Silvia Intxaurrondo: “I never hold back a question”

Colleague Silvia Intxaurrondo (Barakaldo, Bizkaia, 43 years old), co-director and co-presenter of La hora de la 1 on Spanish Television with Marc Sala, arrives at the editorial office of EL PAÍS, where she worked a few years ago, driving a family car . She still wears the makeup she used on TV to mark her complexion and sports shoes, jeans and a T-shirt under a casual jacket that place her at the opposite end of the television presenter cliché. Before her, she had joked with the photographer asking him: “Don’t sweeten me, I’m a tough girl.” During the talk she doesn’t seem like it so much. Tough, I say. In fact, in the end, she breaks down with the least expected question and, with the recorder turned off, she tells her intimate reasons for having broken down, before pulling herself together and continuing with the interview. When she leaves, she takes advantage of the presence of a street market on the premises to buy a loaf of organic bread and some dumplings for her children. Its time to eat. Hard, I don’t know. Practical and direct, of course. Let them tell it to the interviewees about her.

What audience data did you do yesterday?

10.3% for the program, and two or so for the 24-hour Channel. Practically 14%.

Is that a little, a lot or average?

Well, I’ve had better ones. I don’t know if she understands me.

Perfectly. Does the data matter? It is assumed that on public television, not so much.

Me. It is a way to measure how many people you reach, measure yourself and also look in the rearview mirror and see if the way you propose is being liked. But I measure myself more. Others have their circumstances and I have mine.

Competitive tad.

Absolutely, since I was a child. I know myself, I live with myself, I love myself as I am, knowing that this is what it is and trying to do what I like well, being as happy as possible.

What did you feel when in August you surpassed your competition in audience on private television?

I thought I knew we could do it, that it was a matter of time. And I know we can go much further. It is a question of resources, of spirit, of teams, of you and your people being happy working. Of working, working and working. I believe in luck that is fair.

Do you look like a morning queen?

Not my thing, sorry. For me, María Teresa Campos, who has just left us, was the true queen of the morning. I like the concept of leadership better. Bring a project to the screen, get the best out of your team. And let all that shine. It is the best of television: that the work of so many people coordinated in unison shines.

Do you believe, like some, that your statement “It is not correct, Mr. Feijóo”, given the falsehood that the PP candidate was saying during his interview, changed the electoral campaign?

Honestly, I don’t know if it was that bad. When I finished the interview I thought nothing had happened. We journalists have to ask, listen and cross-examine. I never hold back or keep silent about a question. What that interview demonstrated is that we can and should ask the questions we think should be asked, with respect.

Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the moment live. The tension was chewed.

No. I finished, sat down and continued presenting. It’s true that it was difficult for me to start the discussion afterwards: I had to extract the words from the analysts with a corkscrew, they were as if confused. It was later that the reactions came to me. I did what I have to do. I am very vehement and honest. I ask logical questions and without any duplicity.

What politician has left a set alive?

I don’t want them dead either. It is clear that they come to sell their book, that clear. And you have to ask them your questions, which is the general interest. Another thing is that they don’t answer and they escape from you. That has happened to me. I insist three times, and if I see that it is impossible, I make it clear to the audience that they have not responded.

What would you ask Luis Rubiales if you could only ask him one question?

Are you prepared to face your actions and assume the consequences?

What makes you tick?

Lies and betrayal. I prefer that you tell me what you think, even if I don’t like it, than that you go behind me or make my bed.

Have you suffered them?

Yes, especially in the professional field. My parents raised me with the idea that there were no glass ceilings, and, although some have pointed them out to me and pointed them out to me, I still don’t see them. There is no ceiling for me.

Have you raised stones in the profession, like a good Basque?

Lift them, no, but I have chopped tons, at the most infernal times, too. I have never had a shift from 8 to 16. Now I get up at three in the morning and go to bed at nine thirty at night, a bit forced, to be honest. You always think there is something more interesting than sleeping. Sleeping bores me.

Workaholic?

No, although without it I couldn’t live. Let’s see, of course I can, I have been unemployed for periods, but it is very difficult for me to do without journalism. There are people who die for exclusives. They are fine, but what I love is telling life live. The coverage of my life was that of the snowy Filomena. I was live for 16 hours and you really see the public service dimension of this job, that the work serves.

Intxaurrondo continues to be, she says, a street journalist. Here, she poses in the Quinta de los Molinos park in Madrid, near her home.bernardo perez

What do you disconnect with?

With friends and family, who put me in my place and don’t give me a pass. When I start talking about work they cut me off saying that’s it, I’m getting too intense.

His undaunted face in interviews is legendary. Can you editorialize without raising an eyebrow?

I try not to editorialize. I don’t give homilies. I don’t use the program to say “this is what you have to think.” Life is not so. But I also don’t hold back my opinion if they ask me about aspects of everyday life. If anything, I am an editorialist of life.

How do you go from reporting on a political tiff to Rosalía’s breakup without breaking a sweat?

With consistency and respect. It’s just that life is all that. Those who believe that politics goes one way and current events go the other must live on another planet. There is a part of the world in each one. What do you talk about in a cafe? Of all that. Well the same. There is no small matter: there is good and bad journalism in any genre.

Is she more curious or more gossipy?

An open grave and without posturing? A little of both things.

There are colleagues who boast that they do not know who Belén Esteban is.

Yes they know, but they don’t say it.

There are those who do not want to read or watch the news because it makes them anxious and depressed. What can we do about it?

Don’t just give bad news. If one day, at nine in the morning, the children are returning to school after the summer, that is the news, because it also has a lot of implications: social, economic, consumer, psychological. Good news is also news.

Did you want your children to go back to school?

Well, let’s say that in this profession, conciliation is a very difficult mission, if not impossible. Not only because of the schedules, but also because when you get home you are very, very tired. There is no time for you. What I do is that the little time I spend with them is quality, doing special things, with care. Now another kind of stress begins: I am in five or six groups of mothers and fathers at school, and at water polo. That’s also another good news: parents are there too.

What issue would you like to open with next Monday?

Honestly: a cure for cancer has been discovered (his eyes water). Finding out live, like a last hour, and telling people about it as I found out myself.

Would you change your gesture?

No, on camera, no. Or if. Credibility is not at odds with humanity. If you have a lot of credibility, but you are very cold, people will believe what you say, but if you want them to believe you, they have to know you. And I am like that.

As? Give me an exclusive.

Practice. Of walking down the street and through life. I always wear shirts and pants so I don’t waste time thinking about how to dress. Do you see these sneakers? Maybe this season I present the program with them. Can.

PENDING SUBJECT

Silvia Intxaurrondo always wanted to be a journalist to know the world and write about international affairs. She made her debut with the typewriter in the high school newspaper and she prepared for that mission by studying Arabic Philology and other languages, in addition to Basque and Spanish as standard. But along the way, she came across radio and television, where she worked hand in hand with Iñaki Gabilondo; Her dream of “writing well” is still pending. While she arrives, the co-director, along with Marc Sala, from La Hora de la 1, on TVE, experiences her great television moment. After having corrected Alberto Núñez Feijóo live during an interview in the last electoral campaign – “It is not correct, Mr. Feijóo” – when the popular candidate was making incorrect statements, Intxaurrondo was, at the same time, the subject of fierce criticism from of some politicians, and the recognition of communication professionals. Some days in the month of August, La Hora de la 1 surpassed its morning competition programs in audience on private television stations. That’s just the beginning, she says.

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