Death of a spokesman

JACOBO ZABLUDOVSKY, who died on July 2nd, aged 87, was for half a century the courteous, unflappable face of Mexican television news. He dressed impeccably, in a suit, black tie and thick spectacles. He had a nose for a good story and such a voice of authority that the phrase “Jacobo said it” was, for many, a mark of truth. His stature was akin to that of Walter Cronkite in the United States. His biography would serve as a history of modern Mexico.

Yet for much of his career he betrayed the trust Mexicans placed in him by broadcasting on behalf of a regime known as the “perfect dictatorship”, which he almost never challenged. His motives for serving his audience and his profession so badly remain a mystery.