The farce!! Mother of slain dancer calls out program host after she was censored in show dedicated to her son

Note from BW of Brazil: There are times in life when you can just feel when something’s not right. This is how I was feeling after watching how a TV program aired a special program dedicated one of the show’s dancers who had been killed earlier in the week. Just from what I saw and what others noted from that particular episode at the end of April, I wrote the piece “Why you can’t expect your role models to represent when they are media stars: Police, murder and the case of the ‘Esquenta’ TV program” to explain how the show’s handling of the dancer’s murder was such a sham. Something stunk and I knew there was probably a lot more going on behind the scenes. 

Well now, the dancer’s mother who has been speaking out for justice in her son’s murder ever since spoke out on how she treated by the program’s host and the network itself in order to not approach the question of the Military Police killings of poor, black Brazilians. Brazilians have long known that the powerful GloboTV network supported the brutal 21-year Military Dictatorship that was one of the country’s darkest memories. Many Brazilians also point to Globo TV’s support of and/or silence of the UPP units of the police that many see as a military occupation in the favela slums of Rio. So, as the TV program also openly supported this militarization of the slums, how else could it approach the dancer’s death besides putting on a sham of a show?

Now the rest of the truth is coming out! Media manipulation at its finest! See the mother’s passionate speech in the video below…It is in Portuguese (most of which is featured in the text below) but you can just feel the passion and anger of her words! Also, with the recent decision that the police killer of black teen Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri (USA), will not be indicted, we should all see the global implications of these cases!! 

Mother of slain dancer calls show’s host a fake, liar and an idiot

According to slain dancer’s mother, Maria de Fátima Silva, the host promised to support her family at this difficult time, but never kept her word. “Regina is an idiot and made a sensationalist program to gain an audience with my crying on the air,” she said.

By João Paulo Dell Santo with collaboration of Piero Vergílio, Paulo Pacheco and Notas TV

Seven months after the murder of Douglas Rafael da Silva Pereira, the dancer known as “DG” of the Bonde da Madrugada, on the TV variety show Esquenta!, controversy returns – the boy was found dead with bullet wounds on the morning of April 22, in community of Pavão-Pavãozinho in Copacabana, in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro.

On April 27, Esquenta! broadcasted live to honor the dancer, with everyone dressed in white. In the program, host Regina Casé praised the attitude of Maria de Fátima Silva and, crying, showed unpublished images of Silva’s son making a statement to his mother for the Mother’s Day special, which had not yet aired, leading her to tears.

During a round table at the SerNegra – Semana de Reflexões sobre Negritude, Gênero e Raça (To Be a Black Woman – A Week of Reflections on Negritude, Gender and Race) event as part of the celebrations of the Day of Black Consciousness, held on Thursday, 20, in Brasília, DG’s mother, Maria de Fátima Silva, spoke strong words against Regina Casé when asked by a spectator about the treatment given by the press in terms of coverage about the death of her son.

According to Maria de Fátima, the Globo TV host and a producer of the program guided her to answer only what Casé asked, and that at no time should the police should be blamed for the episode. DG’s mother also criticized the treatment she received backstage, complaining of a tight dressing room, the food offered – what she said was like hay, dry grass given to animals – and of the beauty service.

“They cornered us in a 3×3 room, locked the door until the beginning of the program. Besides that, they asked if I wanted my nails and hair done. I had just buried my son, why would I want that?! We were starving and wanted to eat a snack, we paid from our own pocket. But we were expelled from there,” she reported. “I wanted an immediate solution to clarify the death of my son.”

Maria then called Regina a fake and a liar and accused Globo of not having followed up with her to this day. Fátima also said that she possessed a written agenda for the production of the show with some guidelines that should be followed during the recordings. Also according to her, the intention was to show photos to sensitize her and make her cry.

She continued: “Someone put in my purse the handwritten agenda of the program, in which it said: ‘You can’t say it was the police, show sensationalist photos for the mother to cry.’ At no time, you who watched the program turn to the Regina Casé to talk about violence, (or) against the police. And every time that I mentioned it, it was cut,” she recalled.

Also on the agenda, that featured the Esquenta! logo, said Maria affirms it was written, this time by Casé herself, the following: “It was never my desire to make a poor (sad) program, nor for the periphery. My will was to do a more upbeat show, but Boninho [the director] didn’t let me.”

DG’s mother promised to disclose the full content of the agenda on the internet. The agenda, however, has a contradiction that makes us question its authenticity. The handwriting, according to Maria de Fátima, says Regina Casé had followed orders of JB Oliveira, aka Boninho, not to do an “upbeat” program but a “poor/sad” program. Boninho doesn’t command Esquenta! The core program director is Guel Arraes.

In the end, in the most exalted moment of her comments, DG’s mother called Regina Casé a farce for the second time and an idiot, to what this audience reacted with the historic cry, “O povo não é bobo, abaixo a Rede Globo”  (The people are not silly, down with Globo). At this time, the former BBB (reality show) participant Jean Wyllys, today a federal deputy for the PSOL in Rio de Janeiro, that also participated in the round table with other people, applauded the choir.

Sought (for comment), Globo didn’t release any comment before the publication of this text, which will be updated when the station sends their position.

Note from BW of Brazil: Silva’s passionate comments have been circulating throughout the internet where many who are familiar Globo TV’s tactics are also disgusted as shown in the following comment. 

Shamelessness with no pity

by Luiz Carlos Ga

“The program Esquenta! of TV GLOBO and Regina Casé, brought this woman, Maria de Fátima, weakened by the murder of her son Douglas, in the UPP of Canta Galo and shamelessly tried to increase their audience, before a black audience (in a) callous and self-serving (manner), as always in this dirty program. This type of program, like Sexo e as negas, is basically an instrument of measurement and control of racism, with all the technological competence of this station, which has a black battalion always in order to feed the remains of the Casa Grande (Big House).”

Source: RD1, Notícias da TV, Yahoo TV