Murder for ratings? Brazil cops suspect TV host

Google/AP ^ | August 11, 2009 | Alan Clendenning and Stan Lehman

[Loyalist]

SAO PAULO, Brazil — In one murder after another, the "Canal Livre" crime TV show had an uncanny knack for being first on the scene, gathering graphic footage of the victim.

Too uncanny, say police, who are investigating the show's host, state legislator Wallace Souza, on suspicion of commissioning at least five of the murders to boost his ratings and prove his claim that Brazil's Amazon region is awash in violent crime. Police also have accused Souza of drug trafficking.

"The order to execute always came from the legislator and his son, who then alerted the TV crews to get to the scene before the police," state police intelligence chief Thomaz Vasconcelos charged in an interview with The Associated Press.

The killings of competing drug traffickers, he said, "appear to have been committed to get rid of his rivals and increase the audience of the TV show."

Souza denied all the criminal allegations and called them absurd, insisting that he and his son are being set up by political enemies and drug dealers sick of his two decades of relentless crime coverage on TV and crusading legislative probes.

[Loyalist]

You have to admit this guy has taken journalistic fakery to a higher level than the pikers at CBS with their exploding gas tanks, National Guard memos and cut-and-paste hit-job interviews.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Ummm, NBC had the exploding gas tanks.

[ASOC]

Let him go - he’s on a roll

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Soon to be a visiting lecturer at the Columbia School of Broadcasting.

[Emmett McCarthy]

Maybe Geraldo Rivera ought to do down and pick up some pointers from this guy?

[Steely Tom]

Wait till Lt. Columbo shows up.

[Ezekiel]

The killings of competing drug traffickers, he said, "appear to have been committed to get rid of his rivals and increase the audience of the TV show."

Apparently, competition is stiff.

[Zeppo]

Stop it, you’re killing me...

[Slings and Arrows]

Coming soon, on Fox...

[a fool in paradise]

Didn’t Telemundo already air “snuff” news? I seem to recall some program in the 1990s that was interviewing some woman who was getting a divorce or something and I think she was visiting an ex’s grave and her husband came up behind her on camera and shot her dead.