Elections are taking place in several countries, from the US to Brazil and Serbia. France’s is just round the corner. The Norwegian media are throwing themselves into it as if they were taking part in the election campaign. They no longer make any secret of who they want to win.
This leads to some comical outcomes. They are hailing Lula, who has been convicted of corruption, as the champion of democracy in Brazil.
All the experts featured in the Norwegian media are on the left. They are against Trump. The same applies to Brazil.
Author, social geographer and Brazil expert Torkjell Leira is currently in Rio de Janeiro. He believes the choice is between two very different candidates: Flavio Bolsonaro, who represents the far right and has absolutely no respect for the rules of democracy. And the incumbent president, Luiz Inácio da Lula, who is on the pragmatic centre-left of the political spectrum.
Challenger Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, secured 47 per cent of the vote, compared with incumbent President Lula’s 45 per cent in the first round of voting earlier this month.
“The election is quite simply about democracy,” states Leira.
The media consistently use the term ‘far right’ to describe anyone standing against the left. The world is becoming black and white.
Einar Braathen, a researcher at Oslo Met and an expert on Brazil, agrees with this conclusion.
– If Flavio Bolsonaro wins the election, he will become the most powerful president since the military dictatorship. He has the support of both the police and the military. He also has solid support in the Senate.
Braathen believes one of the first things Bolsonaro will do is appoint new Supreme Court justices – judges who will not be staunch defenders of the constitution.
– Five out of eleven Supreme Court justices are due to be replaced in the coming term. This could mean that the constitution is weakened. Until now, we have had Supreme Court justices who have truly defended democracy. Among other things, they imprisoned Jair Bolsonaro following his attempted coup after the last election,” points out Braathen.
He says that Jair Bolsonaro entered politics as an opponent of Brazil’s constitution, which he believed was far too democratic.
“His son Flavio takes the same line,” says Braathen.
The fact that Supreme Court Justice Moraeus, who has ruled Brazil like a dictator, is being overlooked is a sign that NRK no longer bothers to report on what is going on.
These are the same media outlets that accuse Document of making ‘unsubstantiated’ claims.
Of the three academics, all are pro-Lula and against Bolsonaro. NTB is engaging in brainwashing.
Kjetil Klette Bøhler, a professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, also emphasises the dramatic nature of this election.
– After the military dictatorship, Brazil was committed to the principle of the separation of powers, and particularly concerned with ensuring that the judiciary could curb abuses of power by politicians, so as to avoid another military dictatorship and prevent corrupt politicians,” points out Klette Bøhler.
– He also believes that the rule of law may now be at stake.
The media and academia seem to have fallen down a rabbit hole where everything revolves around the war against Trump.
Inbreeding within universities means that all self-criticism has disappeared. Klette-Bøhler believes the terms ‘liberal’ and ‘China-friendly’ go hand in hand.
– Whilst Lula stands for a Western liberal line and wants to shift policy towards China and the BRICS, Bolsonaro wants first and foremost to align himself with the US and the MAGA movement, adds Klette-Bøhler.
Massive mobilisationWith this choice of values at stake, Brazil is heading to the polls on Sunday. Leira says that mobilisation is massive.
– The democratic forces in the country have really mobilised in the final stretch. The left has had millions of people on the streets; we haven’t seen such a large mobilisation since the struggle against the dictatorship,” says Leira. (NTB)
On *Søndagsrevyen*, Peter Svaar reported that the Democrats were on course to win a Senate seat in Texas for the first time since the 1980s. The golden boy’s name is Talarico. What Svaar fails to mention is that he is a vegan in cattle-producing Texas and believes that God is non-binary, i.e. can have two genders. That makes it difficult to recite the Lord’s Prayer.
Svaar must point out that the Republican Paxton faces corruption charges. They said the same thing about Bolsonaro. Paxton is also suffering from the fact that Trump is so low in the opinion polls. Let’s bear these ‘facts’ in mind when the election results are in.
The Norwegian media have completely abandoned any attempt at objectivity and now come across as nothing more than propaganda outlets.
Journalists and academics seem to have lost their minds. Will they manage to make the public just as deranged?
