The intention of the conservatives to forge the community is obvious, and the "independents" are significantly ahead in discrediting the government and especially the prime minister.

In addition to my narrow professional interest (economic policy), but also partly because of it, I try to review a lot of written media products every day. They are roughly 15-15 online sites. One of the fifteen is more right-wing or conservative (the authors of the other fifteen call these mostly propaganda press), and the other fifteen consider themselves independent (they are really independent from the government and the first fifteen, let's not talk about the strong runway boy-runway girl role here in the majority of cases) ).

A weekly newspaper can, in principle, go beyond the daily fluctuations of the news and present trends and curves, even though the closure of the paper often equates to a disaster. In Hungary, for 32 years now, i.e. since the political turn, the passionate debates of the expert camps have been reflecting increasing tensions, which have now become almost unbearable. Their impressions are also reflected in the columns of the selected weeklies (Élet és Irodalom, Magyar Narancs, Mandiner, Magyar Demokrata). Two left-liberal and two conservative mediums. I know these magazines best for many years.

An interesting parallel can be observed regarding the selected pages. Magyar Narancs and Mandiner try to speak more in the voice of the 30-40 age group, while the language of ÉS and Demokrata is – for various assumed reasons – much closer to the older generation. At ÉS, this is also helped by the fact that the most frequent authors and columnist members of the editorial staff are themselves around the seventh X, and the majority of them also suggest their unquestionability. The experienced reader is a particular article k. after his sentence, there is a good chance that k+1 will guess. sentence. The Demokrata also performs a kind of Treasure Calendar function by telling the facts in an undisguised ideological guise. The intention of the conservatives to forge the community is obvious, and the "independents" are significantly ahead in discrediting the government and especially the prime minister.

It is gratifying that, especially in the case of Mandiner and Magyar Narancs, we have been able to get to know quite a few excellent young journalists in recent years.

In addition to their normal articles, Demokrata and Mandiner also prepared for the elections by presenting the government results of recent years, emphasizing the stakes according to their interpretation. The Mandiner also operated with articles showing the open debate of one officer on both sides of the front, the "depth" of the criticism of the opposition coalition did not even come close to the often hysterical accusations of the left-liberals.

Take the first look after the election and browse the featured and uncredited editorials.
Magyar Narancs: "Did the country know what it did on April 3 - with itself, with honor, and with us personally?" When will you surrender all three listed to the whims of two-thirds boys? How and why did the ground slip from under the feet of the opposition? Well, the main reasons for this would be the government's war propaganda and election spending. [...] The ruling party [...] also skillfully calculated how much it could get to support it. The so-called Among the uncertain, some were convinced by a bag of potatoes, some by a pension premium of a few thousand forints, and some by hundreds of thousands of tax credits that FIDESZ cares about them" (ed.) Main quote from an article on the front page: "Only complete opposition, open confrontation .”

And now let's look at the ÉS, quoting János Széky and Zoltán Kovács: "the fact that FIDESZ won the election was not a surprise, since the FIDESZ majority in the parliament set up the entire system for this, from the amendments to the electoral law to economic policy to the media until its complete collapse. […] Man's clarity of vision is disturbed by the moral sense he has developed when he encounters cases of shameless meanness. It was difficult to accept that the war accompanied by crimes against humanity brought luck to the Hungarian Prime Minister, and that he could use it so successfully. […] Orbán is so vile about the war, and I am inclined to believe, he has lied to such a degree that insults grace, for which probably no one in any civilized country in the world could have been prepared. [...] I'm not sure that you can prepare for this with a healthy mind."

I think any commentary would be unnecessary, even about the "subjugation" of the media. So much is exposed: there is no reassurance, in fact.

The conservatives came forward with restrained "leadership articles" that did not insult the opposition in any way.

There will be no peace, that much is clear. However, there are two things I must point out. Those promoting the disproportionality of the election must say again and again: "the winner takes all" is natural in many places, let's start by list in England, for example. The other is related to war news. There is no such thing as during a war between two countries, the news from one country (even if it is the one suffering the aggression) is always about reality, while the news from the other country is always lying. I think this will become clear sooner or later. It would be better first.

Written by József Veress, MTA doctor, professor emeritus (ELTE).

Featured image: ELTE