Murder for ratings?

By ALAN CLENDENNING and STAN LEHMAN, Associated Press Writers Alan Clendenning And Stan Lehman, Associated Press Writers – Tue Aug 11, 7:36 pm ET

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.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090811/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_tv_killings

I couldn't believe this when I read it. TV is getting a little too real if hosts are resorting to murder to boost ratings. Souza denies all charges of course.

Justice4all wrote:By ALAN CLENDENNING and STAN LEHMAN, Associated Press Writers Alan Clendenning And Stan Lehman, Associated Press Writers – Tue Aug 11, 7:36 pm ET

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.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090811/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_tv_killings

I couldn't believe this when I read it. TV is getting a little too real if hosts are resorting to murder to boost ratings. Souza denies all charges of course.

Hi, J4A! I'm sad to say, almost nothing shocks me anymore. Does anyone really expect this sicko to admit to these charges?

Did a TV Host Mastermind His Show's True Crimes?

Amazonas State legislator and television show host Wallace Souza, center, speaks during a news conference in Manaus, Brazil.

Wallace Souza was a powerful man in Brazil's Wild West — the vast, remote, impoverished and poorly policed Amazon, where the rich hold sway to an extent unusual even in a country as notoriously unequal as Brazil. Reports from the region say the former cop, TV celebrity and local politician lead a gang that arranged killings to bolster his political aspirations and boost the ratings on his true-crime TV show.

"The truth is, they went as far as creating acts," Amazonas state Secretary for Intelligence Thomas Augusto Vasconcelos told reporters "It's been determined the crimes were committed in order to generate news for the program." (See the top 10 unsolved crimes.)

Souza has denied all the charges, claiming they're part of a plot by political opponents to discredit him. But he has refused to give up the parliamentary immunity that prevents a state Congressman from being charged in the lower courts. That may not keep the matter out of court, however: The crimes of which Souza is accused are so serious, said Divanilson Cavalcanti, head of the task force investigating the accusations, that judges could elect to break his immunity and try him in a higher court on charges of murder, drug trafficking, illegal weapons possession, tampering with witnesses and involvement in organised crime.

Cavalcanti added that police are also investigating allegations that Souza may have had sexual relations with under-age girls.

"Police arrested his bodyguard and he told us everything," Cavalcanti said in a phone interview from Amazonia. "At first we thought it was all fantasy, but when we checked it out it was all true. They are investigating at least two murders and possibly much more. There could be more to come."

Wallace's son Rafael is currently in custody accused of involvement in at least one of the killings under investigation. His bodyguard and former partner — when both served as cops — has also been arrested, and provided testimony that led police to investigate as many as 15 serious crimes involving the gang since 2007, Cavalcanti said.

The allegations would certainly have made compelling television for Souza's show, Canal Livre. Typical of the many crime shows that air daily across Brazil, the show typically features angry men claiming to speak for the country's poor — those most afflicted by sky-high crime rates — shouting and pointing at the camera while complaining that politicians and the police do little to protect the community.

Souza, on Canal Livre, the lunchtime program he presented with his two brothers, often accused police of incompetence and slated politicians and judges for failing to crack down hard enough on crime. But when the bloodshed slowed to a trickle, investigators charge, Souza commissioned killings to cover on his show and to sustain his electoral claim to be the candidate for voters sick of rampant crime and the incumbents' alleged inability to stop it.

In one case, Souza allegedly ordered a hit and then told his camera crews where and when it would go down to allow them to be first on the scene.

"He wanted to be the saviour," said Cavalcanti. "His ambition was to be chief of police and when the city was calm he ordered killings as a way of stirring things up."

Canal Livre was hugely popular, and Souza ran for state deputy in 1998, winning re-election twice, helped by his TV bully pulpit. His brothers also took advantage of their celebrity and entered politics. One went on to become a city councillor in the state capital Manaus, while the other is currently the city's deputy mayor.

Meanwhile, the lawlessness that permeates the Amazon continues. Several of the judges and government officials involved in the investigation have received death threats are now under 24-hour guard.

Brazilian TV host accused of murdering to get better ratings
Murdering to get ratings.

A Brazilian television host accused of ordering murders and broadcasting the video to increase the ratings of his crime reality series told reporters that he would not get in the way of investigations.

Wallace Souza spoke to media members this week for the first time since the start of investigations.

Officials say Souza will go on trial for having staged crime scenes to boost the popularity of his show, "Canal Livre".

He’s a former police officer and is also accused of trafficking drugs and firearms.

He denies all charges against him.

Fifteen people suspected of having participated in Souza's plan have been arrested.
http://www.nbc11news.com/internationalnews/headlines/53141437.html

TV host accused of ordering killings
Brazilian show may be responsible for deaths
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118007317.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=2562
The host of a Brazilian TV crime show is suspected of taking part in the ultimate of ratings zeal: He's accused of ordering at least five killings to boost his show's popularity.

Wallace Souza, who also is a state representative and former police officer, has been host of the popular "Canal Livre," which has thrived in showing police raids and arrests. But police in the rainforest city of Manaus say their suspicions come in part from the speed with which the show's reporters would arrive at a crime scene. In a long piece on the case, TV Globo newsmag "Fantistico" showed footage in which one reporter arrives first at a crime scene and smoke is coming out of a body.

Souza and his legal reps deny involvement.

But police have so far arrested 15 people linked to Souza, including his son Rafael and Moacir Jorge da Costa, a show producer and bodyguard. Da Costa reportedly testified that at least one killing portrayed at the show was commissioned by Souza, in what authorities suspect was a way to also eliminate a rival in organized crime. The list could include four other murders, police said.

Following Da Costa's testimony, police raided Souza's home and found 250,000 reals ($136,000), $15,000 in American currency and a number of high-caliber assault rifles. Police charged Souza of drug trafficking, gang formation and weapons possession. But he remains free because of legislative immunity that prevents him from being arrested as long as he is a state representative.

Souza was expelled from the police force in the late 1980s for taking part on a fuel- embezzlement scheme. A few years later, he premiered the TV show, where he championed the cause of cleaning Manaus of criminals, a message that had great popular appeal and paved the way for his political career.

The investigation of Souza, who denies all charges, is being carried out by a special task force, including a judge and the state government secretary of police, who are under 24-hour protection.

Brazil TV host 'victim of a plot'

A Brazilian TV presenter accused of ordering murders to boost his crime show's ratings says he is being framed by criminals and corrupt police.

"I'm a victim of organised crime," Wallace Souza said in a telephone interview from the northern city of Manaus, where he hosted his hit program before it was taken off the air four months ago.

Souza - who was charged on July 30 but cannot be arrested because he is also an elected state deputy who enjoys parliamentary immunity - says officials are trying to force him out of politics "even though I got the highest score in the region in 2008 elections."

The allegations are coming from corrupt police officers, claims Souza - who himself is a former policeman forced out of the service after being implicated in a racket over fuel supplies.

But the police chief heading the investigation against Souza, Divanilson Cavalcanti, says the accused is "very deft in twisting the truth."

He says he expects the TV host to face court within the next two months on charges of running a criminal organisation involved in death squads, drug trafficking and gun-running.

Police say Souza ordered at least five murders of drug traffickers in order to bolster viewership of his crimewatch show Canal Livre on Manaus television.

Viewers were often shown images of the crime scenes before police arrived.

Prosecutors allege Souza used his group to eliminate rivals.

Souza's bodyguard - also a former policeman - has been arrested for allegedly carrying out nine murders.

The bodyguard is alleged to have said the slayings were committed for a special on Canal Livre.

Mr Cavalcanti says police became suspicious of Souza's program late last year after seeing one report in which "the body of a suspected drug dealer was still burning in some woods well before police arrived."

He says he believes Souza headed up a group of around 40 people who were involved in the murders.

"All the evidence gathered by the police and prosecutors has been brought together and the case is very easy to prove," Mr Cavalcanti said.

He added that the operation against the presenter was part of a wider offensive against organised crime in the region that had infiltrated politics and the police.

Brazilian crime show host kills for ratings?
Is it just me or is Network starting to look like more and more of a reverse documentary?

Here's the latest step towards "hell yes." Newser reports that a Brazilian host of a popular crime show put out hits on people, so their bizarre murders would boost his ratings.

The show, Canal Livre, seemed to have an almost Clark Kent-ish ability to be the first on some very gruesome murder and crime scenes. Luckily, one of the show's plucky interns, Jimino Olseno, pointed this out to the local authorities who launched their investigation.

The Associated Press reports that the host, Wallace Souza, also worked as a state legislator in the region. So, he's on TV and he's in politics. If reporters also discover he works as a covert lobbyist of a major tobacco company, he will have completed the Trifecta of Evil and jump to the top of the Anti-Christ candidate list.

His motives are two-fold. The hits he ordered were to get rid of rival drug dealers and increase crime in the area in order to keep interest in his show high and prove his show's claims that violent crime was on the rise. He was also one show away before giving his viewers the chance to vote on which person they would like to see killed in next week's episode, before the police swooped in and spoiled everything.

Of course, he denied all of the allegations and claimed the whole mess was a set-up by rival dealers and political enemies who are angry with his criminal reduction record. Unfortunately, his record for honesty isn't all that good. Before he scored his own show, he was thrown out of the police department on theft and corruption charges. His son has already been charged with drug trafficking and homicide. And let's not forget the most telling fact of all, he's a politician.

Wow, Glenn Beck, I understand him now.