By FRANCISCO FERNANDES LADEIRA*
With rare exceptions, the left, guided by Globo, has endorsed the campaign for a black woman on the STF
In other times, it was common to hear, at left-wing demonstrations, the cry “the people are not fools, down with the Globo”. In fact, the Marinho family broadcaster has always defended the interests of the economic elites; being contrary to any agenda that would even minimally benefit the working class.
In its early years, Vênus Platinada was a kind of “official channel” of the military dictatorship. In the 1980s, when the regime was dying, the news on Globo They hid as much as possible the movements known as “Diretas Já”, whose main objective was the resumption of direct elections for the position of President of the Republic. Still in that decade, global support was extremely important for the election of Fernando Collor. Years later, the broadcaster was largely in favor of the neoliberal scorched earth policy put into practice during the two governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
In the recent context of the coup d'état, once again Globo was present, as the main spokesperson for the “anti-PT” sentiment, which significantly contributed to bringing all types of obscurantism out of the closet. We just need to remember the wide coverage of the legal/media spectacle known as “Mensalão”, in the fundamental role of the broadcaster in transforming the days of June 2013 into a highly retrograde movement, in the calls from the middle class to acts for the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff and in collusion with the nefarious Operation Lava-Jato (naturalizing the lawfare in Brazil). As we (tragically) know, all of this resulted in the election of Jair Bolsonaro.
With this history, it is no coincidence that the Globo received the nickname “coupist” from the left. However, ironically, we have recently observed that sectors of the left have considered the broadcaster as “progressive”. And, what's worse, they have guided their actions based on the dictates of the Marinho family company. Therefore, it is essential to understand how the Globo managed to recycle his image, going from “coupist” to “progressive”.
In my opinion, two factors explain this issue: the supposed antagonism between Globo and Bolsonarism; and the defense of identity.
Let's go to the first point. As said, the Globo She is the main spokesperson for anti-PTism. In this logic, in the 2018 presidential election, with Bolsonaro emerging as the only name capable of defeating the PT, the Globo (and the mainstream media in general) had no doubt: they joined (even shamefully) the “myth’s” candidacy. At the time, it was believed that Jair Bolsonaro, once elected, would be “domesticated”. Furthermore, “guarantor” Paulo Guedes was the guarantee that the neoliberal agenda would be put into practice. Hence the slogan “liberal in economics, conservative in customs”.
With Jair Bolsonaro not showing himself to be “domesticable” (on the contrary, appearing even more crazy than when he was a deputy) and incompetent even to promote the promised scorched-earth neoliberal agenda, the Globo he sought to completely disassociate himself from the president's image and hide his support for the former captain in every possible way during the election campaign. Whoever helped create Jair Bolsonaro started to pretend they had nothing to do with it. The famous “ugly son who has no father”.
It is true that some government names were spared. To this end, the rhetorical resource of dividing Jair Bolsonaro's ministry into a “technical wing” was adopted – those to whom the speeches of the Globo should exalt, like the previously mentioned Paulo Guedes and Sérgio Moro – and “ideological wing” – represented by Damares Alves, Abraham Weintraub and Ernesto Araújo, whose flat-earth delusions were constantly criticized. That was enough for the Globo convey a supposed image of “independence”, “combative stance”, “democratic” and “opposition to fascism”.
If, in “economic liberalism”, Globe and “myth” were closed, there was disagreement regarding “conservatism in customs”. In this question is the second point that made the Marinho family broadcaster manage to recycle its image, going from “coupist” to “progressive”. This is the identity agenda.
Sold as a (supposed) movement to defend minorities, identitarianism (an ideology created and disseminated by US imperialism) is, in reality, a way of guaranteeing the presence of few black people, women and homosexuals in prominent spaces, at the expense of maintaining social security. the vast majority live in adverse living conditions. It is the alliance between the capital elite and the social movement elite. One of the facets of the so-called “meritocracy”.
For Globo, identitarianism fell flat, given that its focus is on abstract issues (neutral language, for example), typical of the middle and upper classes; and not on material needs (i.e. the aspirations of the working class). Thus, the same broadcaster that is against racial quotas in universities (after all, as Ali Kamel said, “we are not racist”) and that repudiates social policies (which mainly benefit minorities) was able to recycle itself and pose as a “progressive ” (either presenting a same-sex couple in the soap opera; or showing “empowered” women and black people).
It is no coincidence that identity discourse is behind the current offensive of Globo against the federal government: the campaign (coming directly from Washington) for Lula to appoint a black minister to the Federal Supreme Court (STF). There is no doubt that, if the president does not give in to this blackmail, he will be labeled “racist” and “misogynist”. Therefore, compared to Jair Bolsonaro.
Evidently, for black women in Brazil (mostly poor), concrete issues such as a decent salary, adequate housing and daycare for their children are much more important than having a person of their same sex and ethnicity on the STF (“representation” that is not will change their lives in no way). It also doesn't hurt to remember that the first black person in the Court, Joaquim Barbosa, was the protagonist of Mensalão (the embryo of the 2016 coup) and one of the women of the STF, Carmen Lúcia, admitted having convicted José Dirceu even without evidence.
Unfortunately, with rare exceptions, the left, guided by Globo, has endorsed the campaign for a black woman on the STF, which, ultimately, aims to block Lula (some act this way out of political naivety, others out of intellectual dishonesty).
As old Leonel Brizola said: “When you have doubts about what position to take in any situation, pay attention. If Rede Globo is in favor, we are against it. If you’re against it, we’re for it!” Today, shamefully, part of the left (or what calls itself “left”) is making the opposite move. Faced with this reality, in which the extreme right is often more anti-system than the left itself, more than ever it is necessary to shout: “the people are not fools, down with the Globo".
*Francisco Fernandes Ladeira is a doctoral candidate in geography at Unicamp. Author, among other books, of The ideology of international news (CRV). [ https://amzn.to/3ryNOwU ]
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