A Folha de S.Paulo and the portal UOLthey also promote events with public authorities — always sponsoring tickets and accommodation — but without saying where the money came from.
For almost twenty years, Grupo Globo has been promoting a commendable event: the Innovare Award. Evidently, the ministers who participate in the awards ceremony have tickets and accommodation paid for by the organization. Like in London. Just like New York.
Mediocre and hypocrites
Communication vehicles do this. They promote sponsored events, bring businesspeople and authorities together and there is nothing wrong. Unlike journalism, the Brazilian Judiciary is professionalized and has supervisory bodies.
Last week, in London, the Legal Adviser participated in the organization of a Forum in London. Just as we have already done in Lisbon, Rome, Berlin and Stresa (Italy) and we still want to promote in many countries. Even in Russia and China. Reason for pride.
Mediocre and hypocritical journalists decided to cast suspicion on this event, which was promoted by some of the companies that pay their salaries. False moralists, demagogues and populists. To two journalists who had the nerve to ask me accusatory questions about the Forum’s honesty, I told them that I didn’t owe them any satisfaction, but that I would be willing to talk about sponsors if they revealed who sponsors the seminars (like those in London) in their companies.
Of course, there may be well-founded suspicion when there is evidence, evidence or elements that demonstrate that things are wrong. In this case, counterparts. In the 90s, the businessman Mario Garneiro created an Institute of Legal Studies to promote major events. By a non-coincidence, all the judges, judges and ministers invited were exactly the judges scheduled to judge their problems.
The same prudence is not seen today. According to the crooked criteria of amateur journalists, when academic events are not promoted by their companies, they inevitably suffer from a presumption of dishonesty. If a judge participates in a seminar it is because he is “bought in”.
Wheat and chaff
It doesn’t matter if at the event the president of Portugal identifies the French government as the major obstacle for Brazil to export its agricultural products. Not even if, at the conference, it is stated that big techs should be dismembered because there is a conflict of interest in their genetics.
Whether the event builds a very intelligent model of presidentialism with parliamentary tools or, as now, Tony Blair launches the formula of putting Arab countries at the peace negotiation table with Israel. No. What matters is whether the guests stayed in expensive hotels or whether the ministers smoked cigars at dinner. It’s the Festival of Bullshit that Ravages the Country…
Assuming that sponsorships automatically imply illegitimate favoritism leaves newspapers, websites, broadcasters and magazines in a delicate situation. If the assumption is valid for an event company — or for other media outlets — then it is valid for everyone. These newspapers are admitting the presumption that the sponsorship they receive is responded to with spurious favors. It is a matter for the CPI, investigation by the Public Ministry or, who knows, for the Xandão investigation.
Test of nine
With the advent of the internet, it is easy to check whether advertisers and sponsors are spared in the news. This could be the subject of a seminar, like the one the Estadão promoted with the sponsorship of Odebrecht. Or companies that started sponsoring Globo boxes or merchandising in soap operas. The London event had at least one sponsor from Globo group. It can be said that one person’s money was clean and the other dirty, as the social columnist supposed Malu Gaspar?
These fantasies and delusions do not end in themselves. There is a context. It was these tricks that gave birth to the “lava jet” scheme and that only served to deceive unsuspecting people and elect Jair Bolsonaro. The move consisted of demoralizing and stonewalling the STF ministers who had the power to stop the corrupt legal practices of the criminal organization that germinated in Curitiba.
Instead of apologizing for what they did to Brazil, the scoundrels who supported this unfortunate page in our history want revenge. And revenge consists of perverting and discrediting the ministers of the Supreme Court and the STJ. As? Simple: Admitting that ministers are dishonest because they participate in academic events. Clear. There should be an article in the Penal Code: it is a crime to participate in seminars. Except if the seminars are promoted by Folha, Estadão, Globo, UOL and Valor.
Let’s face it. Seo Frias was right. With so many things wrong in this country, such as the chronic dramas of basic sanitation, a State deficient in its basic roles, uncontrolled crime, among other disgraces, unqualified journalists — who have never read a case or attended a trial — think that academic events are acts of corruption.
