Well, well, wasn't it the PT (Workers' Party) that was going to "censor" the press?

One of the countless opinion pieces published by Folha de São Paulo and the rest of the pro-PSDB media in the São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro axis throughout the Lula and Dilma governments, which accused the PT of being an anti-democratic party that intended to censor the "free press," began like this:

"It is sometimes reported that the PT (Workers' Party) seeks legal mechanisms to control the media. According to the party's basic assertion, it is necessary to instill a dose of responsibility in the media because it is the bourgeoisie that dominates it. Social instruments should limit the 'lies' and 'distortions' disseminated in the media.

Therefore, I bring to your attention phrases collected from the book 'Mein Kampf' by another famous critic of freedom of the press: Adolf Hitler. In the book, he states that the free press resorts to "other methods to poison the public spirit."

'Through an amalgam of pleasing phrases, they deceive their readers, instilling in them the belief that pure science and true morality are the driving forces behind their actions, whereas, in reality, this is nothing more than a clever artifice to steal a weapon that their adversaries could use against the press.'

For Hitler, what is usually called 'freedom of the press' is "the same name given to the abuse of this instrument of deception and poisoning of the people, shielded from any punishment." (…) ”

Folhas, Vejas, Globos, Estadões and their affiliates spent the 13-plus years of PT governments accusing the two PT presidents and the party itself of wanting to censor the press. This despite the fact that this political group never took a single step to curtail not freedom of the press, but the most blatant villainy of this media.

Dilma Rousseff's fake record

On April 5, 2009, the Folha de São Paulo newspaper published a false police record on its front page accusing then-presidential candidate Dilma Vana Rousseff of crimes. This was in preparation for the fierce contest that would ensue between her and Folha's candidate, José Serra, the following year.

— censorship 1

Em matter Later, on the inside pages, without the same prominence as the accusation, the newspaper acknowledged its anti-journalistic stance. It admitted that it received the "document" via email from a far-right website and published it at the top of its front page without checking anything.

Despite this, Folha concluded the article with the following gem:

“Academic researchers, opponents of the dictatorship, and former security agents are divided. Some identify evidence of fraud, while others point to signs of the file's authenticity.”

In other words, despite the obvious falsification, which the article itself acknowledged, it left a door open for anyone who wanted to believe it. Therefore, legal action would be appropriate not only to remove the article, which is still in Folha's archives today, but also to seek compensation.

Dilma never took a single step to stop her opponents from continuing to use an undeniable lie to this day. All in the name of freedom of the press.

The boy from MEP

Months after that electioneering attack aimed at the following year's elections, more specifically on November 27, 2009, the same Folha de São Paulo newspaper published, with great prominence, an astonishing text by an adversary of Lula.

The article "The children of Brazil"It was written by a former left-wing activist, César Benjamin, who was irritated by the filmed biography of Lula, the feature film "The Son of Brazil," by director Fábio Barreto, which praised the then-President of the Republic."

— censorship 2

In the article, Benjamin, without presenting a shred of evidence, accused Lula of attempting to rape a cellmate while he was imprisoned during the military dictatorship.

Folha, always with the following year's election campaign in mind, tried to tarnish Lula's image in order to diminish his ability to transfer votes to Dilma in the contest she would face against the darling of the São Paulo media, José Serra.

Rarely in human history has there been a more compelling reason to prosecute someone, and such a high chance of winning the case. Benjamin and Folha were contradicted by EVERYONE who was with Lula and Benjamin in that cell.

Lula, like Dilma, despite accusations that they want to censor the pro-PSDB media, never sued the slanderer or the newspaper that allowed him to slander them.

Supreme irony

We've reached 2017. The political group that always accused the PT of censorship is in power. Not only the PSDB, but a large part of the PMDB, which always condoned accusations of censorious impulses leveled by the media that unconditionally supported the regime that, in fact, censored it for two decades.

Michel Temer, the President of the Republic, is embroiled in legal troubles. He is constantly being denounced for allegedly receiving bribes. There is a strange case involving an attempted blackmail of his wife. She and her husband are trying to sell what they claim are intimate and sensual photos they took together. But there is suspicion that the reason for the blackmail is something else.

At the behest of the president and his wife, the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic managed to CENSOR the press that had so often accused the PT (Workers' Party) and the two PT presidents of the Republic, even though they never committed a single act equal to that of the PSDB-PMDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party-Brazilian Democratic Movement Party) government.

How ironic, isn't it?