You may have heard someone say “I’d kill for higher ratings.” Police in Brazil are investigating allegations that the host of a popular anti-crime TV show literally ordered people killed, as well as committing other crimes.
Tom Phillips, the correspondent in Brazil for the UK’s Guardian newspaper, writes that Wallace Souza is being investigated for allegations that he ordered a series of executions which were then covered by Canal Livre camera crews to boost ratings for his show. Souza is a former police officer and currently an elected member of the parliament for the state of Amazonas, anchored by the jungle city of Manaus. That’s in addition to hosting his daily TV show.
Suspicions that Souza was involved in crime as well as reporting it have been growing since last October, when his former security guard, also an ex-cop, was arrested and charged with nine murders. He reportedly confessed that at least one was done for the TV show.
Some 20 people, including Souza’s son, have been arrested in the case, which involves drugs and guns as well as murders, and police raided his home looking for evidence. The TV host/politician, who was the top vote getter in the state’s last round of elections, blames it all on a political campaign against him.
Click here to read the Guardian story.
