Chris Flores will complete 20 years of television next year. With a degree in journalism, she debuted in 2004 on Record’s Tudo a Ver program, with a segment about celebrities. Then she went to Programa da Tarde, became a columnist for Hoje em Dia and, in 2009, became part of the team of presenters. It was exactly that year that I met her, when I made some live appearances on this program.
I followed Chris’ career and saw her professional and personal transformation on this daily show, including the iconic case of “Pregnant from Taubaté” —unmasked by herself, by the way. I talked to her a lot during this period, I cried with her in the studio bathroom during tense moments at the station. Don’t think that on TV everyone does what they want. No company is like that. And, as Larissa Manoela showed us, not even in famous families. That’s why I celebrated when Chris went to SBT in 2015.
I am not a relative, nor a close friend, nor her lawyer, but until there is some robust evidence to the contrary, I can say that she is a serious journalist, an ethical and very correct person and that, therefore, it pains me to see her being unfairly attacked because of the interview she did with Larissa Manoela’s mother, as if the villain were Chris.
Obviously everyone has the right not to like the interview or the way she conducted the conversation, because it’s a matter of opinion, taste, fans. Of course, it would be more fun to see Silvana Taques face to face with Blogueirinha (I would love to!), but Chris is a journalist, and journalism demands that all sides be heard.
And more: she is hired, not the owner of the station. And the station is made up of many people, of many decisions. It is evident that in order to get an interview with Silvana it is necessary to have conversations, adjust terms. Every interview involves interests—and that is neither immoral nor illegal nor unethical. One wants to expose his side, whether it’s true or not, and the other wants the audience and exclusivity. Not to mention that there is still a dispute between Globo and SBT, since SBT listens to the parents while Globo listens to the daughter.
I had already given my opinion here in the column about the letter that Silvana and Gilberto Elias sent to Fofocalizando. I thought Larissa’s parents making “contact” with their daughter through a letter read on a television program was pathetic. As if they had no other means of getting to their own daughter.
But, as I’ve worked in TV all my life, I understand that this is all part of an agreement, since the topic is hot and promises a lot of audience. So much so that they even made a call on Domingo Legal, to bring more audience to Fofocalizando this Monday (21), when the interview with Silvana was shown in full. Only those who don’t understand anything about television think that everything you see was the “decision” of who is on the screen!
And, like everything else on SBT, the interview has the language of a soap opera, with a little sad song, tears, moments from a tough childhood, to soften Silvana’s image. The mother who had a difficult childhood, the mother folding her daughter’s clothes, the family picture frame strategically placed next to Silvana’s hair, the clichés of “a mother is forever”, the argument of “the baby in the belly breathing through the mother” did not seem to contain true emotion. I was also not convinced by the phrase “if I have sinned through excess of zeal” or “what mother does not make mistakes?”. Not to mention that Silvana doesn’t even mention the name of her daughter’s boyfriend.
From the demure mother’s outfit to the lack of makeup, everything seemed like an act to me. Especially because I saw in Fantástico what Silvana wrote to her daughter in December, saying “forget that I’m your mother”. Not exactly the kind of message a mother sends her daughter at Christmas, no matter how upset she is.
Whatever the outcome of this family crisis between Larissa and her parents, Chris Flores has done nothing wrong. He didn’t side with Silvana, he didn’t attack Larissa. She is doing her part as a presenter, journalist and SBT employee. Hence, to say that she is “sinking her career” or “participating in a second farce after the pregnant woman in Taubaté” is to make internet drama and sign a certificate of journalistic and business ignorance.
The whole case could serve to learn a lot, about fame, fortune, ambition, vanity, family relationships, career management. But using this story to cancel Chris Flores is as wrong and unfair as a mother sending her daughter to shit at Christmas or regulating R$ 10 to buy a corn.
To Chris, I send all my love. To Larissa’s parents, I dedicate that verse from Gloria Groove: “The little doll…is out of the box!”.
Fly, Larry.
