Believe it or not: Globo uses the PSDB's mensalão scandal to attack the PT.

(originally published in brick)

I've said this many times. The major newspapers should be grateful for the existence of bloggers willing to debate democratically and peacefully what we consider to be the arbitrary actions and injustices of the mainstream media. There is a historical reason for our existence. Brazil has suffered several coups in which the media played a central role. It is evident, therefore, that there needs to be a counterpoint.

Furthermore, we do a free ombudsman job. Instead of attacking us, even suing us and demanding financial compensation, like their news director, Ali Kamel, who, not satisfied with his salary, wants to extort R$ 41 from a struggling blogger like me, Globo should be helping us.

Okay, enough talk. Let's get to work. Let's analyze the front page of Globo this Saturday.

The Prosecutor's Office made headlines by requesting a 22-year sentence for Eduardo Azeredo. But the Public Prosecutor's Office overstepped its bounds once again. It's not within its purview to comment on sentencing. That's the Judiciary's responsibility. I'm not a lawyer, just a blogger offering opinions, but I don't think we'll solve the problem of corruption by applying disproportionate sentences. What combats corruption is uncovering wrongdoing and arresting the guilty, with speed and a sense of justice. The PSDB's mensalão scandal dates back to 1998. The Public Prosecutor's Office made a mistake and should apologize to society for taking so long to act.

As for Globo, the front page is meticulously calculated so as not to offend the PSDB. The subject only occupies the front page and page 3. Remember that yesterday Pizzolato alone occupied five pages.

When reading the article, there is more space for the defense than information about the accusation.

Worse, if you analyze it carefully, the article achieves a feat: attacking the PT (Workers' Party). Observe how the text ends on the first page: "PT members mock the Judiciary." Which PT members, what irony, what did they say? On page 3, more defense of the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party), and attacks on the PT, by Aécio Neves and the newspaper itself.

As you can see, there was no irony whatsoever. Nor was there any "attack" on the Public Prosecutor's Office or the Judiciary. It's one thing for a blogger to make democratic criticisms of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary, as I do, but it's quite another to say that a political party "attacked" the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary. That's serious; it's trying to promote intrigue between a large political party and the institutions.

The PT members mentioned made balanced observations. They argued that the PSDB members have the right to a calm and fair trial, and that they should not be subjected to the lynching frenzy seen against the PT. In other words, they avoided any partisan proselytizing on a matter that is now exclusively judicial. They showed greatness and magnanimity by not revealing any feeling of "vendetta" against the PSDB members.

Those sectors of society that have not been contaminated by the feelings of political rancor and hatred disseminated by the media do not want the price of fighting corruption to be the discrediting of democracy. They want faster justice, but also fairer justice. The path is not to remove citizens' rights, but to expand them.

It is up to the Public Prosecutor's Office to act more objectively, so that people are always convicted based on evidence, and not on circumstantial evidence and inferences. It is unfortunate that the prosecutor mentioned "command responsibility" in the case against Azeredo. If there is no evidence against him, then say there is none. That theory is dangerous. Its own creator, Claus Roxin, warned that it must only be used in exceptional cases and can never dispense with the existence of evidence, direct evidence against the person involved.

The press is free to act as it sees fit, since it is free. If Globo believes its objective is to defend the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) and attack the PT (Workers' Party), then let it do so. It has complete freedom to do so. However, there will always be a blogger to point out its excesses and bias.