Brazil: calls for TV tycoon to be pulled off air after offensive remarks to singer

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Brazil: calls for TV tycoon to be pulled off air after offensive remarks to singer

Viewers demand Silvio Santos be removed after telling Claudia Leitte he couldn’t hug her because it would make him ‘excited’

Dom Phillips Rio de Janeiro
Thu 15 Nov 2018 23.12 GMT

He is one of South America’s most powerful TV tycoons, an 87-year-old media mogul who has for decades been a fixture on Brazilian screens.

But many viewers are now demanding that Silvio Santos, the celebrity owner of Brazil’s SBT network, be pulled off the air after he made the latest in a series of improper and offensive remarks to a guest.

During an telethon benefiting disabled children last weekend, Santos told Claudia Leitte, one of Brazil’s most famous singers, that he couldn’t hug her because it would make him “excited”.

“The way you are dressed it makes me want to get up out of my seat, have a few beers and then … seek comfort,” he smirked, prompting uneasy laughter from the studio audience and a grimace from the singer.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/silvio-santos-sbt-owner-claudia-leitte

[Judi Lynn]

1. The end of the article reveals Santos has a clear political profile Bolsonaro appreciates:

~ snip ~

Santos started out as a street vendor, launched the Silvio Santos Programme in 1963, selling products via competitions, and set up his SBT network during Brazil’s military regime.

Days before the telethon, SBT screened patriotic interludes of postcard Brazil images, one of which bore the slogan “Brazil, love it or leave it” – a phrase used during the dark days of the military dictatorship Bolsonaro has praised. The interludes were removed after complaints.

“I thought this was shocking,” said Maurício Stycer, a TV critic who has written a Santos biography. “He needs to get up to date.”

No way possible to not see where Bolsonaro has been trying to go all this time. There is no question about his character, or rather, total lack of character. He is totally evil, along with his supporters. At some time, when they are powerful enough, they won't have to keep pretending to be otherwise.