Just How Low Brazil's Media Can Go

Courtesy of the Latin Americanist comes this linked report on Aecio Neves and the media's treatment of him. Aecio Neves is the grandson of Tancredo Neves, former Minas Gerais senator and the first president-elect after Brazil's military dictatorship (Tancredo died after the election but before the inauguration, leading to his running-mate Jose Sarney assuming office in an interesting game of politicking that is too fascinating but lengthy to go into here). Neves has been the favorite for the PSDB's candidate in 2010 among political analysts since even before Lula's re-election in 2006, when many thought he'd make a run (he declined, saying he was too "young and inexperienced" to be president, as he wasn't even 50 at the time; he'll be 50 in March 2010).

I see absolutely no reason not to believe anything in the report itself. O Globo is even more evil than it comes out in the report. O Globo's political, social, cultural, and economic ideologies have always been patnetnntly clear - it's the worst kind of right-wing propaganda machine hiding behind the facade of "news." It is already throwing its support behind Aecio because it suspects that it can get the best relations with him if he is elected. O Globo enjoyed a love affair with the presidency during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso years, and Neves is from the same party (PSDB). Additionally, while Lula has remained cordial, he hasn't just bowed in when Globo put pressure on him in the media, nor has he given O Globo the kind of unrestricted access it wants of a president. Indeed, it's not a stretch to say Lula has been the worst president for O Globo in over 40 years, for a number of reasons: Lula has refused to so openly go into Globo's pocket as his predecessors (although his government has still been cordial to Globo); Globo's ownership and political line is right-wing (Roberto Marinho, O Globo's late founder, was in bed with the dictatorship from the 1960s to the 1980s, even going so far as to describe a million-person protest against the dictatorship in the early 1980s as a gathering for Sao Paulo's 400th anniversary, and NOT a political protest); and Lula's class, background (as laborer and labor leader who never went to college), and speaking (he's not the most intellectual speaker) all are exactly the kinds of things O Globo reacts against and tries to put down across both its news and entertainment programs. That O Globo would throw itself behind Neves so early (elections aren't until 2010, let's not forget) is no big surprise, and fits in perfectly with O Globo's efforts to not just influence, but directly change Brazil's political scene and its right-wing ideologies.

As for Estado de Minas Gerais, the newspaper, that's no less of a non-surprise to me. Minas prides itself on its political importance, and between the 1890s and 1930s, Minas and Sao Paulo alternated presidents, with each state taking turns providing Brazil's next president (in a political period called "Cafe com Leite" - coffee with milk. Minas was Brazil's leading dairy producer at the time, and Sao Paulo, coffee). However, since 1930, Minas has had only one president, Juscelino Kubitschek (the man who moved the capital to Brasilia), and he left office in 1960 (again, Tancredo Neves, while elected president, never served). Estado de Minas has nothing to lose in supporting Neves, and plenty to gain, both in terms of being a leader of regional identity, and in the rewards it may reap from Neves should he win.

The one thing I would say (and this is far from a defense of the man himself) is I'm almost certain Neves is not behind this. Again, the Brazilian media, and especially O Globo, has been one of the fiercest practitioners of self-censoring journalists who do not toe the company line politically. Certainly, Neves can and has exploited O Globo's favoritism towards him, but in that, I can't blame him; any politician who had O Globo throwing itself at him or her would do well to take advantage, particularly because pissing off O Globo can very realistically end your political career; it's simply an organization that you do not want to piss off unless you really have nothing to lose, or owe nothing to O Globo (and certainly, Lula owes nothing to O Globo). So it may be Machiavellian of Neves to take advantage, but I'm sure that he was not the one who has initiated all this - indeed, O Globo was really behind Neves in 2006, too, until he simply said he wasn't going to run for president yet.

I'd like to say that this report was really shocking to me, but it's not; it's still depressing, but the fact that Brazilian media, and especially O Globo, is a corrupt, monopolistic organization that serves as right-wing propaganda and worries more about its commercial power than reporting the news is no big secret. Still, it's worth watching the report, particularly for those wanting to better understand how Brazilian media operates.