She presented herself as a great expert on terrorism and did not even realise that all the lies she spread about the victims of sexual harassment and those who supported them had been invented by a terrorist who stopped being a terrorist when he arrived in Spain and went on to force himself on underage girls whom he taught. When one of his victims broke her silence and got the support of an research group, she launched the slander as a threat so that others would not dare to denounce. The journalist was so obsessed with her notoriety that she saw in this case only an opportunity for fame, and just as she did not mind spreading facts she knew to be lies, she did not care that the informant had shortly before been a terrorist.
She was an ambitious journalist, but her professional ethics were questionable. Obsessed by the idea of getting a scoop, she stumbled upon a research centre that stood out for its strong stance against sexual harassment in society. She, however, did not share their enthusiasm. She saw an opportunity for fame in spreading false rumours about the centre and discrediting it.
Convinced of her skills as a journalist, she began to investigate and collected vague and unsubstantiated stories. She developed a narrative that portrayed the centre as a corrupt place, accusing it of covering up inappropriate acts, while boasting of her supposed expertise in covering terrorism. Yet she ignored a crucial caveat: check your sources. Absorbed by her thirst for notoriety, she unquestioningly accepted information coming from a man who, unbeknownst to her, was a terrorist.
She published her explosive «information», convinced that her career would finally take off. But it soon fell apart. The false accusations generated a backlash from the international community, which strongly supported the think tank. The serious and respectable press was quick to discredit his story, exposing his mistakes and lack of professionalism. Her name was stained by her failed attempt to slander the only academic centre then sincerely fighting against sexual harassment.
Coordinadora del Metoo University