‘Pauta oficial cero’? – No state advertising is a lie that suits Milei

Javier Milei has lied since the day he was inaugurated as Argentina’s President. 

During his inauguration, last December 10, he declared that, “for a year,” there would be no state advertising in local media outlets. 

“Do we want to be free?” he said in his speech. “Let’s be free for real: zero pauta!” he declared before Congress, using the word to refer to the practice of using state funds to support friendly media.

Milei, 53, argued that “there’s no money,” not even enough to publicise government actions and policies in the press. 

But his promise lasted no longer than the blink of an eye.

Starting in January, the “pauta publicitaria del oficialismo” – essentially, paid publicity from the government, state advertising – was present in the media, both in large and medium-sized outlets that had accompanied Milei since day one. 

State advertising, however, did not appear in those who had taken a critical outlook of the new head of state or fulfilled the primordial function of journalism: investigating power. (Editor's note: Among the outlets discriminated against are Noticias, the initial publisher of this article, and other media from Grupo Perfil).

Once again, as in Kirchernite years, the state advertising spend is being used to reward friends and to discriminate against and pressure the outlets who dare do their job. Milei’s “pauta cero” only applies to the latter. 

Noticias magazine accessed a report by Kantar Ibope Media, the firm which measures the audience of national media outlets. 

The numbers speak for themselves. Though the government does not do publicity through official channels, such as the Office of the President, it does so through other state bodies such as YPF, Aerolíneas Argentinas and Banco de la Nación (many of them are companies Milei would like to privatise).

In total, from January to June, state energy firm YPF spent over 125 billion pesos on publicity spots, mostly on television. Flagship carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas and Banco Nación were more modest, but they also helped out: 547 million pesos by the former and 539 million pesos by the latter. All in all, that amounts to 126,505,339,992 pesos. 

There are other ways of providing funds to friendly outlets too. Unless Congress prevents its deployment, we can also add 100 billion pesos of reserved funds recently injected by the President by decree into the SIDE Intelligence Secretariat, for which he need not account anything. 

Milei’s decree was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies and it could fare similarly in the Senate, but the truth is that the government has already spent 80 billion of the total figure, according to recent reports. 

On what exactly? The most recurrent hypothesis in political circles and the media itself speaks of a new “cadena de la felicidad” (“chain of happiness”) to coopt domestic journalism, following in the footsteps of the approach adopted by former president Carlos Menem and the Kirchners during their administrations. 

“Pauta no cero” and reserved funds would thus form the combo with which the government attempts to maintain control over public opinion.

 

Connections

At YPF, the big cash cow of state advertising, there are some friendly faces. Gullermo Garat  holds the post of vice-president of Institutional Relations, Communication and Marketing. He is also an old acquaintance of Santiago Caputo’s, Milei’s star advisor who oversees matters of state advertising, handles the relationship with the media and heads the troops of libertarian trolls on social networks. 

Caputo and Garat go back, they were students of Jaime Durán Barba, former president Mauricio Macri’s Ecuadorean political guru, as was a third friend of theirs, Rodrigo Lugones. All three later opened their own consultancy firm, Move. Today, they’re all involved with the government. 

Business leaders in the journalistic sector agree that it is Caputo who distributes ruling party ads among the media allies of La Libertad Avanza, and that his friend Garat, from YPF, simply follows orders. 

In July, the last month measured by in the aforementioned Kantar Ibope report, Argentina’s state advertising spend climbed, blessing those who received orders for spots and ads: from 76 billion pesos registered in June, the level soared to 125 billion pesos the following month. 

In parallel, something else happened too: Milei issued his presidential decree designating 100 billion pesos in discretionary funds to SIDE, the body where Caputo moves about freely. 

It was Milei’s star advisor who, with the help of his friend Lugones, gave shape to the new organisation chart of espionage headquarters ,returned the agency its original name and requested reserved funds which are impossible to audit. 

July, it appears, was the month when the “cadena de la felicidad” was consolidated. 

At Aerolíneas Argentinas and Banco Nación, which, so far this year, have distributed over 500 million pesos in state advertising each, sources say Caputo is the decision-maker. But they are two state organs which do not depend directly on the President’s Office – why is the government outsourcing ad spots through these bodies?

A top media businessman, speaking off the record to protect his identity, has this answer: “With that, they think they’re off the hook from respecting the distribution criteria of state advertising set by the Supreme Court” in a historic ruling.

“Since they don’t distribute it via the President's Office, they think they can do as they wish,” the entrepreneur summed up.

The businessman was referring to a key 2011 Supreme Court ruling which set a precedent on the subject of ruling party advertising and ordered the Kirchnerite government to compensate Editorial Perfil for having discriminated against it from the outset when distributing spots.

That ruling, which Kirchnerism breached, called for equal publicity spots for “analogous media” – meaning no-one must be discriminated against or have fewer ads than other media of the same rank. 

However, within the Casa Rosada, the plan is to distribute state advertising solely to the most popular media outlets. “For instance, the top ten or five,” explained an official who works on the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak freely. 

That view, naturally, clashes with the Supreme Court’s ruling. It is also different to what is taking place today. Advertising is also being distributed to small publications which do not fit the Milei administration’s criteria.

There is a fourth state organ that has joined the spending as well. The AFIP tax office is to spend 1.5 billion pesos per month on state advertising to promote its campaign against money-laundering. The promos will continue to be run until, government sources estimate, March next year. Every little helps.

 

Intermediaries

Media entrepreneurs in the industry today have learnt that star advisor Caputo does not manage the cash flow alone. 

Four sources consulted for this article mention consultant Alejandra Rafuls as someone who, at the very least, gave Caputo ideas and educated him on the mechanisms and going-ons of the sector. The sources claim that the advice is informal.

What does she say? “I have known Rodrigo Lugones since he was a little boy. I’m not hired by the government, but I would never deny a consultation,” explained Rafuls.

The decision to mention Lugones, Caputo’s partner, is no coincidence. Lugones’ father, Mario, is the strong man at the Sanatorio Güemes and considered to be influential at the Health Ministry. Hence Rafuls’ relationship with Caputo: Lugones Jr., as he calls himself, works hand-in-hand with Milei’s star advisor. 

Off the record, on her side they add that she has met Caputo but has not spoken to him for a few weeks now. “Caputo consulted her once or twice or asked for her opinion on some topic. But she doesn’t work for the government,” said a source close to her.

Rafuls, a consultant from the Menem years has a long-standing bond with historic Radical operator Enrique ‘Coti’ Nosiglia, one of the owners of Sanatorio Güemes, for which she does press. 

Lugones Sr., Mario – the great influential man at the Health Ministry – also answers to ‘Coti.’ And there is a third one, another ally of the Radical player from the government’s National Strategy Secretariat, José Luis Vila, who helped Caputo in his task of resetting SIDE. Some claim that Rafuls was also involved in that mission.

Does that mean that Nosiglia is back? Those close to the UCR figure dismiss the hypothesis and explain that now his students, already grown up, move about independently. “It is true that 'Coti' trained them, but they’re big boys now,” explained a friend of his.

The La Política Online website has also drawn attention to Rafus’ role and proximity to Caputo. According to that medium, brothers Jorge and Tomás Noguer, owners of the Tonal consultancy firm, are used to outsource the distribution of state advertising commanded by Caputo. The middlemen for this type of manoeuvre collect a commission which is around 15 percent, but which may be even higher, according to sources.

Why outsourcing, if the government already has Télam as a publicity distribution agent? If the news agency was not closed altogether, it was precisely to keep in that role.

There are suspicions and accusations among some media entrepreneurs. Where do those commissions they pay really end up?

Tonal answered the following in writing to a question put by this magazine: “We do not handle the spots of YPF, Aerolíneas Argentinas or Banco Nación. A part of our activity is to commercially represent media which authorise us to do so, to sell their publicity to clients in the private and public sector, as we have done since 1971.”

The answer came via Rafuls, who is a friend of the Noguer brothers. 

Is that a “yes, but not quite”? Tonal, on paper, does not appear to be hired by the State, but by media interested in winning publicity spots and the funds that come with them. Radio Mitre, for example, is one of its main clients. One way or another, it is there. 

One businessman from the sector specified, on condition of anonymity, the modus operandi: “These middlemen sell to the media who have the representation of some state body to set spots. If the medium wants the advertising, they have to hire it from them.”

But this is for those in the capital. For media outlets outside of Buenos Aires, there is an outstanding middleman: AB Comunicaciones Los Césares, the consultancy firm headed by Carlos Azzariti. In this case, the outsourcing and the commissions it generates are attributed to the government’s Press Secretary Eduardo Serenellini.

Azzariti did not respond to this magazine. Serenellini merely answered: “The topic of pauta does not fall under my secretariat.”

Azzariti works in the marketing department of the Página/12 newspaper and website – the curious case of a medium, which despite its criticism of the government, receives state advertising – and is also a member of the board of the ADEPA (Argentine Journalistic Entities’ Association) press association. 

Given the insistent reports pointing to the consultant boasting the representation of media outside Buenos Aires with the endorsement of that journalistic institution, ADEPA issued an internal press release to alert its members. 

“Given consultations received by our entity, we must inform that ADEPA has no commercial relationship with communication agencies which manage the publicity of public or private companies for the media industry,” it said.

 

Obsession

Milei has already made it explicit that he has a personal issue with Jorge Fontevecchia, the co-founder of Editorial Perfil, and its flagship newspaper and publications.

During tirades on social networks the President usually refers to Fontevecchia as “Tinturelli”, and in an interview with Alejandro Fantino he forecast that “now, since he has no pauta, it’s going bust, good!”. 

Fontevecchia later answered to Milei on his radio programme. “Look, Mr President. The dictatorship couldn’t break us. Menem couldn’t break us during the 30 trials and the murder of [Noticias photographer] José Luis Cabezas. Néstor Kirchner couldn’t break us giving us zero pauta. You won’t be able to either.”

Discrimination with state advertising is a long-standing issue in Argentina. During the Kirchernite administrations, Noticias and other media outlets from the publishing house were marginalised. 

Former president Néstor Kirchner’s then-media secretary Enrique Albistur went as far as to file criminal lawsuits against journalists from the magazine and request for their imprisonment. Why? For having investigated the million-peso discretionary system of payments and returns that his government had mounted for state advertising. 

That trial went up in smoke, as did another, which Perfil commenced against that government, but it did eventually end up with the Supreme Court ruling which proved the publishing house right and ordered the state to compensate it for years of discrimination and pressure.

Now, once again, a government uses state publicity as both the carrot and the stick. Old habits die hard in Argentina.