of emotion, worried only about reaching an audience.

The programme called Prime time features the unemployed journalist Jaime (Alberto Amarilla) as an accomplice of the macabre programme ‘Juez y parte’. In the first case, the audience has to decide who must die; either a neo-Nazi soldier, Miguel Ángel, or a pimp, Khaled, and the latter is the one who is shot in the head in the presence of the rest of his compan-