Gugu-PCC scandal



The Gugu-PCC scandal, also known as the scandal of the false interview of the members of the PCC, was a controversy centered on a forged interview with two men who pretended to be members of the criminal faction Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), made by reporter Wagner Maffezoli and aired on Domingo Legal, from SBT, hosted by Gugu Liberato. Due to its repercussion and threats to TV hosts and authorities in the fictional interview, the network was fined and the program was temporarily suspended, in addition to Gugu being sued.

PCC Interview
In the early evening of September 7, 2003 (Brazilian Independence holiday), Domingo Legal aired a recorded interview with two alleged members of the PCC, inside a bus, carried out by a reporter from the Programa do Ratinho, Wagner Maffezoli.

The two so-called bandits made threats to the deputy mayor of the city of São Paulo, Hélio Bicudo, in addition to three presenters of police programs: José Luiz Datena, from Brasil Urgente (Rede Bandeirantes), Marcelo Rezende, from Repórter Cidadão (RedeTV!) and football commentator and police officer Oscar Roberto Godói, from Cidade Alerta (RecordTV). The individuals also assumed the attempted kidnapping of priest Marcelo Rossi, which had taken place less than a week earlier.

Reactions
"Silvio Santos, that's why your journalism doesn't make money... To show such low-level journalism on Gugu's program, it's not worth having journalism at all. Go see my family at home, afraid to go out, put their nose in the street! I am deeply hurt, disillusioned."

- José Luiz Datena

On September 8 (the day after the report), Gugu was harshly criticized by the hosts mentioned in the fake interview. Marcelo Rezende stated, in Repórter Cidadão, that the interview was "liar and staged". On September 9, one of the leaders of the PCC spoke by phone to the host, in his program, that Gugu would have set the whole thing up. José Luiz Datena said, in the program, that he was not contacted by Gugu and that the interview left his family in a panic. On the 9th, Datena opened the program saying that it was all a joke and that she will sue the host and Silvio Santos, owner of SBT. In the early afternoon of the 9th, the presenter of Esporte Total, from Rede Bandeirantes, Jorge Kajuru, who was not mentioned in the report, declared in dismay: "It was disrespectful. pick up boy, Gugu!". In the following days, the media intensified the impression that it had all been a hoax, until a statement from the PCC, released by the press the same week, denied having threatened the hosts and the deputy mayor, saying that the two men were not from the group.

Opening of the Investigation
On September 10, due to the repercussion of the case, the Civil Police of São Paulo opened an investigation to investigate the allegations of authenticity or fraud aired on SBT.

Interview on Hebe
On September 15, in an interview with the program Hebe, hosted by Hebe Camargo, Gugu spoke to the public about the case for the first time, reaffirming that the PCC interview was true. He apologized to those threatened by the pair and said he did not know the content of the report and that he trusted reporter Wagner Maffezoli, responsible for the interview.

Conclusion of the Investigation
On September 17, the police concluded that the video had been falsified, with the identification of the fake members of the PCC and the involvement of the production of Domingo Legal, for having hired a certain Barney to recruit the two men who were from the so-called "lower class of the society". The production had improvised the interview that, according to former SBT employees and the police, took place in the network's parking lot. Barney accused the production and Gugu of being masterminds of the fraud to harm him.

September 19
Antônio Rodrigues da Silva, who acted in the interview as the bandit Beta, admitted to the police that it was all a hoax. He said that he received R$ 150 to participate in the program and that, during the interview, a poster behind the cameraman indicated the main points that he should address.

Hamilton Tadeu dos Santos, aka Barney, who provides production services to SBT, confirmed to journalists that the interview was forged and that the weapon displayed by the fake bandits belonged to him. He said, however, that he did not participate directly in the conduct of the interview.

September 25
On September 25, Gugu Liberato gave a two-hour testimony to the Department of Investigations on Organized Crime (DEIC) in the city of São Paulo. Before, Gugu had quickly entered the DEIC to avoid the press. In the statement, Gugu denied knowing the content of the interview. Antônio Rodrigues da Silva, the bandit Beta, in addition to admitting to the police that the interview is a hoax, said he received R$150 to participate in it and Hamilton Tadeu dos Santos, aka Barney, provided the weapon and said that Gugu knew about the hoax. Gugu blamed the program's production team and said that he is just a host and that he did not participate in the farce, because on that day his father was hospitalized.

Despite the testimony, the delegate who presides over the investigation, Alberto Pereira, said he had no doubts about Gugu's responsibility for the interview in which journalists and authorities were threatened with death, an opinion also shared by the delegate in charge of the case.

The delegate asked the justice that the presenter be criminally prosecuted based on the Press Law: "He published a story. This story is a lie. The police do not consider whether he knew or did not know, but this story provoked public commotion. My line of inquiry is that he would be responsible for running the story. As the program's commander, he should also be held accountable."

The inquiry was concluded and five people were indicted: the two who gave the interview and three producers. The delegate said that Gugu was not indicted only because he got an injunction in court that prevented the indictment.

Indictment
On November 11, 2003, the judge of the 2nd Criminal Court of Osasco, Izabel de Castro, ordered the police to formally indict Gugu Liberato, in addition to the head of the report, the reporter, the producer, and two actors from Domingo Legal, to answer for the crimes press and threat. The sentences ranged from one year and one month to five years in prison. After being cited, they would have five days to present a written defense. However, on November 14, the president of the Criminal Court, José Renato Nalini, granted an injunction in habeas corpus so that Gugu Liberato would not be indicted for press crime and threat. Even after the case was tried much later, Gugu was never formally indicted.

Traffic Ticket
On December 10, 2003, the Ministry of Communications fined SBT R$1,792.53 for broadcasting the false interview. The ministry admitted that, even though the value of the fine is negligible compared to SBT's revenues, it is the maximum fine limit that the government can stipulate. The justification is that a 1994 decree limits the penalty to the concessionaire that violates the Brazilian Telecommunications Code to 1,647.34 reference units (equivalent to the amount of the fine).

Indemnity
The Superior Court of Justice sentenced Gugu and SBT to pay compensation to the former host of Cidade Alerta, Oscar Roberto Godói, one of those threatened by the fake PCC bandits in the report. Godói's lawyer informed that SBT and Gugu lost the lawsuit in the first and second instances. In the first degree, the compensation for the inconvenience caused by the staged threats was R$100,000. The São Paulo Court of Justice raised the fine to R$250,000. In February, SBT and Gugu filed a precautionary measure to stop the provisional execution of the sentence at the STJ, in Brasília, but the STJ denied an appeal. Of all those threatened in the interview, only Godói decided to sue the presenter. The amount of compensation can still be changed, but the conviction would already have irrevocable status.

Audience Drop
According to IBOPE, because of the farce of the interview, the program scored an average of 18 points at the institute in 2003, dropping to 15 in 2004, 14 in 2005, and 12 in 2006. This means that Gugu lost, in three years, the tune of 330 thousand households in Greater São Paulo alone. With the sharp decline in the Ibope and, consequently, the revenue of SBT, the network reduced the program's funds and, allied to the insistent harassment of Record, Gugu closed a deal with Record and set up a program along the lines of Domingo Legal called Programa do Gugu. Despite receiving double what he received on SBT, his decline in the ratings was accelerating more and more. Record's unsustainable business model ended up canceling the program four years later.

Media Role
During the period, despite the seriousness of the fact, the media exploited the fact well as a way of keeping the audience at the expense of the program's error. Thus, the legal counsel of those involved begins to study ways to sue the competition for this overexposure to the facts, thus trying to avoid or reduce public condemnation of those involved.

Why It Sucked

 * 1) This fake interview would have caused an invitation from a real threat from the real PCC, which would have resulted in a violent attack against the Domingo Legal's staff, Gugu, and SBT themselves, because of this fake interview of people who pretended to be PCC members aired in the program.
 * 2) The two men who impersonated PCC members in the fake interview failed to threaten and intimidate José Luiz Datena and the late Marcelo Rezende for real, who came to harshly criticize SBT, Silvio Santos, the fake interview, and the threats given to them in their programs Brasil Urgente and Repórter Cidadão.
 * 3) This fake interview tarnished the image of Domingo Legal, which has since ceased to be the most-watched auditorium show on Brazilian TV on Sunday afternoons.
 * 4) This also ended up not only derailed Gugu's career but as well as mentioned before made Domingo Legal lose ratings, making the program no longer the most-watched program on Sunday afternoons on Brazilian TV, losing its position to Globo's mh:besttvshows:Domingão do Faustão, which was losing audience at the time until when the scandal of the fake interview with the PCC exploded.
 * 5) Beside that, almost five years later, Gugu ended up signing a contract with RecordTV, which resulted in his departure from SBT, which lasted ten years (despite a hiatus between 2013-2015, as he did not renew contact with RecordTV in 2013, but returned to the channel in 2015), being the last years of his television career until his tragic death in 2019, ending any chance of him returning to SBT.

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