It was chaos first. It was from him that the problems of the candidate of the Civic Coalition and the media favorable to him in the presidential run began. As a certain win, on 9 April Rafał Trzaskowski challenged his main rival, Karol Nawrocki, supported by the Law and Justice. TVP immediately reported to the organization that "pre-election debate 2025" would take place on Friday 11 April in Koński. Public tv rapidly reached a deal with TVN and Polsat on a joint broadcast, and the rules of the staff debate were set at its headquarters. The only bone of disagreement was the request of Nawrocki staff to include TV, the Republic and Poland24.
DEBATE FROM THE POLICE
The problems began erstwhile the another participants of the race to the presidential palace realized that the Trzaskovsky staff together with TVP wanted to put them on the sidelines a period before the election. The first responds Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia (Poland 2050 – 3rd Road). "I will not let half of Poland to be excluded from the elections. People are to decide about their outcome, not candidates from tv on the phone. Public tv has a work to defend the principles of free and fair elections. I am going to the Horses present to execute in the debate," he wrote on platform X. shortly Magdalena Biejat (New Left) announced that she was going to Koński, and Hołownia staff spoke to TVP president Tomasz Sygut to invitation all registered candidates. "It cannot be this," he told the journalists of the talker of the Sejm that the ruling organization was "chooseing individual for solo", and "public media is flying to organize a debate".
Then abruptly TVP began to cut off from the message that he was the organizer of the Trzaskowski debate and it was yet his staff that sent invitations to all rivals. "Rafał Trzaskowski invited candidates to the TVP debate at 6.20 p.m. This is scandal, these are Belarusian standards" – commented Sławomir Mentzen, a candidate of the Confederacy, on social media. This put TVP Info at risk, who explained to its viewers that Mentzen thus "tryed to get out" of the fact that he did not participate in the debate, due to the fact that specified a Holownia canceled the meetings with the voters and announced without invitation his arrival in Koński. Eventually, 8 candidates participated in the debate (there were 13 candidates) and any of them even had problem entering the hall where it was organized.
When the TVP realized that it was inappropriate to hold debates with only 2 candidates, and possibly not even allowed, it began to explain that the organiser was yet the election committee of Trzaskovsky. Sławomir Nitras, a associate of the Trzask run staff, even announced that she should have been treated as a conference alternatively than a debate organised by public television. So it turned out that Joanna Danikowska-Paź (TVP), Grzegorz Kajdanowicz (TVN 24) and Piotr Witwicki (Polsat News) were simply moderators at the Trzaskowski conference, and TVP was polite to supply technicians and signal.
The confusion with the confusion of the media with the electoral staff is simply a plague that we observed during Jack Kurski's presidency. After she was removed from the authority of the United Right, she moved with her erstwhile TVP employees to tv by Tomasz Sakiewicz (Republic) and Karnowski brothers (in Poland24). But the plague continues to spread.
THE MOST INTELLIGENT AND THE LESS
Trzaskowski's promotion on TVP began long before the authoritative launch of his campaign. In November Dorota Wysocka-Schnepf interviewed his friend, popular actor Michał Żebrowski. So he idealized the president of Warsaw: “He is the smartest, smartest man I have always met.” Then the TVP Info showed how Trzaskowski drives a tram, store on a residential marketplace or only put Polish products in a basket in a store in Łomża. 1 could get the impression that TVP Info is at all call of the Trzaskowski environment. On social media, the video is circulating as it interrupts the London correspondent's coverage of a fire at Heathrow Airport to show Trzaskovsky visiting a wind farm.
"Instead of propaganda soup, we want to offer you clean water. Not due to the fact that it is noble, but due to the fact that it does not carry any pushy flavors," declared Marek Czyż on 20 December 2024, announcing the start of the programme "19.30" and cutting off the "News" from the time of Jack Kurski's television.
Unfortunately, there was more than adequate “intrusive tastes”. In the program “19.30” Rafał Trzaskowski was presented as an experienced politician who wants to unite Poles, and Karol Nawrocki as the invention of Jarosław Kaczyński and the hero of countless scandals. Even if these thesis are true, the pushiness of their repetition may have put the voters of Trzaskovsky to sleep, and the supporters of Karol Nawrocki may have stimulated commitment.
In the “19.30” issue of Friday, May 16, there was first six-minute material by Anna Lubian-Halicka about how the candidate KO travers Poland, talks to the truck driver, visits the bakery at dawn, talks about the honesty and reconciliation of Poles. Ko MP Magdalena Filiks, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the wife of the candidate, Małgorzata Trzaskowska, do not uncertainty his sincerity. At the bottom of this barrel full of honey was a bit of a tug – information that the NASK Disinformation Analysis Centre detected advertisements supporting Trzaskowski, which could be financed from abroad and that president Andrzej Duda and Marshal Szymon Hołownia demanded explanations.
The second material about the candidate supported by the PiS lasted 4 minutes. He started with how he gave out yeast to voters, but it was immediately reminded that his run was going on “in the shadow of an affair” and, worse, “questions are increasing.” The past of his taking over Mr. Jerzy's studios, which was yet found in the home of social assistance, was reminded of the past of his taking over in mainstream media for many days, and was then shown to voters on the graphics of Nawrocki's remaining scandals – renting an flat in the Museum of planet War II for 200 days and relationships with the criminal world. Additionally, there were attacking comments by the politicians of the ruling coalition and a message by PiS chief Jarosław Kaczyński, who defended him. At the end of the editorial board “19.30” reminded Nawrock that she had sent an invitation to him 4 times, but he did not decide to talk.
Stereotypic was the material (also 4 minutes) about the leader of the Confederacy, due to the fact that it immediately started with the question “What does Sławomir Mentzen escape from?” and pictures of how rapidly he leaves the rally on the scooter. It reminds us of what “repels the voters from him,” that is, his statements about “an unpleasantness”, which is meant for a female to be rape, “flaps” that do not harm children, and paid studies in his “perfect world”. He was besides addressed to the net archives and quoted his celebrated “five”: “We do not want Jews, homosexuals, abortions, taxes and the European Union”. The context was not given, which is that it is simply a passage from his lecture on political marketing six years ago, in which he analysed what passwords could effectively scope a peculiar election group. He repeatedly pointed out that these were not his views. In the end, another quote was made in which he criticized the Law and Justice for its migration policy.
The remainder of the presidential candidates of the 19.30 edition of that day devoted 4 minutes, and at the end of the audience was invited to perceive to a conversation by Aleksandra Pawlicka with... Rafał Trzaskowski.
“Give individual a haircut”
The last edition of the 19.30 programme before the decisive circular of elections, on Friday 20 May, was a full discussion of the presidential campaign.
It started with the coverage of the Trzask rally in Gdańsk, the cradle of “Solidarity”, where, as recalled, he won with a large advantage in the first round. In the six-minute material of statements supporting him, anonymous voters were intertwined with statements of politicians from his camp: Sławomir Nitras, Barbara Nowacka, Patrick Jaskulski and Caesar Tomczyk. There was a message from his wife, even his aunts.
In the material on Nawrocki, reporter Mateusz Dolatowski immediately pointed out that he had put on a large deal of support organized in the bastions of PiS, i.e. in Małopolska, Podlasie and Podkarpacie, alternatively of the press conference, due to the fact that it was “one of the safest options for him”. "It was impossible to ask him questions, and there are inactive many questions about the candidate's past, and there are even less answers," said the writer "19.30". Then it was about whistles and buzzing at a gathering with voters in Gorlice, showing his opponents and banners with slogans that “just referred to the bachelorette of an older man taken over by Nawrocki.” Of course, there was besides a repeat of the charges imposed on him by the "independent media": contacts with the underworld, participation in setups, bringing prostitutes. For balance were the statements of his supporters. "I'm very happy with the kibols due to the fact that the biggest patriotism in Poland is now among the kibols. It is good that there will now be a president who trains boxing and will be able to give individual a face," said 1 of them.
The remainder of the program reminds that the government of Mateusz Morawiecki is liable for the Green Deal (twice the place with Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski was recalled).
In Bartosz Filipowicz's material about the key moments of the campaign, which was to be as announced by the errors of the staffs, was only about Nawrocki's failures (accreditation to fights in kibola settings; dependence on nicotine, which he showed during the TVP debate; consent to all Mentzen's demands; deficiency of trial with Onet in election mode to participate in bringing prostitutes to hotel guests). The marches of support in Warsaw were besides recalled to point out that 150 1000 people followed Trzaskowski, and 3 times fewer.
There was besides a material that indicated that Rafał Trzaskowski as president would be a better spokesperson for women's rights than Karol Nawrocki, as was witnessed by Małgorzata Trzaskowska and Joanna Senyszyn. Finally, there was a presentation of the candidate's wives, with the lead in the introduction saying: "Marta Nawrocka, more as a fighting and independent leader, alternatively in the shadows". There was a lot and a lot about the first, and small about the second, due to the fact that “until late she avoided cameras and seldom appeared publicly.” However, right after the election, TVP.info already knew more about it. "He is simply a individual with an unusual, challenging career that emphasizes the importance of household values and courage," he praised on 2 June.
He continued: “Her regular life is to enter illegal gambling points, to break down doors, to detain people, and to safe evidence. It is simply a occupation that requires not only courage but besides large physical fitness and intellectual resilience." TVP portal jointly and severally with Onet and TVN24.pl only after the election reported that the future first woman had graduated from the "prestigious ballet school" that ballet "taught her perseverance and self-discipline". She was quoted as having a relation with Karol Nawrocki: “He seized me with the fact that it was no obstacle to him that I was 19 and a two-year-old son.” “A fit, loyal, parent of 3 children. It will defend women or will it stay silent?” – even Wyborcza.pl began to wonder.
DO NOT INJURY
However, before the election on TVP Info, a model known from TVN 24, was chewed around the clock and digested on air only information unfavourable to the PiS candidate. If his wife showed up, it would be in the context of the pick-up. However, there was no uncertainty about the candidate KO, especially after the first round, erstwhile he became the sole typical of the "democratic side". So there were no questions about how the candidate for president of Poland worked as president of Warsaw. It was not asked why the renovation of the legislature Hall in the Palace of Culture and discipline took more than 10 years, so twice as long as the reconstruction after the fire of the Notre Dame Cathedral, why the greening of the capital went so slowly, the introduction of a night ban on the sale of alcohol, the fight against the outdoor mess, and where these municipal apartments were, about which Trzaskowski was talking, driving around Poland.
Why these questions were not there, with disconcerting sincerity Wojciech Szeląg confessed on Facebook, who went on public tv in January 2024 to participate, as he explained, in the "change of bad associations of Poles with TVP". A week after the election, he bravely began 1 of his posts: “I did not compose about it during the campaign, so as not to exposure myself to the charge that “I harm the Best Candidate”. According to his entry, he would even be “injured” by describing the mess of parking cars on 1 of Warsaw's streets.
TVP Info so much did not want to harm the "best candidate" that it did not even defend itself erstwhile it was asked to destruct it. During a conversation on YouTube, Sławomir Mentzen asked him: “TVP Info is simply a propaganda tube of power and must be eliminated. Yes or no?" "I think TVP Info could be eliminated, due to the fact that all next power would like to usage it like tubes," replied Trzaskowski. "Is it yes or no?" Mentzen asked. "I would destruct TVP Info," he heard in his reply. "I'm very happy for you. I besides don't like the current TVP Info," commented Mentzen. The TVP got over it.
However, erstwhile erstwhile TVP president Jacek Kurski made a gag to journalists of public tv to be “nice” due to the fact that he would return to them, this message became a subject even for the main edition of the program “19.30”. It was repeatedly presented to viewers as a real threat to Nawrocki's eventual win.
KIBOL WILL ALWAYS BE KIBOL
TVP threatened Kurski's return with 1 hand and the another reached for his practice, like changing the main channels' frame for propaganda purposes. After it turned out that a candidate supported by the PiS was active in the kiboli battles, which he himself admitted in a conversation with Mentzen, identifying them as “a form of noble, men's hand-to-hand combat”, in the evening TVP 1 band abruptly found a place in the week before the election on the miniseries “Furiosis”. He talks about the pseudo-kibic community, shows crime, but besides the rules in place. “Kibol will always be a kibol!” she convinced her TVP viewers, promoting “Furiosis”.
His manager Cyprian T. Olencki protested against utilizing the movie for political purposes. "It's a bit paradoxical that we're at this stage, that my film, completely against my intentions, can be successfully utilized by both sides of the political dispute to cover each other. I have no control over that. It is not my consent" - he said in an interview with Virtual Poland.
"Furioza" was needed by TVP, due to the fact that together with another mainstream media, she reported in item the material of Szymon Jadczak from Virtual Poland about the Pseudodobibice bill close Gdańsk, in which Karol Nawrocki was to participate years ago. However, erstwhile the same portal had placed another material of Szymon Jadczak (the second author was Patryk Słowik) about interference in the Polish elections of external entities by financing online advertisements supporting Trzaskowski and attacking Nawrocki and Mentzen, the main media barely noticed it.
"It was simply the alleged execution of the subject by violent silence. Nothing happened, nothing to talk about. And clearly and irrefutablely, the law has been broken and the substance requires an in-depth explanation by the applicable services," noted Paul Kapusta, the editor-in-chief of the WP. He, as well as the authors of the text, had to hear another journalists ask, "Why are you publishing this now?". erstwhile they described the bill under Gdańsk, “the silence turned into raban, we became, of course, the most extended quoted average in the country, the most reliable, wonderful origin of information” - reported Kapusta.
REPRESENTATION OF THE SECRET
Almost all the days of the run "a large origin of information" for TVP, TVN and the remainder was Onet, who from 30 April had been researching the subject of a municipal studio taken over by Nawrocki from the man who was expected to be the president of the IPN. The determination by Andrzej Stankiewicz and Jack Harlukovich that the presidential candidate, contrary to what he declared in the tv debate, has not one, but 2 apartments, was news which powerfully undermined his credibility. In addition, there have been further doubts about the way he “kept” Mr Jerzy and his studio almost all day.
However, in order to make a storm that would yet wipe out Nawrock's candidacy, Onet reached for the subject reheated. On May 26, Stankiewicz and Harłukowicz described that Nawrocki, working in the protection of the Grand Hotel in Sopot, was to participate in bringing sexual workers for guests. Only that “Gazeta Wyborcza” wrote about this in October 2024. "If a hotel guest needed a woman, it was adequate to let Nawrockie know," reported Piotr Głuchowski, citing an old colleague of the president of IPN. fresh in Onetu's text was to scope out to 2 witnesses, besides anonymous, but willing to confirm their words in court.
Although the subject was not new, Onetu's editorial squad decided to dedicate the full main page to him. On the day of publication were redirected to more than 20 materials about “one of the biggest secrets of the PiS candidate”. Thus the editor - in - chief of the Bartosz Węgielarczyk portal explained to readers the reason for revealing this mystery: “We do not do this to discourage his constituents. We compose about the past of the candidate of the Law and Justice, due to the fact that that is the work of the media.” He besides added that “for weeks politicians have whispered about her, including from the camp of Mr Nawrocki.” In fact, they had to whisper about her for at least six months, since she was revealed by “Gazeta Wyborcza”. Her editorial board did not protest this time that she was the first with this news, most likely not to harm democracy.
For further time in Sukurs, TVP has rushed – announced that she has reached a witness who has the courage to talk of Nawrock under his name. In the main edition of “19.30” about the cooperation of the PiS candidate with three-city criminals in the protection of escort agencies (he was to “see that the client paid”) Jacek Murański told. A character of at least dubious reputation, online associated with pathostreamers, a associate in frakfight fights. After he was sentenced to prison for battery, he tried to show in the program "Case for a reporter" by Elżbieta Jaworowicz that he was the victim of police. It proved credible even for the Prime Minister himself, who referred to Murański in an interview with Bogdan Rymanowski on Polsat News.
"Here we besides have a mistake from Prime Minister Donald Tusk, due to the fact that there was very interesting material from Onetu journalists, prepared very reliably, under the name, circumstantial characters. And it seems that the public media unfortunately decided to warm up the matter, and a moderately credible figure was added, which was expected to theoretically strengthen it, to clarify this picture. And it turned out that he may have compromised the full story" – he lamented 4 days before the second circular of the Tok FM election Michał Sutowski of "Political Critics".
The authors of Onetu besides referred to Muranski as a witness, who denied that he was their informant, but in the eyes of many voters reaching for this kind of witness embarrassed everyone who tried to find something else to be a PiS candidate.
CASTETAMS
At the end of the campaign, the threat to the election consequence began to be seen even in polls if they were not beneficial to Trzaskovsky. erstwhile the WP portal on the eve of the second circular (actually on Friday 30 May) posted the results of a survey of the National investigation Group, in which the candidate supported by the Law and Justice was expected to win (he was given 50.6% of the votes, or 0.3 percent little than he was yet given), the Vice-President Bartosz Wieliński was outraged. "Very interesting procedure, run a poll indicating Batyr the day after a series of surveys pointing to Trzask and inactive sign it as the latest, though it is not the latest at all. Lots of clicks, lots of question marks. The only advantage is to increase mobilization," he wrote on the X platform.
When the first exit poll results were announced on election night, according to which he minimally conducted Trzaskowski, the WP poll was remembered by Tomasz Lis. Among many triumphant entries on the X platform, he besides wrote: “Remember the media workers who said 3 days ago that Nawrocki was undervalued and suggested that he would win? Do you remember the Suwarts who pumped the left poll the day before yesterday to win Nawrock? They're not gonna lay down their weapons. They'll rub it on. But in 2 years, they'll get their asses kicked again."
The erstwhile editor-in-chief of “Newsweek” even for 5 minutes of the run did not hide in support of Trzaskowski. On his channel on YouTube, immediately after announcing the results of the first round, he advised his staff a full attack: “It’s time to remove velvet gloves, it’s time to put on castets and bangs.” And he cried, “On my command, unleash hell!”
The editorial “Gazeta Wyborcza” supported the candidate KO from the beginning. In fact, she went after him. A fewer days before the vote on the front page, she posted pictures of both candidates with a cross placed next to Trzaskowski and the slogan "I choose the future". At the photograph of Nawrocki and the slogan "I choose past" there was no cross. The same candidate was besides supported by Agory-owned portal Gazeta.pl, who made the probe, asking his readers who won the challenge in Koński. It was not amazing that the highest indications were given to Trzaskowski – 36.7 percent of Nawrocki's triumph indicated 10.6% of voters.
OBWE CRITICALS
The second circular of elections was watched by abroad observers from the Organisation for safety and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Parliamentary Assembly and Human Rights (ZPRE). They saw not only illegal financing of campaigns on the net for the benefit of Trzaskovsky in the passive attitude of NASK. It besides got in the media. The OSCE study explicitly states: "Despite its statutory obligation, public tv – like TVN's private station and Onet portal – frequently portrayed Karol Nawrocki in a negative light, while the transmission concerning Rafał Trzaskowski was mostly uncritical". The observers had no uncertainty that the Republic presented even more bias, presenting Trzaskowski almost exclusively in a negative way.
“Everything can be overdone. If a 5 hundredth time argument about the sutner candidate's past is repeated, the recipient has the right to be tired and irritated – possibly it is adequate to remind him “only” a 100 times,” commented the OSCE writer Marek Kęscrawiec.
"Selectivity, comfortable silence and outrage on order are not just an manufacture anecdotes. These are real threats to social trust in the media – trust that is already at the brink of collapse. If the recipients are to believe that journalism is inactive different from propaganda, they must be certain that the facts substance always, and not only erstwhile they are comfortable" - said Paweł Kapusta, the editor-in-chief of the WP, during the campaign.
When run dust subsided and it turned out that the competition candidate had won, the media favoring Trzaskowski began to look for guilty defeats. It pointed to the mistakes of his staff, the weakness of the candidate, the dwindling support of the government, who has been slowingly pursuing his promises.
Earlier, all of this in mainstream media was not seen or wanted to be seen.
And there was no punch in his chest. Bartosz Węgielarczyk in the podcast “Chief” explained to Tomasz Sekielski, who now works for TVP: “There are 2 theories, both based on the fact that Onet elects the president of Poland. 1 is that we were in a conspiracy with Mr. Trzaskowski's staff, but we overdid, unprofessionally approached the hatred speech. It is actual that Mr Dariusz Matecki is simply a master in this case, and another than that, people have small thought of how to hatred people. It is besides second that we were in a conspiracy with Mr. Nawrocki's staff and according to her we specially exaggerated, due to the fact that Nawrocki's staff realized that it would be like Trump, the more bad they talk about the candidate, the better for him.” Then he explained why his portal focused only on Nawrock: “Rafal Trzaskowski has been in politics for many years, and no 1 has been able to draw any fresh communicative about him due to the fact that they truly are not there. However, Mr Nawrocki, even today, on Monday after election, is simply a individual we know very small about." He added: “It is not my responsibility that most of the rumors about Mr Nawrocki proved true. And there are more of these rumors.”
– In widely understood news media should regulation news, but the same information repeated for the hundredth time is no longer news. Not only is it boring, it annoys and becomes an argument against the media that give it. It is easy for them to charge that they are active in the run for a candidate," says Adam Szynol, a medical scientist from the Institute of Journalism and Social Communication at the University of Wrocław. According to him, mainstream media, which sympathized with Rafał Trzaskowski, wanted to give opposition mainly to the Republic and in Poland24, which, utilizing the protective umbrella of KRRiT, do not adhere to any rules of the media. – TVN or Onet, as part of a misconception of symmetry, were able to engage in a duel with them, and although they are not a weapon in the hands of politicians, like Sakiewicz's television, they gave arguments to those who want to see them that way.
According to Bogusław Chrabota, editor-in-chief of the Gremi Media group, journalists examining Nawrocki's past were doing their occupation and did their occupation perfectly. However, he besides notes that in criticism of a candidate supported by the PiS they overdid. – The attack on Nawrocki raised him in the eyes of his electorate. He unleashed the effect of compassion, solidarity, defence. It was an additional mobilization that worked against Rafał Trzaskowski.
On the following Tuesday, TAI chief Grzegorz Sajór personally thanked journalists and publishers for their work at the election and calmed that there would be no personnel changes. A week later, everyone received motivation bonuses for the busy May – after 15% of the basic salary.
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This text by Grzegorz Kopacz comes from the magazine “Press” – issue No 7/2025.
