Shameful behavior

The scandalous passion of the so-called mainstream press, which has transformed itself into a political party to overthrow President Dilma Rousseff, reached absurd levels this Friday: it inhumanely used the collapse of an overpass in Belo Horizonte, which killed two people, to attack the government. The three major newspapers from Rio and São Paulo – Globo, Folha, and Estadão – all used the same headline, with slight variations, labeling the overpass a "World Cup project." After being discredited by the campaign against the sporting event, and given its success and positive impact both domestically and internationally, the major newspapers decided to use the tragedy to get revenge.

In reality, the federal government is only partially funding the viaduct under construction, as the project and its execution are the responsibility of the Belo Horizonte city hall. Even knowing this, the mainstream media prefers to politically exploit the episode and place the blame for the accident on the President's broad shoulders, deliberately forgetting Mayor Marcio Lacerda, of the PSB party, who, in a press interview, said that there must have been a construction flaw. "In the future," he said, "certainly, after everything is investigated, some engineering error will be discovered, whether in the design or the construction."

However, not content with twisting the news of the accident to link it to the World Cup and blame the government, "Folha" also published an editorial entitled "World Cup Humor," in which it insists that "the project is part of the urban mobility improvement package and was not completed on schedule" and "serves to remind us how much irresponsibility and improvisation, not to mention corruption, there was in the organization of the World Cup." It failed to mention, however, that if there was irresponsibility and improvisation in the execution of the project, it was certainly the fault of the mayor from the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), responsible for its planning and execution. But this "detail" is of no interest to the mainstream media, because for them what really matters is using everything possible to discredit Dilma and the Workers' Party (PT).

The accident also served the foreign press – especially the British press, whose ill will towards Brazil has been fueled by the Brazilian mainstream press – to once again denigrate the government and our country. Like our own media, the foreign press, equally demoralized by the success of the World Cup whose failure it insisted on proclaiming, seized upon the tragedy to attribute it to the supposed "improvisation" in the organization of the sporting competition. The accident, in truth, has nothing to do with the World Cup – and even less with the federal government – ​​but for those who wish at any cost to prevent the re-election of President Dilma, there is no doubt that they will blame her for the accident, which, incidentally, will be nothing new, as they have already held her responsible for the lynching of an innocent person in São Paulo.

It remains to be seen whether the opposition candidates will follow the same path as the mainstream media, linking the tragedy to the World Cup and the President of the Republic. This doesn't seem like an easy task, especially for former governor Eduardo Campos, since the mayor responsible for the construction belongs to his party, the PSB. However, no one should be surprised if the PSDB candidate Aécio Neves, who always finds a way to criticize the Planalto Palace for anything, also takes advantage of the accident to once again attack the President, since the event occurred in the capital of his state, Minas Gerais. It's worth remembering, however, that the people are no longer so easily swayed by this baseless fallacy, which could backfire.

In any case, the passionate attitude of the mainstream press in reporting on the tragedy confirms, once again, its shameful behavior as a political party, which is further increasing its discredit among the population. Its news coverage is being viewed with increasing skepticism by people who use their brains to think. And at this rate, it won't be long before it starts facing the same difficulties as "Veja" magazine, which is in its death throes precisely because of its disrespect for its readers, who are still being deceived by distorted articles due to its political and economic interests. As Confucius said: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but no one can fool all of the people all of the time."