{"id":126754,"date":"2019-01-28T12:01:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T12:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=126754"},"modified":"2019-01-27T11:29:28","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T11:29:28","slug":"meet-the-team-behind-cnn-brasil-a-businessman-accused-of-exploiting-slave-labor-and-an-executive-from-a-fox-news-style-outlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/01\/meet-the-team-behind-cnn-brasil-a-businessman-accused-of-exploiting-slave-labor-and-an-executive-from-a-fox-news-style-outlet\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Team behind CNN Brasil: A Businessman Accused of Exploiting Slave Labor and an Executive from a Fox News-style Outlet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leia em portugu\u00eas <\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From left, Brazilian Member of Congress Eduardo Bolsonaro, Douglas Tavolaro, President Jair Bolsonaro, and Rubens Menin sat down for a meeting at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, on Jan. 18, 2019 to discuss the country\u2019s newest cable news network, CNN Brasil.
Photo: Office of the President, Brazil<\/p><\/div>\n

20 Jan 2019 – <\/em>Last Monday [14 Jan], CNN announced that it will launch a Portuguese-language channel in Brazil. The U.S.-based cable news channel will\u00a0roll out\u00a0the latest foreign operation to bear the CNN brand through a license. However, the\u00a0scandal-prone records of the two Brazilian partners\u00a0behind the venture are already raising questions over the forthcoming channel\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n

Principal funding for the venture will come from the new channel\u2019s chair of the board, Rubens Menin, a construction magnate who is a vocal cheerleader for far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and whose company has been caught multiple times using modern slave labor<\/a>. CNN Brasil also announced that it will bring on Douglas Tavolaro as its CEO. Tavolaro previously served as vice president for news of Rede Record, a channel that in 2018 earned the nickname \u201cFox News Brasil\u201d for its fawning coverage of Bolsonaro\u2019s presidential campaign and the preferential access it secured as a result. When orders from on high at Record demanded that journalists cease criticism of Bolsonaro and increase negative coverage of his competitor, a minor staff revolt ensued<\/a> and multiple journalists resigned in protest.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the two figures behind CNN Brasil \u2014 Menin and Tavolaro \u2014\u00a0met with Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo<\/a> at the presidential palace. Earlier this week, Eduardo tweeted his skepticism of the new outlet.<\/p>\n

CNN Brasil said it plans to hire 400 journalists and begin operations during the second half of 2019. A press release noted that the 24-hour news channel will have total editorial independence, as well as the rights to rebroadcast CNN\u2019s non-Portuguese language content. CNN Brasil appears to be swimming against the tide in an industry in which wave after wave of layoffs in major TV and print news organizations have thinned out Brazil\u2019s newsrooms in recent years.<\/p>\n

Over the last 20 years, CNN has made several attempts<\/a> to create a Brazilian channel, but previous negotiations have never gotten off the ground. A representative from CNN declined to respond to The Intercept\u2019s questions and instead issued the following statement: \u201cCNN does a comprehensive audit of all its licensing partners. This is the case of the licensees who will operate CNN Brasil, who have our full support. As with all licensing agreements, CNN Brasil will program the channel independently, but in line with CNN standards and practices.\u201d But, according to the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas-Austin,\u00a0\u00a0CNN-licensed media companies abroad are not always viewed as hewing to the guidelines<\/a> that govern the U.S.-based CNN operation\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s corporate media landscape<\/a> is extremely consolidated and uniformly pro-business. In 2016, nearly every major publisher supported<\/a> the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and her replacement by Michel Temer, who immediately undertook a campaign of austerity and neoliberal reforms.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro, for his part, regularly puts the media in his crosshairs, at times sounding like a carbon copy of U.S. President Donald Trump. In recent months, multiple outlets like Record and the television network SBT have scampered to curry his administration\u2019s favor<\/a>, often serving as an unofficial mouthpiece in exchange for exclusive interviews and the prospect of an increased cut of the hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a> in annual government ad spending. SBT even gave Bolsonaro his own show<\/a>. Other publishers, worried that they might lose this crucial revenue, have quietly ordered journalists to tone down their coverage and refrain from calling Bolsonaro \u201cfar-right\u201d or \u201cextremist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is silhouetted during the appointment ceremony of the new heads of public banks, at Planalto Palace in Brasilia on January 7, 2019.
Photo: Evaristo Sa\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

In English, CNN news articles have regularly used the term<\/a> \u201cfar-right\u201d to describe Bolsonaro and have regularly referred to him<\/a> with some variation of \u201cJair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian politician known for misogynistic, racist and homophobic remarks<\/a>.\u201d Ahead of Bolsonaro\u2019s presidential runoff victory, a CNN columnist wrote<\/a>, \u201cWhile Bolsonaro is currently competing in a democratic election, we want to flag his previous statements calling for a return to Brazil\u2019s dictatorship in light of what he\u2019s called \u2018irresponsible democracy\u2019\u201d \u2014 exactly the type of critical coverage that is unlikely to appear at kowtowing and deferential Brazilian outlets, like Record under Tavolaro.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> with the newspaper Correio Braziliense early last month, Menin, CNN Brasil\u2019s principal funder, sang Bolsonaro\u2019s praises and said business leaders are \u201ceuphoric about Brazil\u2019s future.\u201d He said the three most positive aspects of the Bolsonaro government are the makeup of his economic team, the deep involvement of military officers in the administration, and the hands-on role of Bolsonaro\u2019s sons. \u201cThis isn\u2019t nepotism,\u201d Menin said. \u201cWhat father doesn\u2019t want his sons close by?\u201d He referred to the Bolsonaro children as \u201c100 percent ethical.\u201d\u00a0A day later, the Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo newspaper revealed a possible corruption scheme<\/a> centered around an aide to Bolsonaro\u2019s son Flavio, which included a large payment to the first lady.<\/p>\n

Slave Labor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since 2011, CNN has run an ongoing series called the \u201cFreedom Project\u201d dedicated to \u201cshining a light on modern-day slavery.\u201d The brief mission statement for the initiative says: \u201cAmplifying the voices of survivors. Holding governments and businesses accountable. Slavery is not a thing of the past.\u201d In 2019, slavery endures \u2014\u00a0and\u00a0CNN is issuing a license to a businessman associated with the modern-day version of the practice.<\/p>\n

Menin, who will fund CNN Brasil, has been repeatedly accused of profiting off workers in situations analogous to slave labor. he\u00a0is the founder of the largest homebuilder in Brazil, MRV Engenharia. The company was placed<\/a> on a government slave labor \u201cdirty list\u201d for violations at three different work sites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 2014 report from the nonprofit\u00a0Rep\u00f3rter Brasil<\/a> said that, in five incidents up until that time, more than 200 workers have been\u00a0rescued\u00a0\u00a0by authorities from work in slave-like conditions at MRV worksites.\u00a0MRV was accused of degrading work conditions \u2014 such as toilets overflowing with fecal matter, and a dining area that reeked of urine \u2014 as well as debt bondage and human trafficking. (In a statement to\u00a0Rep\u00f3rter Brasil at the time, MRV denied<\/a> charges that it held workers in slave-like conditions.)<\/p>\n

More than just a reputational stain, the list prevents companies caught using slave labor from getting government loans. When MRV was placed on the list, Menin vehemently defended his company and began to work doggedly to derail Brazil\u2019s fight against slave labor<\/a>. The Brazilian real estate developers\u2019 trade association, led by Menin, filed a constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court to suspend the slave labor \u201cdirty list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menin\u2019s clout was on full display during the challenge: His request was handled by the president of the Supreme Court, Ricardo Lewandowski, during the Christmas recess. In a notoriously sluggish justice system, in which important cases can drag on for decades, Menin received a favorable ruling in a mere four days, and the list, considered a model program internationally, was immediately dismantled. Eventually, the \u201cdirty list\u201d was revived, but with less expansive criteria, fewer names, and reduced penalties \u2014 and MRV was no longer included.<\/p>\n

Menin\u2019s fortune was built quickly \u2014 almost miraculously. In four years, his company jumped from 12th to first place in the ranking of Brazilian homebuilding firms, where it remains. In 2014, Forbes estimated Menin\u2019s net worth to be $1.2 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although Menin defends free-market economic values in his columns and interviews, he amassed his millions thanks to government spending. MRV is the main builder for Brazil\u2019s affordable housing program, \u201cMinha Casa, Minha Vida<\/a>\u201d (\u201cMy House, My Life\u201d), the largest of its kind in national history. Under the program, created in 2009, the federal government has subsidized or financed<\/a> the construction of hundreds of thousands of low-income housing units built by private contractors<\/a> at great profits.<\/p>\n

Known for being reserved and media shy, Menin has been called<\/a> a \u201chidden billionaire\u201d in the local and international press. Behind the scenes, however, he was extremely close with the last three Brazilian presidents. Now he\u2019s making moves to cozy up to Bolsonaro. With an eye on his business interests, Menin didn\u2019t declare his support for any candidate during the presidential election. But, after Bolsonaro\u2019s victory, he quickly began heaping effusive praise<\/a> on Bolsonaro and defending him<\/a> from critics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From left, Douglas Tavolaro, Jos\u00e9 Serra, and Zacarias Pagnanelli at the studios of TV Record in July 29, 2010.
Photo: Cacalos Garrastazu\/ObritoNews<\/p><\/div>\n

Brazil\u2019s Fox News<\/strong><\/p>\n

Menin announced the new television station alongside his partner and future CNN Brasil CEO Douglas Tavolaro. For almost 10 years, Tavolaro served as vice president of journalism for Record TV, a network that has become an unofficial mouthpiece for Bolsonaro and his right-wing agenda. The Record Group is owned by Edir Macedo, the scandal-plagued billionaire founder of the conservative evangelical Universal Church. Macedo is Tavolaro\u2019s uncle.<\/p>\n

Tavolaro was a key player in establishing Bolsonaro\u2019s new cozy relationship with the station, which came to be dubbed the \u201cBrazilian Fox News.\u201d And he was responsible for establishing the dialogue and subsequent alliance between Bolsonaro and Macedo.<\/p>\n

After a handful of disastrous TV appearances during the campaign, Bolsonaro decided to tightly control media access and pull out of all future presidential debates. Record obliged and, controversially, broadcast a fawning interview<\/a> with him in the same time slot as a debate on rival network TV Globo, sucking away the debate\u2019s audience and giving Bolsonaro valuable, uncontested airtime. When Bolsonaro backed out of a debate Record was to host, the channel canceled<\/a> the broadcast altogether.<\/p>\n

Last year, The Intercept Brasil published a lengthy statement<\/a> from a journalist working for Record who complained about new editorial guidelines that censored reporting to benefit the Bolsonaro campaign. Under Tavolaro\u2019s leadership, various Record properties responded by launching a series of attacks against The Intercept Brasil and its journalists. Record\u2019s online site R7, published a rushed hit piece<\/a> on The Intercept Brasil and an investigative reporter for Record TV began researching a more in-depth piece that never aired.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Tavolaro had reportedly stepped away from some of the day-to-day journalism duties to co-author the biography of and two screenplays about his uncle. He now appears to be stepping away from Macedo to launch the Brazilian CNN, a brand licensed from the Turner Broadcasting System, a division of AT&T, for an unknown sum.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time someone linked to the Record media empire has sought to bring the CNN brand to Brazil. Record itself reportedly approached<\/a> CNN in 2007 and again more recently. But the Atlanta-based broadcaster rejected\u00a0its offers, not wanting to be associated with Macedo\u2019s powerful evangelical mega-church. (A spokesperson for CNN Brasil told The Intercept that Macedo has no connection to the new network.)<\/p>\n

Tavolaro\u2019s political dealings did not begin with Bolsonaro. Last year, police wiretaps revealed<\/a>\u00a0Tavolaro talking with two intermediaries \u2014 a government minister and a senator who were under investigation for corruption \u2014 to offer a presumably softball interview on Record with then-President Michel Temer. In exchange, Tavolaro wanted Temer\u2019s minister to lean on the state bank Caixa Econ\u00f4mica Federal to approve a sponsorship request that they\u2019d submitted. But the bank denied the request and the interview never happened.<\/p>\n

Last March, The Intercept Brasil revealed<\/a> that Tavolaro\u2019s wife, Raissa Caroline Lima \u2014 who was a well-paid staffer in the S\u00e3o Paulo State Assembly \u2014 was regularly traveling the world with her husband during key votes. The Intercept Brasil was unable to locate her at her office. Remote work for staffers is strictly forbidden in the Assembly, a measure to crack down against phantom employees fraudulently collecting paychecks. A few months later, Lima was quietly let go from her position.<\/p>\n

For years, the Brazilian right has been clamoring for its own version of Fox News, and while Record and another channel, SBT, have taken steps in that direction, it\u2019s a dream that has never been fully realized. The key to unlocking that dream might lie in the combination of Rubens Menin and Douglas Tavolaro under the banner of CNN Brasil.<\/p>\n

Not everyone, however, is convinced. Far-right activists closely aligned with Bolsonaro have already taken to Twitter to criticize the new network. \u201cCNN Brasil will hire 400 journalists to defame the change that Brazil is going through,\u201d one popular right-wing blogger tweeted. \u201cIt\u2019s [George] Soros that will call the shots there\u201d \u2014 referring to the liberal philanthropist, a frequent boogeyman of the global far-right conspiracy theories whose fund owns a minor stake in CNN\u2019s parent company. Luciano Hang, a businessman who has so fervently lobbied in support of Bolsonaro that prosecutors want him to pay a $27 million fine<\/a> for coercing votes from his employees, also tweeted critically about the deal: \u201cAnother communist TV channel in Brazil. Can someone create a Fox?\u201d<\/p>\n

So will CNN Brasil be a Soros-backed communist conspiracy chomping at the bit to tear down the Bolsonaro movement? As Menin responded<\/a> to Hang, \u201cLuciano, don\u2019t fall for that story.\u201d<\/p>\n

__________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Piero Locatelli<\/a><\/em> – <\/em>pierobl@\u200bgmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Andrew Fishman<\/a> – <\/em>fishman@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 Jan 2019 – CNN Brasil is poised to become \u201cBrazil\u2019s Fox News\u201d \u2014 in lockstep with Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s right-wing movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":126755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}