Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2011 as news commentary about Prates leaving Grupo RBS; the circumstances of his exit and the length of his time at the network are as described then.
People often talk about the death of good journalism, especially since a journalist who works for a national or international network has about as much freedom of movement as a puppet. A journalist should feel passion for what they say, and have the strength and courage to search for the truth, whoever it may hurt. In the case of the journalist and commentator featured here, that strength and drive got him dismissed from the network he had worked for over 23 years, part of Grupo RBS in Brazil.
In the video below, Luiz Carlos Prates makes a public complaint about politicians’ abuse of public money. He lives every word: he bangs the table and calls the political class “bastards”. He made this complaint in 2010. Although he was already seen as controversial and had a target on his back, he was a journalist much loved by the public, and it was not until a later comment that the network considered reaching an agreement for him to leave the group.
Prates said something that has been said hundreds of times in Spain. Of course, his message was twisted: he supposedly called people who owned good cars wretches, when what he really meant was that society had been deceived to the point of turning people into wretches, with a car in the garage they can’t afford. I’ll leave you with the video. My personal opinion is that the world needs journalists like this everywhere, because a message can be said louder, but not more clearly.
Watch: Luiz Carlos Prates’s commentary on politicians and public money
Featured image: Rei Momo, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
