Lula aced the ethics investigation in the Banco Master case, says Mario Vitor Santos.

247 - According to journalist and columnist Mario Vitor Santos, the corporate press coverage of the Banco Master case is a clear example of a deliberate inversion of the facts. Even before delving into the details of the meeting between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and banker Daniel Vorcaro, he argues that there was a conscious editorial choice to shift the focus away from the essential issue—the ethical conduct of the head of the Executive branch—to a side aspect, treated as a scandal. “What we are seeing is a lesson in anti-journalism,” he stated. “Instead of highlighting a correct, ethical, and republican attitude of the President of the Republic, the major media outlets opted for headlines that invert the overall meaning of the report.”

Information about the meeting was made public by Daniel Vorcaro himself, who contacted the Brasília-based website Metrópoles to reveal that he met with Lula outside of the official agenda in December 2024. According to Mario Vitor Santos, the initiative aimed to politically compromise the president, but ended up exposing an exemplary institutional stance that had been systematically minimized in the headlines.

According to the journalist, Vorcaro sought out Lula before the scandal had broken. "Feeling cornered, he took the initiative to call Metrópoles and say that he had met with President Lula outside of his official schedule in December 2024 to discuss matters related to the bank," he reported. At the time, according to the banker himself, Banco Master's difficulties did not yet constitute crimes, a claim he himself maintains.

The central point of the meeting, however, was ignored by the mainstream media, according to Mario Vitor. During the meeting, Lula determined that the matter should be handled exclusively by the Central Bank, without any political interference. “President Lula called Gabriel Galípolo, who was about to officially assume the presidency of the Central Bank but was already performing the function in practice, and said the following: 'In this case, as in other cases, make an absolutely technical decision. The matter will remain with the Central Bank and the decision must be absolutely technical,'” stated the columnist.

For Mario Vitor Santos, this guidance synthesizes a rare and exemplary conduct. "It is indeed a very ethical, very correct attitude, not allowing oneself to be swayed by pressure, by any type of harassment, or by lesser interests that are not those of the public and the clients of Banco Master," he said. In his assessment, Lula "fully fulfilled the expected standard of a President of the Republic."

The order was obeyed. The attempted sale of Banco Master to Banco de Brasília (BRB), an operation surrounded by suspicions of corruption, was ultimately vetoed by the Central Bank. Subsequently, already embroiled in a "tangle of irregularities in the market," the bank underwent extrajudicial intervention ordered by the monetary authority, even against the wishes of its controller. "All of this was done against Daniel Vorcaro's will," the journalist emphasized.

Despite this, Mario Vitor criticizes the way the episode was reported. “Instead of reporting on this rare, exemplary, and meritorious behavior of President Lula, what appears is an incredible collection of headlines that invert the overall meaning of the report,” he stated. According to him, outlets such as Metrópoles, UOL, Globo, and Folha highlighted that the meeting occurred off the record, as if that were the core of the news.

“What is recorded in the body of the reports is that President Lula ordered a purely technical course of action. But this remained buried there, never deserving prominence in the headlines,” he said. According to the columnist, there was a violation of a basic rule of journalism: “The headlines should correspond to the evaluative content of the texts.”

Mario Vitor also refutes the idea that off-the-record meetings are, in themselves, suspicious. “President Lula, like all other administrators, often receives people outside of his schedule. Most meetings of a President of the Republic take place off the schedule, here and in any country,” he stated, noting that this type of contact does not imply any irregularity.

According to the journalist, the Banco Master case is emblematic of a journalism that has abandoned its commitment to the truth. "It's no longer journalism, it's garbage in service of anti-Lula sentiment, even at the cost of journalistic ethics," he said. He points out that the same pattern is present in the attempt to criminalize decisions by Supreme Court Justices Dias Toffoli and Alexandre de Moraes related to the case.

"In all cases, judges and now President Lula acted precisely to ensure that there was no crime and to allow for the investigation and punishment of irregularities," stated Mario Vitor, highlighting that this action was recognized by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Federal Court itself.

With less than a year until the elections, the columnist believes this behavior is likely to intensify. "It's the announcement of the pattern that will be followed from now on: concealing the virtues of President Lula's government, inverting the meaning of news reports, and transforming truth into lies," he concluded. For him, far from compromising the president, the episode demonstrates that Lula "aced in ethics"—which is why his conduct needed to be hidden in the headlines.