The former leader of Podemos, and the former Deputy Prime Minister of Spain, Pablo Iglesias, has put up a crowdfunding page to go and "be your eyes and ears in Palestine". He is asking for €52,000 for a 45-day trip, and wants to spend €37,000 of that on "hotels and travel", in a month. He has already raised €600,000 for his Canal Red project from two other crowdfunding campaigns on the Goteo site over the past twelve months.
The headline says "in Palestine" but an explanation further down the page specifies "from the different border posts on the Gaza strip". So not in Palestine, then. No actual reporting effort, no possible danger or no witnessing of horrible things. A minimum risk that Hamas might take him hostage or that an Israeli bomb might fall on his head. Just Gaza in the background as he talks to people at a safe distance.
It will probably work. His starting point is as one of the most vociferous, angry, polarised political voices in the far-left trench in Spain over the past 10 years. But all of that polarised anger can be channelled into money. Forget about independent journalism, this is all tribal partisan ideology, like when Ponsatí or Puigdemont have asked the Catalan separatist crowd for cash to fight “evil Spanish courts” or whatever it was.
Looking at his Twitter timeline a bit more, it seems Pablo Iglesias is trying to become an alt-left version of the alt-right social media loudmouths who have had some success over the past two or three years in Spain (it began during the pandemic) mixing Twitter and YouTube skills with ideological framing of the major stories, along with conspiracy, rumour and fake news that fit in with Vox talking points. Since Musk bought Twitter, it seems only to have gotten worse.
So for Iglesias to attempt the same from the far-left is, I suppose, logical as a market niche in these polarised political and media times we live in. And if people are willing to pay for that, then that is the media product they will get.
I admit that seeing how these ideological crowdfunding projects work almost instantly, with so many followers already convinced of their political perspective and worldview on life, focused on some enraged populist leader, makes me a bit frustrated, having attempted a real independent reporting project over the past few years, and having seen it work for a while, thanks to readers. The centre or balance, in media as in politics, which is often the same thing, is not what people seem to want after the pandemic. If we were already moving towards the extremes before, for the past two years, we appear to have upped the pace even more.
People in 2023 want polarised views and to be right against the other tribes.
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Comment: Pablo Iglesias crowdfunds a trip to Palestine