Editing Landless Workers' Movement (section)

==Media coverage==
The role of the MST as a grassroots organization running [[charter schools]] activity has attracted considerable attention from the Brazilian press, much of it accusatory. ''[[Veja (magazine)|Veja]]'', Brazil's largest magazine, known for unrestrained hostility <ref>A  ''Forbes'' magazine obituary of the recently deceased ''Veja'' boss, media mogul Roberto Civita, described the magazine's content as "filled with bomb-throwers and in clear opposition to the Workers' Party government": ''Forbes'' May 27, 2013, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2013/05/27/billionaire-roberto-civita-brazilian-media-baron-dies-at-76] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908180931/https://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2013/05/27/billionaire-roberto-civita-brazilian-media-baron-dies-at-76|date=2017-09-08}}. Retrieved July 18, 2013</ref> to social movements in general<ref>João Freire Filho,& Paulo Vaz, eds. ''Construções do Tempo e do Outro''. Rio de Janeiro: MAUAD, 2006, {{ISBN|85-7478-205-X}}, page 80; on the derogatory stance taken by ''Veja'' on Brazilian mass movements and on the common people in general, see Daniel do Nascimento e Silva, "Identities forged in pain and violence: Nordeste's writing" - Paper Prepared for delivery at the 2010 Congress of the Latin American Studies, Toronto,  October 6–9, 2010, available at [http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/members/congress-papers/lasa2010/files/2574.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718221200/http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/members/congress-papers/lasa2010/files/2574.pdf|date=2011-07-18}}; on the magazine's harsh treatment of all MST issues, see Miguel Carter, "The landless rural workers' movement (MST)
and democracy in Brazil", University of Oxford/Center of Brazilian Studies, Working Paper CBS-60-05, available at {{cite web |title=Archived copy |url=http://www.brazil.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/9361/Miguel20Carter2060.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719081923/http://www.brazil.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/9361/Miguel20Carter2060.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-19 |access-date=2011-01-27}}, especially footnote 47)</ref> <ref name="Carter-2010">{{Cite journal |last=Carter |first=Miguel |date=2010 |title=The Landless Rural Workers Movement and Democracy in Brazil |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27919219 |journal=Latin American Research Review |volume=45 |pages=186–217 |issn=0023-8791}}</ref> published a profile<ref>September 8, 2004, titled "The MST's [[Madrassa]]s". Author Monica Weinberg</ref> of two MST schools in Rio Grande do Sul and said the MST was "indoctrinating" children between 7 and 14.<ref>based on an MST publication "Education Notebook, no. 8" saying that one of the goals for children who attend the classes is to "develop class and revolutionary conscience".</ref> Children were also shown what the article called [[propaganda]] films, which taught that [[Genetic engineering|genetically modified]] (GMO) products contain "poison", and were advised not to eat margarine that might contain GMO soybean. The Brazilian authorities allegedly had no control over MST schools, and according to the profile they did not follow the mandatory national curriculum set out by the Ministry of Education, which calls for "pluralism of ideas" and "tolerance". "Preaching" "Marxism" in MST schools was analogous to preaching radical [[Islam]] tenets in madrassas, the article said.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://veja.abril.com.br/080904/p_046.html |title=VEJA on-line |publisher=Veja.abril.com.br |access-date=2012-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121217092849/http://veja.abril.com.br/080904/p_046.html |archive-date=2012-12-17 |url-status=live }}</ref>

This was just one episode in a long history of mutual very bitter animosity between ''Veja'' and the MST. In 1993, the magazine described the MST as "a peasant organization of [[leninism|Leninist]] character" and charged its leaders and activists with pretending to be homeless.<ref>''Veja'', issue 1,286, 6 May 1993</ref> In February 2009 the magazine opposed public support for the "criminal" activities of the movement<ref>''Governo paga ações criminosas do MST'', ''Veja'' site, 28th. August 2009, available at [http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/brasil/governo-paga-acoes-criminosas-mst] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014021706/http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/brasil/governo-paga-acoes-criminosas-mst|date=2012-10-14}}</ref> and the MST charged the magazine a year later with "vandalizing" both journalism and the truth itself.<ref>''Como VEJA está depredando o jornalismo e a verdade''. MST site, 12th. January 2010, available at {{cite web |url=http://www.mst.org.br/node/8926 |title=Como VEJA está depredando o jornalismo e a verdade &#124; MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra |access-date=2011-04-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501004949/http://www.mst.org.br/node/8926 |archive-date=2011-05-01 }}</ref> In 2011, a mention of the MST in ''Veja'' called it "a criminal mob".<ref>''Veja'', issue 2,222, June 22, 2011</ref> In early 2014, after MST tried to invade the STF building, a ''Veja'' columnist described said it was "playing leader to a non-existing cause".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinaldo/o-mst-lider-de-uma-causa-que-nao-existe-tenta-invadir-o-stf-na-base-da-porrada-ou-como-o-governo-dilma-estimula-a-bagunca-e-a-violencia-ou-gilberto-carvalho-nao-vai-se-demitir/|title=O MST, líder de uma causa que não existe, tenta invadir o STF na base da porrada! Ou: Como o governo Dilma estimula a bagunça e a violência. Ou: Gilberto Carvalho não vai se demitir? - Reinaldo Azevedo|website=VEJA.com|access-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122145019/https://veja.abril.com.br/blog/reinaldo/o-mst-lider-de-uma-causa-que-nao-existe-tenta-invadir-o-stf-na-base-da-porrada-ou-como-o-governo-dilma-estimula-a-bagunca-e-a-violencia-ou-gilberto-carvalho-nao-vai-se-demitir/|archive-date=22 January 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> This journalistic mud-slinging has justified at least two academic monographs wholly dedicated to it alone.<ref>Diogo de Almeida Moisés, ''A Revista Veja na Cobertura da Luta de Terras no Brasi''. B.A. Monography, Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte, Communication Sciences Department, 2005, available at {{cite web |url=http://www.convergencia.jor.br/bancomonos/2005/diogo.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-04-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316153418/http://www.convergencia.jor.br/bancomonos/2005/diogo.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-16 }}</ref><ref>''Do Silêncio à Satanização: o Discurso de Veja e o MST'' [From silence to "satanization": ''Veja'' discourse and the MST], by Eduardo Ferreira de Souza, São Paulo: Annablume, 2005, {{ISBN|978-85-7419-453-0}}</ref>

Overall the relationship of the mainstream media with the MST has been ambiguous: in the 1990s they tended to support land reform as a goal in general, and presented MST in a sympathetic light. For example, between 1996 and 1997 [[TV Globo]] broadcast a ''[[telenovela]]'' ''[[O Rei do Gado]]'' (The Cattle Baron), in which a beautiful female ''sem terra'' played by actress [[Patricia Pillar]] falls in love with a male landowner.<ref>Chris Healy and Stephen Muecke, eds., ''Cultural Studies Review: Homefronts''. The University of Melbourne: V.15, no.1, March 2009, page 158</ref> In the same ''telenovela'', a [[wake (ceremony)|wake]] for the fictitious Senator Caxias, killed while defending an MST occupation, offered the opportunity for two real-life senators from the PT, [[Eduardo Suplicy]] and [[Benedita da Silva]], to make [[cameo appearances]] as themselves praising their fictive colleague's agenda.<ref>Kristina Riegert, ed., ''Politicotainment: television's take on the real''. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-8204-8114-2}}, page 165</ref>

The media however tend to disavow what they see as violent methods,<ref>John L. Hammond, "The MST and the Media: Competing Images of the Brazilian Farmworkers' Movement" . ''Latin American Politics & Society'' - Volume 46, Number 4, Winter 2004, pp.&nbsp;61–90</ref> especially as the movement gathered strength.<ref>Luciana Oliveira, ''Fighting for a Voice: Support for Land Reform Versus the Landless Workers Movement: A Framing Analysis of the Brazilian Press''. VDM Verlag, 2009, {{ISBN|978-3-639-19018-2}}</ref> It does not outright disavow the movement's struggle for land reform, but Brazilian media moralize: "to deplore the invasion of productive land, the MST's irrationality and lack of responsibility, the ill-using of distributed land parcels and to argue for the existence of alternate peaceful solutions".<ref>Alessandra Aldé & Fernando Lattman-Weltman: "O Mst na TV: Sublimação do Político, Moralismo e Crônica Cotidiana do Nosso 'Estado de Natureza'". LPCPOP-Iuperj paper, available at {{cite web |url=http://vsites.unb.br/fac/comunicacaoepolitica/AlessandraWeltman2000.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-12-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415110046/http://vsites.unb.br/fac/comunicacaoepolitica/AlessandraWeltman2000.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-15 }}. Retrieved December 22, 2011</ref>