Candidate Ciro Gomes (PDT) said that “corrupt Lulopetismo” killed Brazilian journalism. The intemperance of the politician, who blames even his own shadow for the failure of the fourth presidential campaign, causes consternation. He knows that, without investigative journalism, the crimes taking place in Brazil would not have been made public.
Lula, on the other hand, has decades of friction with the press, including justified ones. The authoritarian Lula wanted to expel a New York Times correspondent who, in 2004, reported on the then president’s drinking preferences. Common sense prevailed in the surroundings of the Planalto and the cancellation of Larry Rohter’s visa was revoked.
The democratic Lula, who did not seek revenge on critics violating the law, must have had time to reflect on this irony: respect for freedom of expression allowed part of the free press to transform itself into stenographers for the lamentable faction of the Judiciary in Curitiba. Sergio Moro considered part of the political media elite to be his auxiliary line.
I don’t believe an aging former president fights an aggressive cancer, spends 580 days in a cell, and suffers family losses without emerging transformed.
I hope that the candidate I want to help elect has a different relationship with the media than he had in 2010. For everything he has said, for the meetings he has arranged, Lula knows that, this time, Brazil is not electing the same PT , but, above all, defeating theocratic fascism.
In Dilma Rousseff’s second term, the PT exerted greater pressure to occupy the Planalto’s communication space. He wanted to continue to patronize loyal sites whose “journalism”, in addition to reaching a laughable audience, was nothing more than public relations. There is a lot a president Lula can do if he recognizes that an independent, critical and diverse press is crucial for weakened democracy.
No allowances for servile bloggers. The disappearance of local reporting is a great ally of political violence, environmental destruction and organized crime. A Lula government can make a difference.
Last November, Joe Biden tried to include in a bold package of economic measures, a tax incentive program for local newsrooms to employ reporters. Biden has a list of accomplishments, in 19 months in office, that his predecessors in the White House would envy. But the coverage of his management, in the same period, was much more negative.
He is the first non-authoritarian American president to govern in this ecosystem, where much of the public only consumes facts that confirm their identity or belief in conspiracies.
I hope Lula understands that, as of January 2023, he will face wild critical artillery and different from that of media companies whose newsrooms use criteria of mainstream journalism.
He watched the spectacle of commentators coining cretinism as bolsopetismo, suggesting equivalence between him and Bolsonaro. Some of the best known belong to the crop produced during his two terms.
A transparent press office that does not reward access journalism; a spokesperson with cold blood and intellect not to take the bait of provocations such as those made daily by the Fox propagandist on duty at the White House; and the efficiency to distinguish organic journalism from disinformation campaigns, with interference from other countries, as is common today, are important for Lula to govern.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
