Later, El Universal had announced on its front page a spectacular interview, with a four-column photograph of Sandra Ávila. The newspaper displayed the exclusive boastfully, at which point I gave up on the project that already was sparking my interest.Nevertheless, the newspaper tricked its readers. It was apparent that the interview hadn't taken place and the text, divided into three successive parts with front-page headlines, dealt with the subject from a distance, with hearsay. I didn't pick up any interesting fact, one live description, any dialogue that was worth reading.
Scherer is a little vague about what he's accusing the paper of (probably purposefully so), and it's unclear whether he is alleging that the made up quotes or simply appropriated others' reporting misleadingly. Here's the series, which certainly gives the impression of having been the product of an actual, real-life interview.
Whatever the case, that's perhaps Mexico's most renown journalist accusing perhaps Mexico's most prestigious newspaper of what would seem to be grave misconduct. It's an imperfect metaphor, since Mexican newspapers occupy a different and essentially lesser role in the society than do their American counterparts, but it's a bit like Bob Woodward accusing the New York Times of plagiarism. Despite that, as far as I know, there hasn't been any outcry or indignation or even any followup whatsoever. I first read the above description several months ago in Proceso, and I don't think it sparked even a ripple in the Mexican media pond. If you type "Scherer acusa a El Universal" (which means, "Scherer accuses El Universal") into your search engine, you come up empty. So, what's the story? Who's making something up?
The only reason I was prompted to write about this is that I finished the book a couple of weeks ago, and El Universal randomly posted a summary of the interview on its website today, apropos of nothing.
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