Exclusive interview with Victor Grinbaum. In his profile, he portrays himself as a journalist without pride, a radio host on hiatus, a writer for hire, a home gastronome, a Carioca in self-exile, and a gentle provocateur of quarrels.

1. Professional Relationship

How did Não é Imprensa come about, and how did you end up there?

It emerged from Diogo Mainardi’s idleness after leaving O Antagonista and publishing his second-to-last book, A Queda. He won’t admit it, but the virus of journalism infected him forever. Even as a brilliant writer, Diogo decided to create an anti-journalistic portal, focused precisely on what traditional media tends to dismiss. That’s when Danilo Gentili heard about the idea and asked to join the project.

So, we had a journalist tired of journalism, eager to dive fully into literature, joining forces with a comedian rejected by the mainstream, willing to leave humor behind and practice a kind of journalism that challenged that very mainstream. From this unlikely combination, Não é Imprensa was born. The name, in fact, was suggested by Danilo Gentili himself.

I joined the project at the invitation of Diogo Chiuso, the editor-in-chief, still in its early stages, when everything was just planning. I was asked to take charge of a section considered “cursed” for always carrying the same bias: the Middle East. The choice fell on me precisely because I wouldn’t follow the usual pattern of simply copying and pasting what Haaretz, Al Jazeera, or The New York Times publish — a practice common across virtually all global media.

2. Credibility of the Press

From your perspective as a journalist, what is the current state of journalism in Brazil? Can the public still fully trust the press?

Journalism in Brazil does not differ from that practiced in the most advanced, liberal, and developed countries in the world. But this is not a compliment. On the contrary, it is a troubling observation. Today, on a global scale, what claims to be neutral and objective journalism ends up functioning, in practice, as an echo chamber for a very small, self-appointed elite. This dynamic has represented a true death sentence for journalism itself.

This is what explains the credibility crisis of the mainstream media, far more than the rise of social networks. After all, alternative media does not replace what technical journalism still offers as valuable: the process of fact-checking and verification, which remain the only guarantees of some rigor and reliability when it comes to believing what one reads out there.

3. Ideological Influence

How did Soviet ideology manage to exert so much influence over nations, universities, politics, and even religious institutions?

They had plenty of time and knew how to acquire solid know-how in this area.

Practically from the moment they came to power in Russia, they devoted themselves intensely to ensuring internal hegemony and creating conditions to expand it, building a machine capable of winning hearts and minds through disinformation. There was no field of human knowledge in which they did not manage to infiltrate and establish themselves permanently, creating new narratives and worldviews with the aim of steering everything “naturally” toward their cause.

4. Geopolitics and Tensions

Why have many leftist movements and organizations taken a stance against Israel and the Jewish community? What historical or ideological factors explain this position?

Precisely because of what I mentioned earlier. Leftist groups worldwide were led to this state of affairs through a slow, gradual, and constant process of persuasion, based on narratives recycled from old antisemitic currents, adapted to Marxist, anti-imperialist, Third Worldist, and decolonial discourse.

This movement began in the 1960s, right after Israel defeated a coalition of Arab countries supported by the USSR in the Six-Day War, which served as the perfect pretext for the Soviets to unite Middle Eastern nations and former European colonies against a common enemy.

To achieve this, it was necessary to assign to Israel the same negative traits historically attributed to the imaginary figure of the Jew: an alien being who supposedly came to steal, exploit, corrupt, and kill pure and innocent people who had lived happily until the arrival of the strange and evil outsider. This logic still persists in the discourse against the “Zionist” — a term used by 21st-century antisemites to avoid sounding too much like the antisemites of previous centuries.

5. Prospects for the Country

Given today’s challenges, do you believe there is still hope for Brazil? On what points could that hope rest?

At Não é Imprensa, we are a band of incorrigible pessimists. No one there believes in salvation for Brazil — at least not through the path everyone imagines, which is politics. Just as we are anti-press, we are also anti-politics. We talk about it only because it is unavoidable: it’s like having a goat in the living room, right at the moment when it’s eating your sofa and defecating on your carpet.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)