Brito: Noblat and Miriam Leitão are now 'repentant Magdalenes' of the coup.
Journalist Fernando Brito finds the sudden repentance of Globo columnists Miriam Leitão and Ricardo Noblat regarding Michel Temer's government strange, given that they were staunch supporters of the government; "The two, amplified by the power given to them by the Globo Organizations, are among the main architects of the demolition of a government that, with all the flaws it may have had, did not push the country back a century. Certainly, one cannot deny them the human right to change their minds, provided that this involves the sincerity to acknowledge their mistakes and, in this case, the irresponsible attack on the democratic order," says Brito.
By Fernando Brito, from brick - Miriam Leitão, Friday, and Ricardo NoblatToday, they remind me of an expression – common in my childhood days: that of "making a face like a repentant Magdalene," when one did something wrong and disastrous and pretended to have nothing to do with it.
Even the titles are similar: Miriam writes “How Much (Temer) Costs” and Noblat writes “The Price of Keeping Temer”.
They are right: the country is paying a high price for this political, economic, and civilizational disaster represented by the rise, almost a year and a half ago, of a figure who, after the sordidness of the conspiratorial betrayal and the evident alliance with Eduardo Cunha, is unworthy even of personal respect.
Noblat says that Temer, whom he considered "an elegant gentleman," among other things with the decree on slave labor (we'll talk about this other "clever trick" in a moment), "stopped the clock of history. He turned back the hands. He gained a few more votes to remain unpunished."
Miriam, poisoned by her hypocrisy, attacks the government mercilessly, but always referring to the "Dilma-Temer ticket" as if, poor thing, she didn't know that the usurper's policies are the complete negation of almost everything that the PT government stood for. And, when it's not "original" betrayal, it's the brutal deepening of what had already been conceded due to pressure from the "market," of which the journalist has always been one of the spokespeople.
The two of them, amplified by the power given to them by the Globo Organizations, are among the main architects of the demolition of a government that, with all the flaws it may have had, was not pushing the country back a century.
Certainly, neither of them can be denied the human right to change their minds, provided that this is done with the sincerity to acknowledge their mistakes and, in this case, the irresponsible attack on the democratic order.
Because it's impossible to have an honest discussion about any problem when you start from a foundation of cynicism.
Last week, journalist Bob Fernandes made this point very clearly (Watch the video at the end.even before Leitão and Noblat published their articles:
It's astonishing that journalists didn't understand beforehand which forces were driving the impeachment. Who, what, and how would they seize power? It's astonishing that those in the know are unaware of the consequences. Or worse: they pretend not to know what paths and makeshift solutions the "fiscal maneuver" would drag us down.
Those who open Pandora's Box of coup-mongering, those who break the seal of institutional order, cannot complain about the demons that emerge.
Exorcising them now – and it won't be simple – depends on restoring democratic procedure, which is severely threatened; only those who refuse to see it can't.
Clearly, on one side, it is being mutilated by an extra-political power, strongly authoritarian and classist (judicial, prima facie, or militaristic), with the banning of the one who comfortably leads all the opinion polls.
And, after Michel Temer's acquittal this week, the very idea that elections should be held is now decaying, otherwise the only remaining "solution" is authoritarianism.
Noblat should take more seriously the phrase by Socrates that he uses as the epigraph for his column today: "People need three things: prudence in spirit, silence on the tongue, and shame on their face."