Caco Barcellos is a well-known name among viewers. With almost 50 years of career, 16 of which in charge of the program “Profissão Repórter”, the journalist told a little about about his journey so far, the challenges of the profession and the pleasure of still working with what he loves about to turn 72 years.
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“I want to work until the last day of my life, believing that our work, however simple it may be, has relative relevance”, he said in an interview with Jornal Extra. Caco also states that the work of a journalist will always exist, and that there will always be a life behind the camera.
Profissão Repórter has been showing the reality of the routine of journalists for years, who face many challenges on the streets, and Caco has always been at the forefront of this, leading his team through communities, getting in touch with the people and showing the harsh reality of the least favored. “I'm always surrounded by a lot of people, I'm sensitive to people's affection. In the communities, the people shout: ‘The guy with the white hair who likes to enter our house is coming’. I am delighted with the trust that people have in us”, he comments.
According to Caco, making a more in-depth newspaper is something different from what we usually see nowadays, in the age of fast information, and that is why they still have a lot of space on TV. The journalist also says that every week he celebrates the opportunity to make a newspaper for so many people.
When asked about the fear of exercising the profession, Barcellos points out that currently, with the great polarization and increasingly growing denialism in the country, the class has suffered many attacks. “There are militia groups there trying to stop us, armed groups… But we have to be there! There is a risk, but we have to detour and go there, protecting our team”. However, according to him, when making stories among the poorest, or in places that are considered more dangerous, he and his team are always treated with great respect, and that he feels that people want their presence for there.
Caco has already come a long way in life and in his profession: he has already gone through the dictatorship, the promise of peace with its end and now lives in a scenario of violence in the country. He commented on police violence, that the country's security has always been done through extreme violence. “They have been killing people every day since 1970. If it were true that this policy of confrontation is efficient, Rio and São Paulo would be a paradise”, he says on the subject.
The journalist also commented on the case of Moïse, the young Congolese who was recently beaten to death at a kiosk in Barra da Tijuca. “Both the brutality of the blows on the young man from Congo impressed me and the number of people who watched and did nothing. Why didn't anyone shout 'stop it'? Ten people are more than three people. How is it that there are no people in society shouting ‘enough’?”
When asked about telling sad stories, Caco says that he can hold back tears in difficult situations, but that at home he allows himself to cry. “I'm ashamed, this stupid thing that men can't cry. It's ingrained somehow."
Caco stated that he did not take stock of his magnificent career in journalism, nor does he have plans for the distant future, he just guarantees that his health is going very well. “According to the last exam I took, my metabolic age is 53 years old. I read a lot, even the medicine leaflet. And I also go in for sports, I play football. We don't even talk about age anymore, we talk about energy”. At the same time, the journalist regrets one day having to leave and stop seeing the evolution of the planet and society.
We wish the reporter – whose birthday is next month – many years ahead, to continue taking information with great responsibility to the home of Brazilians.
