O Antagonista

O Antagonista (‘The Antagonist’) is a website aligned to the right-wing political spectrum, created in 2015 by Diogo Mainardi and Mário Sabino. It focuses on comments on politics through short notes of few paragraphs, under the perspective of right-wing and anti-PT ('Workers' Party') political forces.

The website is described by Google as a “blog”. It occupies the 279^th position in the Brazilian Alexa Rankings, being the 9^th website among the ones with journalism-related content. Its Facebook page has over 780 thousand likes and its Youtube channel more than 150 thousand subscribers. O Antagonista is a cited reference for predominantly fake news websites such as “JornaLivre” (connected to Movimento Brasil Livre/Students for Liberty), “O Implicante” and “Reaçonaria”.

Its creators came from Veja magazine – where Mainardi (1999-2010) was a columnist and Sabino was a chief-editor (2004-2012). Mainardi also participates in GloboNews’ Manhattan Connection show, with other right-wing commentators. The journalist Cláudio Dantas also contributes to the website. They also record videos with agenda commentary.

Felipe Moura Brasil, former Veja’s anti-PT blogger, also joined the O Antagonista team. Moura Brasil organized a book by conservative writer Olavo de Carvalho (“O mínimo que você precisa saber para não ser um idiota” - ‘The minimum you need to know to avoid being an idiot’) and gained visibility with videos like “Como o socialismo arruinou meu país” (‘How socialism ruined my country’). He has a political commentary show in Jovem Pan Radio, with fellow anti-PT Joice Hasselmann, author of judge Sérgio Moro’s biography, and Augusto Nunes, a columnist at Veja magazine and the host of the Roda Viva Show (at São Paulo’s TV Cultura). Between January and September 2017, the website also had the participation of journalist Madeleine Lacsko editing the Antagonista TV. Madeleine worked at Jovem Pan, Rádio Justiça and was part of the STF ('Federal Supreme Court') communication team during Gilmar Mendes’s tenure. She was also an advisor for state deputy Carlos Bezerra Jr. (PSDB).

O Antagonista became medium of reference in the coverage of the Lava Jato process, even broadcasting the secretive accusations made by Marcelo Odebrecht in exchange for witness immunity. The website was sued by the Workers' Party (PT), on the charges of slander, infamy and defamation.