It is a montage on the cover of the American newspaper The Washington Post that describes Jair Bolsonaro (no party) as the best president who has ever led Brazil. The American vehicle itself denied the alleged headline in an email sent to Projeto Comprova, which verified the content, stating that there was never a publication like the one circulating on the internet.
The Facebook group where the fake news circulated was removed from the platform before the report could make contact to ask for clarification on the publication’s origin. Before being suspended, the post had already reached more than 27 thousand interactions.
For Comprova, content invented or edited to change its original meaning and deliberately disclosed to spread a lie is false, as is the case with the verified publication.
How do we check?
Initially, the report sent an email to the Washington Post to question the veracity of the alleged headline with praise for Bolsonaro.
Afterwards, an internet search was carried out to identify if there were articles in national vehicles recording such praise for the president.
Only content from verifying agencies was found, denying the montage that circulates in pocketbook groups.
Finally, the report sought out the Facebook group Bolsonaro 2022 BR, which released the fake cover of the newspaper. The content was removed from the social network and it was not possible to forward message.
Verification
headline is fake
The cover image of The Washington Post that circulates on the internet and in which Bolsonaro is praised is false. The text, in English, in addition to being written incorrectly, lies when saying that the vehicle considered the Brazilian as the “best president of all times”.
The information about the falsity of the material was confirmed by the Washington Post itself, after Comprova sent an email to the newspaper requesting more details about the alleged story. In response, international affairs editor Douglas Jehl declared that the headline never existed.
“The linked image is not authentic; the Post has never published such a headline about President Bolsonaro,” he said. Therefore, it is a montage that tries to simulate Bolsonaro’s good reputation abroad.
Other verification agencies have also confirmed that the viral image is false, such as Lupa, Estadão Vera and G1.
The publication went viral after moments of low reception of the Brazilian president by international leaders on diplomatic trips, such as the UN General Assembly and, more recently, the G20 Summit, which took place in early November, in Italy.
At the time, the national and international press reported that Bolsonaro was displaced by not receiving attention from other heads of state. During the same trip that caused the president of Brazil embarrassment due to the lack of credibility outside the country, journalists covering the event were attacked by security guards from Bolsonaro.
Assembly origin
The montage in which Bolsonaro appears was made by joining the image of the president with a fake cover, created by protesters against the then president of the United States, Donald Trump, in January 2019.
The contents of the prints are false and have been disproved by another American publication, the New Yorker magazine.
At the time, a print run of 25,000 copies of the fake newspaper was distributed in Washington, and the documents had the wrong date, with the future scenario, May 2019.
The Washington Post ran a story to disprove the fake cover that portrayed Trump as a non-president — “unpresident”. The newspaper claimed that it was aware that a website was trying to reproduce its typography and that it was investigating the case.
Authorship of the fake newspapers and websites was assumed by the activist group Yes Men. The announcement was made by Onnesha Roychoudhuri, a spokesperson for the organization.
Covid’s advance
One of the last articles published by the North American newspaper in which Bolsonaro is quoted highlights the final report of Covid’s CPI in the Senate, citing that the president is appointed as one of those responsible for the worsening of Covid-19 in Brazil.
According to a survey carried out by the vehicle, not only Bolsonaro, but also some state governors had a negative influence on the number of infected and killed by avoiding restrictive measures that would impede the spread of the disease in the country.
The Washington Post claims to have used data from the Covid-19 Observatory of the University of Miami, Ministry of Health, TSE (Superior Electoral Court) and IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) as a statistical basis.
The matter in question concluded the analysis of federal and state administrations based on the report sent by Covid’s CPI to the Attorney General’s Office, in which actions and omissions of the federal government to contain the coronavirus were analyzed.
Why do we investigate?
In its fourth phase, Comprova checks suspicious content that has gone viral about the pandemic, public policies of the federal government and elections. The content checked had at least 27 thousand interactions until November 23, when the post was still accessible.
By making a false cover montage of The Washington Post, the publication could generate erroneous conclusions about Bolsonaro’s reputation abroad and manipulate public opinion.
Comprova has published checks that disprove internet rumours, such as the one that clarified that the PF inquiry does not investigate fraud in the voting process and that old research was used to suggest that Bolsonaro is approved by half the population.
Comprova classifies as false content that has been invented or has been edited to change its original meaning and deliberately disclosed to spread a lie.
Comprova performed this verification based on information available on the 24th November 2021.
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