Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, without a mask in Brasilia on March 31, 2021. – Eraldo Peres / AP / SIPA
The president of Brazil has once again used insults in public to qualify people he does not like. Jair Bolsonaro went off his hinges during a press briefing on Monday, calling the Globo group, the country’s largest media conglomerate, “shit”.
” The farm ! You are bastards. You are doing rotten journalism, which is useless. You are destroying the Brazilian family, the Brazilian religion, ”he shouted, beside himself, to a TV Globo journalist who asked him a question about wearing the mask, after a military ceremony in Guaratingueta , in the State of Sao Paulo. The journalist reminded him in particular that he had been fined in several Brazilian states for having taken part in rallies without a protective mask.
“Shit press”
“I go where I want as I want, okay? If you don’t want to wear a mask don’t wear one, ”he continued, before suddenly removing his. “There you go, you can put this in your TV news: I don’t wear a mask in Guaratingueta!” Are you happy now? “Cried Jair Bolsonaro, who has not stopped attacking the media, especially the Globo group, since the start of his mandate in January 2019.” Globo is shitty press (…) Those who watch (this channel) are victims of disinformation. You should be ashamed of yourself, ”he continued. “It is not with cries or intolerance that the president will prevent or limit the work of the press,” reacted the Globo group.
The Brazilian president also criticized the CNN Brasil channel, which he said “praised” the anti-Bolsonaro protests which gathered thousands of people in all major Brazilian cities on Saturday. Above all, this is not the first time that he has intimidated journalists. “I want to shut your mouth with fists,” he replied in August 2020 to a reporter for the daily O Globo who questioned him about rumors of suspicious payments on the account of his wife Michelle. In January 2020, he also claimed that journalists were “an endangered species”.