Everyone knows the difference between a gourmet meal and a sandwich even if it is not necessarily true that a “starred” dish is better than a loaf of bread with mortadella, but there is no doubt that attention to raw materials, cooking methods and the now inevitable plating require much more time and care than slicing a piece of bread and stuffing it with a pork derivative.
We use the metaphor improperly for news programs that now constantly use the “sandwich”, in journalistic jargon the way in which political news is often provided through interviews. In particular, the “two slices of bread”, at the opening and closing, are given to the government representatives, the “companatory” to the opposition, so that the interventions of the majority, usually one more generic, the other a little more in-depth, remain more impressed in the minds of those who listen, compared to the stuffing of the opposition which remains crushed.
The quality and type of these interviews, as even the most distracted user will have noticed, are mostly always entrusted to the same politicians and in the long run they offer a spectacle that oscillates between sadness and ridiculousness.
To spread the word of the government in the ether, the chosen one stands in front of the camera with an institutional posture and recites his homework like the Christmas poem learned in elementary school. No spontaneity or empathic ability, just the need to be as concise as possible for technical needs and to magnify the government’s work. The result is pathetic, because the feeling is of being faced with a repeater who exposes a learned content of topics which, although sometimes complex, turns into slogans.
Not even the opposition members are saved who, for “companatory”, add criticism of the majority by default. What remains, in reality, is a theater for craftsmen that causes the distancing of users, the loss of credibility of the information system and the decline in the quality of the news which, regardless of political positions, should make it clear, not only the actions of the government, but above all the extent of the situations and measures that affect people’s lives.
In short, to return to the initial metaphor, even the most resistant stomachs get tired of the “sandwich” and, although for calm and complete information we would need a chef, in the end we would also be satisfied with a pizza. As long as it’s done well.