Nogueira reports "brawl" with Diogo Mainardi
A columnist for Diário do Centro do Mundo recounts the journalist's reaction to Época magazine's only list of the 100 most influential people in Brazil that included the media: 'He boasted about being a columnist for Veja, like that character from Chico Anísio who said he worked for Globo. I imagine the pain he feels today, when he can no longer arrogantly say that'; "A second blow to me would come later from Veja's digital Mainardi, Reinaldo Azevedo," he adds.
247 - In an article in Diary of the Center of the WorldPaulo Nogueira, former director of Editora Globo, recounts the heated exchange he had with Diogo Mainardi when he decided to include media figures on Época magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in Brazil. Read excerpts:
Interestingly, the biggest problem I had afterwards wasn't with people who didn't get in – but with one person on the list, Diogo Mainardi, who was then a columnist for Veja magazine.
I wrote, essentially, that Mainardi lived off Lula. I also noted that he had "Mainardized" the magazine. And I said something that hurt him extraordinarily: that he had no style.
I didn't know how vain he was when it came to literature.
The following week, his column in Veja was dedicated to attacking me with his usual mix of dishonesty and arrogance.
He thought he was revealing to the world that I had a pseudonym, Fabio Hernandez, under which I had written articles for VIP magazine.
He boasted of being a "columnist for Veja," like that character from Chico Anísio who claimed to work for Globo, while Fabio Hernandez was a columnist for sentimental matters. That shows Mainardi's confused mind. I imagine the pain he feels today, now that he can no longer arrogantly say he's a "columnist for Veja."
A second blow to me would come later from Mainardi, the digital editor of Veja magazine, Reinaldo Azevedo. He was already beginning to show an obsession with me. Although we are from the same generation, I had never heard of Reinaldo Azevedo: he belonged to the B League, with a mediocre career including discreet stints at Folha de S.Paulo and, later, magazines that lived off public money or friends, like Bravo, owned by Abílio Diniz's son-in-law, Luís Felipe Dávila. Bravo, more than focusing on culture, specialized in the Rouanet Law, and carried an impressive number of advertisements from Pão de Açúcar—which had nothing to do with the magazine's target audience.
Later, Azevedo would switch from public funds and a friend to a magazine owned by Mendonça de Barros, which was denounced by Folha as having benefited from technically unjustifiable advertising from the Alckmin government. Even with so much gravy train, the magazine went bankrupt.
Like Mainardi, the attack came with a mixture of dishonesty and falsehood. Azevedo tried to get me fired by saying I was "promoting Record" by including Edir Macedo on the list.
At the time, I didn't have my own voice, and I was prevented from responding.