Rant of the day: Sara Carbonero

Note: This is post comes way too late. This actually happened the 28th January. I didn't manage to finish it completely at the time but I still put a lot of work in it and feel like I should post it now that it's finished. Most of what I write about Madrid's situation isn't even accurate anymore, but I think the point I'm trying to make is still relevant.

For everyone who follows the Spanish football league even a little, there's no doubt that things aren't going all that well for Real Madrid at the moment. (For those who don't: Madrid, usually one of the league's two top teams, is only third 15 points behind top team Barcelona and has more losses already than during all of last season). Sports media everywhere - and I mean everywhere, not just gossip prone dailies as the Spanish sports paper "Marca" - have speculated about the reasons for their struggles. One of the most common theories is that things between the coach, Jose Mourinho, and the players don't work anymore. Several controversial incidents as for example the (very temporary) demotion of goal keeper and captain Iker Casillas, give fruit to such speculation, although the club, players and the coaching staff have vehemently denied them. But the point of this article is not to find out why Madrid struggles. It's about doubles standards and sexism in sports media.

Sara Carbonero is a Spanish newscaster and sports journalist. She has previously worked for Radio Marca and currently works for the Spanish television chains Telecinco and Cuatro. She also works for the Mexican channel Televisa, for which she appears in a sports programm called "la jugada" (the game) to present news from the Spanish football league. She is in a relationship with Iker Casillas, the previously mentioned captain of Madrid, who is also first choice keeper and captain of the Spanish national team. He is one of Spain's most revered and acclaimed sportsmen and universally recognized as one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Carbonero has already been put in the spotlight due to a percieved conflict between this relationship and her work once, during the World Cup in 2010, where various media outlets claimed her presence close to the pitch had distracted Casillas and led to the concession of the goal that cost Spain the first group stage match against Switzerland. (I don't even want to get into that one, let's just say it's an insult to both their professionalism and ability to do their jobs.)

So what is new? In her capacity as a reporter for Televisa, Carbonero did a segment on the Spanish league yesterday, Monday 28.1. She discussed the goalkeeper situation in Madrid - Casillas was recently injured - as well as a Mexican player, Carlos Vela, and his standing both with his Spanish club and the Mexican national team. Pretty normal stuff for a sports journalist, one would say. But the majority of the segment is dedicated to the ongoing coflicts at Real Madrid. Here it is in its entirety (unfortunately, only available in Spanish):

It's hard to find a good translation and they all differ slightly on the important parts unfortunately, but in a combination of all the sources I found as well as my own grasp on Spanish, here's the gist: Carbonero talks about reports of the Spanish sports paper Marca that some of Madrid's players (including Casillas) had given the president an ultimatum - either them or the coach. She also talks about president Florentino Perez' press conference where he clearly denied  these rumours. She furthermore describes her impression of Perez', saying he appeared "agitated". And then she explains that despite Perez' statements it's "vox publica" (meaning roughly, puplic opinion or common knowledge) that things aren't well in Madrid's locker room, that Mourinho is facing conflicts at many sides and that his future will probably be decided at the end of the season. None of this is any kind of news. None of this hasn't been said before. At no point Carbonero states her own opinion or gives the impression that she is privy to any knowledge beyond what is already public. Still, the moment she said this and a Spanish newspaper posted one of her statements - abriged and taken out of context and at no point indicating that she wasn't giving her personal opinion - it caused a storm of outrage and made her a trending topic on twitter for hours.

Now why is that? There's two principal criticisms addressed to her - and both reveal, at their base, sexist ideas. The first is quite clear cut: Some of the more passionate Madrid fans accuse Carbonero of harming her boyfriends’ club, of speaking out of line and being a bad girlfriend. Basically, the answer to this is: She speaking as a professional, not as his girlfriend. She has no obligation to be cautious or nice. She’s just doing her job. 

The second argument is a little more complicated. It has been argued that she shouldn’t have spoken on the subject, because her role as Casillas’ girlfriend gives her an added credibility, assuming she has sources other journalists aren’t privy too. While it is true that she cannot separate her personal from her professional identity in people’s perception, it still seems unfair. She is only relying information that has already been stated/discussed. Whether or not people believe her more because of who she is, is beyond her influence. The only other choice she has left is to not speak on Madrid, and soon, the Spanish NT at all, which would be a much harder blow to her journalistic credibility.

In dubio pro reo – the first assumption should be that Carbonero is perfectly capable of separating her private and professional life. It is also quite revealing that her behavior is consistently judged in her role as Casillas girlfriend, meaning in dependence of a man rather than considering her as an independent human being. The connection is there, no question. But Carbonero was acting as a journalist, in her professional capacity. She didn’t even come close to crossing any kind of boundary. Whether what she said is true or not isn’t the issue here at all. The issue is the horrible double standard applied to Carbonero compared to other journalists, simply because she is someone’s girlfriend. But Iker Casillas is just as much her boyfriend as she is his girlfriend – it’s just not how society views women. The link of dependence and obedience only ever works in one direction. Carbonero has so far not seemed deterred in her will to pursue her journalistic career. Good on her. Now let’s agree to judge her on her journalistic ability alone from now on – not on her boyfriend’s name.