Uruguay is witnessing a nauseating masquerade that exposes journalism for what it really is:a gang of media operators at the service of the left and the social democratic consensus, that is, the political class as a whole; which Yamandú Orsi represents with his incoming government on March 1, 2025.
What was once sold as a noble profession, dedicated to truth and oversight of power, has become a grotesque farce where communicators like Martín Lees, Iliana da Silva, Verónica Amorelli, and Leonardo Silvera shamelessly leave newsrooms and television sets to climb into public positions in Orsi's administration. This makes it clear between the lines that these past 5 years they were dedicated to media operations.
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This is not a career change; it is the definitive confession that their supposed independence was always a lie,a tool to manipulate public opinion and support a political agenda that now rewards them with state salaries. Uruguayan journalism has no credibility because it never had any: it is a nest of propagandists disguised as informers.
Take Martín Lees, for example. For more than 30 years he was the face of Subrayado on Canal 10, reading news with that feigned calm that made grandmothers believe they were in front of a serious journalist. In December 2024, after a retirement that lasted as long as a sigh, he announced that he would be Orsi's Presidential Communication Director. What was Lees doing in 2019, when he interviewed Daniel Martínez during the campaign? Or in 2015, when he covered Tabaré Vázquez's events? His neutral tone, his mild questions, were pure theater: he was paving the way for the Broad Front, operating from the shadows while pretending impartiality. Now, from the Executive Tower, he will not inform: he will embellish speeches and filter uncomfortable truths.
Then there's Iliana da Silva, the trustworthy smile of Telemundo on Canal 12. Until January 2025, she presented the 7 PM newscast with that mix of serenity and authority that made her seem like a reliable source. But her announcement that she would be Deputy Director of Communication under Lees shattered that credibility. Do you remember her coverage of the 2022 general strike, when the PIT-CNT paralyzed the country? Her report was so soft on the unions —historical allies of the Broad Front— that it seemed like an infomercial. For years, da Silva used her seat on the newscast to shape perceptions, not to question them. Her leap to the government is the proof: she was not a journalist, she was a media operator waiting for the moment to cash her check in the social democratic administration.
Verónica Amorelli, panelist of "Esta boca es mía" also on Canal 12, is another piece of this rotten puzzle. On January 15, 2025, amidst tears and vague phrases about “new horizons,” she said goodbye to the program to join the press secretariat of the Canelones Municipality, Orsi's stronghold where the Broad Front has reigned for decades. What did Amorelli say in 2023, when she debated municipal taxes on the program? She criticized with a small mouth, always careful not to hurt her future bosses. Her stint in Carámbula's orbit in 2020, as an informal advisor, already smelled of political commitment. Now, from Canelones, she will continue operating, but without the effort of pretending neutrality. Her credibility was as solid as a house of cards in a hurricane.
