Patricia Campos Mello's text about 247 and my documentary is blatantly dishonest.

The text in which journalist Patrícia Campos Mello cites Brasil 247 as a media outlet that produces disinformation is blatantly dishonest and contains elements that allow us to conclude that the objective was to discredit independent journalism in Brazil and, thereby, help Jair Bolsonaro.

She cites the documentary "Bolsonaro and Adélio - A fake stabbing in the heart of Brazil" as an example of misinformation and ignores, or pretends to ignore, that the video never states whether or not there was a stabbing in Juiz de Fora. The documentary addresses the inconsistency of the official narrative, based on an investigation that, strictly speaking, has not yet concluded.

The term "fake" was used to define the falsehood that spread throughout Brazil, through the actions or omissions of journalists from the corporate press, which I believe is more accurately referred to as the "old press," encompassing outlets that, upon closer analysis, merely promote the neoliberal agenda.

Starting with how these media outlets handled the Juiz de Fora case, which was crucial for the continuation of this project in Brazil. Adélio Bispo de Oliveira was presented as a member of the PSOL party, and it never occurred to the newsrooms to investigate how this information ended up in the newspapers. 

It was the police themselves who leaked his party affiliation as if it were current information, when they already knew that, among Adélio's belongings seized at the boarding house in Juiz de Fora, the most important document regarding his activism was a letter filed with the Electoral Court of Uberaba in which he requested to leave the PSD party, which was never left-wing. In the Minas Gerais city, it was controlled by then-congressman Marcos Montes, of the BBB caucus – Beef, Bullets, and Bible – in his case, beef.

I found the document in the court records in Juiz de Fora, and when I made it public, the PSD (Social Democratic Party) quickly stated that the affiliation had not been finalized, but admitted that Adélio frequented their headquarters. 

Where was Folha [newspaper] that didn't investigate this story, which would have prevented the violence against Jean Wyllys, for example, who was the target of a virtual lynching and real threats after the distorted information about his affiliation with PSOL unfolded into a campaign against him?

It also never occurred to Folha to investigate why, half an hour after the event in Juiz de Fora, a website from Santa Catarina published a photo of Adélio at a demonstration against Michel Temer in Florianópolis, three months earlier, as if the demonstration had been organized by left-wing activists.

The banner read "Temer Resign," echoing the statement made days earlier by Jair Bolsonaro, then a presidential candidate. The organizer of the demonstration was the Bolsonaro supporter Luciano Carvalho de Sá, known as Luciano Mergulhador. But the image of him and Adélio, which appeared on Jornal Nacional, on TV Globo, suggested that the pair were left-wing.

Folha also never bothered to understand and properly report how strange it was, half an hour after Adélio's arrest, that it was revealed that the perpetrator of the stabbing, or alleged stabbing, of Bolsonaro had been in the Chamber of Deputies five years earlier. 

Two legislative police officers, who had nothing to do with the investigation in Juiz de Fora, consulted the entry records at the Chamber of Deputies, and the information immediately ended up on the website O Antagonista, which at the time was helping to promote Jair Bolsonaro.

Whose voice did those police officers hear when they rushed to the entrance to obtain information about Adélio's presence in 2013? Divine? Was there, by any chance, a similar search at the Senate? Or the Presidential Palace? Or the Supreme Court? It was a tip-off, but not by the Federal Police.

This melting pot of data, quickly made public, solidified the version that Bolsonaro had been the target of a movement orchestrated by the left. Weeks later, the Federal Police would publicly state that Adélio was a lone wolf. But, by this time, Bolsonaro had already won the first round and was leading the polls for the second.

Folha also never investigated the presence of Adélio Bispo de Oliveira at the .38 shooting club on the same day that Carlos Bolsonaro was there, on June 6, 2018. The mainstream press didn't even report that .38 has ties to shooting clubs in the US presented by the US press as organizations with Nazi symbolism, supporters of Donald Trump.

The mere presence of Adélio at a shooting club would be sufficient reason to raise suspicions that a false narrative was being created.

Is it consistent with the profile of a PSOL activist to take a shooting course? Is it reasonable to imagine that a poor person like Adélio would spend three times the rent of the small room he lived in to learn how to shoot, even without owning a gun?

The journalists at Folha — including Patrícia herself — could have verified the content of Adélio's posts on his social media — instead of simply reproducing what the Federal Police gleaned from there and delivered to the press. 

Adélio supported Bolsonaro's causes, such as lowering the age of criminal responsibility and fighting the bill that criminalizes homophobia.

The documentary also shows that, before starting the march, Adélio approached Carlos Bolsonaro, who was making his debut in his father's street campaign events in Juiz de Fora. When he learned about the video, he told Leda Nagle that he had seen Adélio that day and got into the car because he was scared.

Now, if Adélio was a stranger to him, why the fear? And if he suspected Adélio, why didn't he warn one of the many security guards who were there? The fact is, when you know of the presence of both of them in Florianópolis on the same day, it's reasonable to imagine that they weren't strangers.

The doubt would only be cleared up if the Federal Police had requested the footage from the shooting club that day. But instead, they were content with the testimony of two representatives, both ardent Bolsonaro supporters. 

The list of inconsistencies in the official narrative, championed by Folha, is far more extensive. The film censored by YouTube—censorship that Folha does not criticize—is over two hours long and shows what is fake in this story that changed (for the worse) the course of events in Brazil.

Let us just add that Folha's fact-checking article on the Adélio case, published a few days ago, contains serious misinformation. 

It presents lawyer Zanone Júnior as Adélio's current defense attorney, and ignores or pretends to ignore that Zanone was removed from the case after a handwritten letter sent by Adélio to the Federal Public Defender's Office, in which he complains about the isolation in which he lives — without even receiving a visit from a relative — and the inaction of his now former lawyer, who, in his view, always worked to ensure that he would die in prison, unable to speak to anyone.

I've been at 247 for a year and six months, after working in major newsrooms like O Estado de S. Paulo, Veja, and TV Globo. I enjoy editorial freedom that is unusual by Brazilian standards. And I felt personally offended by Patrícia Campos Mello's dishonest text.

But I wasn't surprised. She didn't even contact me to write an article attacking me. I heard about an exchange of messages between her and Leonardo Attuch, in which he offered her space to express herself. 

As far as I know, she remained silent. Ideally, in this case that I called a "fake news"—and I stand by that term, in the sense explained above—there should be serious and in-depth debates, preferably in open forums, such as the ABI or Fenaj, for example, so as not to remain in the pretense of listening to the other side.

But Patricia seems to prefer silence or putting an end to the stories she writes (this one blatantly dishonest).

When she published the book "The Hate Machine," I already smelled the foul odor of dishonesty. 

The book was a reaction to her reporting on the mass dissemination of messages via WhatsApp during the 2018 election, and for free she attacked websites such as O Cafezinho, Fórum, DCM, and Viomundo, comparing them to publications like Terça Livre, by Allan dos Santos.

A comparison that insults intelligence. It was thanks to Cafezinho that we learned about the tax evasion scheme of Grupo Globo, and thanks to Viomundo that Aécio Neves' power and corruption scheme in Minas Gerais began to be exposed. 

Viomundo and DCM revealed to the country the true story of the scam involving the Marinho family's triplex apartment in Paraty. Through DCM, I revealed the Helicoca case and traveled to the British Virgin Islands to show how Globo created and maintained the tax evasion scheme, and I told other stories that the mainstream press omits.

Imagine where we Brazilians would be today if, since 2013, when the war against Brazil intensified, there had been no independent media. 

What was Folha doing while outlets like 247 were publishing relevant information about the attack on Brazil and denouncing Lava Jato? It was covering fiscal irregularities and praising Sergio Moro and Deltan Dallagnol, as well as the street protests that had been seized upon by the far right, which led to the coup against Dilma, the imprisonment of Lula, and consequently the election of Bolsonaro. 

I know there are exceptions in this cauldron of pure misinformation, like Mônica Bergamo. The exception, as the saying goes, proves the rule.

Fortunately, I no longer need to serve companies that are more like banks than news outlets, if they ever were. Or, by any chance, like Bolsonaro, is Folha capable of denying historical facts, such as the use of the company's trucks in the service of the dictatorship that tortured and killed?

A newspaper capable of publishing headlines like "Terrorist leader Marighela killed." 

Patrícia Campos Mello wasn't born when the Frias family's newspaper omitted torture and murders, but perhaps one day she will realize that, in 2022, she provided that publication with a service equivalent to that of journalists from that era.

These sectors in Brazil, which include Folha, are heading towards irrelevance, but while we can still hear the roar of this toothless lion, it is necessary to denounce them.

It's for the good of the country.