Mexico Enthralled Then Furious as ’Frida Sofia’ Story Turns Out to Be Fake Jan-Albert Hootsen - America Magazine
go to original September 22, 2017

Soldiers hold up closed fists motioning for silence during rescue efforts at the Enrique Rebsamen school in Mexico City (AP/Rebecca Blackwell)

For more than a day, she captivated audiences in Mexico City and the world and became a rallying symbol for a city desperately searching for survivors after a devastating earthquake on Sept. 19. The 12-year-old girl, named Frida Sofia, was reportedly buried under the remains of a collapsed school in Mexico’s capital and still alive. As emergency workers slowly labored through the rubble to find her, national and international media worked themselves into a frenzy, hoping for stunning live coverage of the girl who was destined to be the poster child of the horrific disaster.

But the girl, as it turned out, never existed. In a matter of hours, the name Frida Sofia went from being a symbol of hope to an example of an out-of-control media, propelled by dubious journalistic and government practices.

In a matter of hours, the name Frida Sofia went from being a symbol of hope to an example of an out-of-control media.

The ensuing rage on social media focused on Televisa, Mexico’s biggest and most powerful television broadcaster, which is often maligned as being too sympathetic to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (P.R.I.) of President Enrique Peña Nieto. After the Enrique Rebsamen School collapsed during the earthquake, the networks aired heavy coverage of the rescue efforts at the ruins of the building, filling the airwaves with stories of little Frida and her imminent rescue.

As the story unraveled, Televisa was accused by many of promoting poorly researched “fake news” to boost its ratings. The criticism was so severe that, in a broadcast with little precedent, the network’s most prominent anchors and an on-site reporter spent a good chunk of their afternoon broadcast defending their editorial choices and blaming federal authorities for the fiasco. Other media, both domestic and foreign, had also widely covered the story.

“I believe that this mistake was the result of a mixture of adrenalin, weariness, little coordination and simple incompetence,” reporter Verónica Calderón, who has contributed to The New York Times and other publications, told America.

Read the rest at America Magazine

Related: Navy Apologizes for Misleading Trapped Girl Story (Reuters)

Related: A Mexican TV Network Used a Simpsons Episode to Criticize a Competitor’s Sensational Earthquake Coverage (Slate)

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