Fox Seeks Allies Across the Political Spectrum to Shill for Bolsonaro

[Judi Lynn]

JULY 25, 2022

BRIAN MIER



“Particularly since the 1930s, the connection of PSYOP with ideology and mass communication has made it a constant strategic element of international politics.”

— An Overview of Psychological Operations (PSYOP), Federal Research Division, Library of Congress (1989)

It is no secret that, since the 2016 legislative coup against President Dilma Rousseff and 2018 arbitrary imprisonment of front-running presidential candidate Lula da Silva, multinational corporations have made billions of dollars from environmental deregulation, dismantlement of labor rights and privatization of Brazil’s natural resources. It’s also now known that corporate media outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post normalized the breakdown of Brazil’s rule of law and rise of fascism by ignoring crimes committed by high-profile Judge Sergio Moro that were widely publicized in Brazilian media.

Some people in the US even know how Anglo media outlets like the Washington Post and Guardian misrepresented Lula’s conviction for receiving a nonexistent apartment upgrade by unethically associating it with an alleged multi-million dollar graft scheme in state oil company, Petrobras. Analysis of US media coverage over the last seven years shows systematic bias against Lula, president of Brazil from 2003-10, and his Brazilian Workers Party, even in many left-leaning outlets (Brasilwire, 12/12/18).

However, this year’s Brazilian presidential election appears to have the media in a quandary. Opposing frontrunner Lula, whom they smeared for years (FAIR.org, 12/14/19), looks like public support for neofascist incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, as no other candidate has hit double digits in the polls. On the other hand, supporting Lula implies support for his proposed policies, such as reversing the post-coup labor, pension and environmental reforms that made billions of dollars for their corporate advertisers.

Despite his commitment to austerity policies, however, Bolsonaro is clearly not the right kind of neoliberal for news organizations like CNN or the New York Times. As the old saying goes in Brazil, the bourgeois prefer to support the kind of fascist who eats with a knife and a fork. With the elections looming less than three months away, and Bolsonaro trailing by nearly 20 points in polls, it seems late in the game to revamp his image to make any kind of clinging to power more palatable to an Anglo public.

More:
https://fair.org/slider/fox-seeks-allies-across-the-political-spectrum-to-shill-for-bolsonaro/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Information that has otherwise hard to come by, in this article:

Justifying his visit by filming a documentary on Chinese “colonization” of Latin America, Carlson projected the US political situation onto Brazil’s vastly different political landscape (e.g., it currently has 23 political parties represented in Congress) while making a laughable claim (Fox News, 6/1/22) that Lula, a former steelworkers union leader who is currently polling by more than 2-to-1 against Bolsonaro with the working class, is supported by “a coalition of billionaires, college professors and CNN.”

In fact, CNN Brasil franchise owner Rubens Menin supported Bolsonaro’s campaign for the presidency, and poached the most right-wing, reactionary commentators from Globo TV to work for the network–including Alexandre Garcia, the former press secretary to military dictator João Figueiredo, who has been attacking Lula for 40 years.

Fox frontman Carlson is occasionally praised by US foreign policy critics—including Rio de Janeiro–based pundit Glenn Greenwald—for giving voice to a wider range of opinions than most corporate news program hosts. Opening space for controlled opposition, however, is a tried-and-true tactic of US intelligence, widely employed during the Cold War by the CIA (see Cultural Cold War, by Frances Stoner Saunders) and its partner organizations like Voice of America, which was directed by Carlson’s father Dick Carlson from 1986-91.

Carlson’s wider-than-average variety of guest commentators shows that he and his producers are hardly the “wingnuts” that DNC-aligned media try to portray them as (New Republic, 7/1/22). There is clearly method behind the madness, and it is easy to identify psyop propaganda tactics at work in Carlson’s Brazil coverage.

I had no idea Tucker Carlson's dad ran the "Voice of America." Holy Moly!

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Thanks for the article, I don't really keep up on the events in Brazil too much, but is it a typo

that the word we're looking for is 'shrill' vs. 'shill'?

Again, thanks for the article, it's giving me a lot of details about the situation down there. One of my ex's was born in Brazil. Love the people.

[Judi Lynn]

3. No doubt it's a typo! Extreme, offensive, entirely negative. No redeeming value.

Have enjoyed hearing Brazilians' Portuguese-accented English, so interesting, always looking forward to hearing it again. Have never met a Brazilian citizen, yet. It's sad to think so many Americans often don't really meet anyone from elsewhere outside the foreign exchange students they meet along the way during their time in school!

That's why the right-wing has such an easy time with xenophobic propaganda. Sad, isn't it?

It's really depressing seeing the US fascists link up with fascists in the Americas, and Europe, etc. Fascists always bring out and compound the worst in each other.

The US has always been concerned in keeping Brazilian leftists away from powerful positions in government, and completely supported the Brazilian unhinged, violent dictatorship while it lasted. So depressing.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. I too, loved the accents, and one thing that many Americans don't know, is that so much of

South America is intermixed so much w/ European backgrounds, for example, my Ex (deceased unfortunately) grandparents were from Germany (one set) and Italy (other set), Mom was from Peru (and her family, a total of 9 kids).

It was always a joy to get with them and they would sit by me and try their English on me, to see how their English was.

I made several trips to San Palo (Ex's birthplace), and mostly Lima, Peru. The area and people are so rich in history, so rich in history, but the economic divisions in the population were so stark, so vast. In Lima, we stayed in an area (a Uncle lived there) that resembled an upper-class neighborhood (you would think you were in the USA), and they gave up their master bedroom for the visitors (us) to stay in. Such grace.

Their cook and maid, however, made such little amounts I was shocked when I asked.