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Jair Bolsonaro (cc photo: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil)
This week on CounterSpin: Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro has said he supports dictatorship and torture, that religious and ethnic “minorities must fit in or simply disappear,” that his political opponents should “leave or go to jail,” that the only problem with Brazil’s military dictatorship is it didn’t kill enough people, police should have “carte blanche” to kill who they like, and that he’d rather his own son be dead than gay. The analysis offered by a Washington Post headline, then, that “Bolsonaro’s Victory May Mean Further Shifts in Tolerance and Moderation” might seem like a bad joke, were it not that such pieces are all some US media consumers may encounter.
Migrants at the southern border seeking asylum from violence fomented by US policy underscore that we really are one world, interrelated. So how are US readers to understand what’s happening in Brazil and its American flag–saluting, rape joke–making, Hitler-admiring president?
We talk this week with Brian Mier; he is an editor at Brasil Wire, as well as a freelance writer and producer. He also edited the book Voices of the Brazilian Left, a collection of interviews. He joins us from Brazil, where he’s lived for more than two decades.
Transcript: ‘Americans Should Know Their Government Had a Hand in the Return to Fascism’
Very insightfull
Incredibly depressing. Strangely enough, the NY Times Brazil / S.America bureau chief is from my little town, so I’m going to try to get him to hear this and maybe respond. Or at least hear another view.
This program about Brazil is far from fair. It makes me wonder if there is any fairness in counterspin. We could accept this type of a analysis at any program, but one that claims to speak truth. I’m more disgusted with this show, than I’m disgusted with some of Bolsonaro’s Homofobic or racist remarks. I really wanted to scream to the Universe that this is wrong! Sincerely. Tania
can you be more specific about what’s wrong and unfair?
Who does check counterspin for all this misinformation about The Labor Party, or Car Wash or Bolsonaro in Brazil? It is terrible! Brian Mier, who I don’t know, does a disservice to all listeners. Try interviewing Fernando Gabeira, for example, to get a balanced and more fair perspective on this.
Jim Terr, do you feel this was fair analysis? I didn’t think so, but curious to hear from others? Just clarifying I’m not a Bolsonaro supporter and had been a PT supporter for many years. Respectfully, Tania
can you be more specific about what’s wrong and unfair? Without that, your complaint is not informative at all.
superb program and soo glad FAIR had Brian Mier on and he got the chance to call out the controlled opposition left leaning media for their constant slander of overseas socialist or left-leaning governments and carrying the water for imperialism when meanwhile they are constantly carrying the water for the rival neoliberal party which is the Democrats and being Obama/Clinton apologists. I think it would be incredibly helpful if FAIR and other media criticism organizations and media critics went beyond the Chomsky-Herman school of thought of just going after the corporate media and started criticizing left leaning media be it NGO or government funded like Democracy Now, Ebay sponsored The Intercept, Pacifica, Mother Jones, the Nation, Jacobin, Qatar’s Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Middle East Monitor, and others for their role in imperialism and the propaganda that comes with it. Great program FAIR/Counterspin keep up the good work! and media critics,historians and journalists that do go beyond the Chomsky-Herman model of media criticism are Yves Engler of Canada, Mark Curtis, Max Blumenthal, the late Alexander Cockburn, Michael Parenti, Ben Norton, Rania Khalek, Global Research dot ca, Whitney Webb, Mint Press News, Abby Martin, Black Agenda Report and the Consortium News team.