Friends on WhatsApp groups exchanged songs and posts about Rita Lee shortly after her death was reported by the press on Tuesday morning (9). Among many good memories, there was the link to an advertisement for jeans dated 1978 on YouTube. Anyone who was a child or teenager in the late 1970s certainly remembers this unpretentiously erotic commercial, but which, in modern eyes, would make a good part of the current Congress squirm on social networks and the government of Acre cut down the TV signal: couples kissing, "wearing costumes" and, literally, "taking off their clothes".

The submerged camera in the pool suggestively translated the lines "you make my mouth water" or "drenched with sweat, from making out for so long". If the wholesome citizen didn't quite capture what Rita sang about in "Mania de Você", that Ellus commercial drew a clear enough picture of it. One wonders how the censorship of the military dictatorship era missed something so explicit. Perhaps the explanation would be Rita herself, at that time at the top of her game, hitting the top charts of Brazilian pop music.

A similar feat was achieved by the song "Lança Perfume", in 1980, in which Rita, already fully mainstream and in prime time on Globo television, sang lines like "put me on all fours in the act, fill me with love", but also sang about the "love that smells like crazy stuff." The crazy thing, 'loló' ( an earlier type of popper) for the closest ones, had been banned in the 1960s. Two decades later, it was on many people's lips, not just because of the song, but because of a revival fueled by contraband from Paraguay and the open leniency of the authorities. A false moment of liberality, like so many others during the period of repression, years after Rita was arrested in her own home for a disputed possession of marijuana.

Times have changed. A headline in Folha that made reference to the singer and songwriter's very crazy life led to a tsunami of criticism of the newspaper and a relentless persecution of special reporter Laura Mattos, author of the article.

The headline, "Rita Lee, a rebel since childhood, let herself be led by drugs and flying saucers", ended up being replaced by "Drugs played a political role in the trajectory of Rita Lee, a rebel since childhood". The change did not help cool down the controversy, since the problem, obviously, was not the flying saucers.

The ombudsman's inbox was also full. Of countless criticisms, the most frequent ones spoke of a lack of respect from the newspaper, desperation for a reading audience, and accusations of a sudden conservative attitude. On Twitter, someone remembered the cover of Veja magazine, from 1982, which announced the death of Elis Regina with the hysterical title "Cocaine Tragedy".

Laura, the next day, wrote about her "first virtual lynching". She said that the title was not written by her and that she also did not think the choice was a very good one. More importantly, she highlighted the need for a "less conscious relationship with social networks". Having your work depend on social media is one thing, being personally dependent on them is another.

The article that got tangled up in the networks was not the main part of the coverage. Also written by the reporter, the real obituary was titled "Rita Lee, biggest Brazilian rock star and Mutantes icon, dies at 75". Drugs appear in the subtitle and in several moments of the article, without, however, generating any stoning.

The editing had an influence on readers' reactions, but the heart of the matter is the light shed on this more alternative side of the artist's life or the need that the newspaper saw in doing so. Grief recommends putting things like that aside, said one of the most polite readers who poked the paper. But it is impossible to leave aside a heavy daily life that Rita only managed to balance close to 60 years old, after the birth of her first granddaughter. The problem then lies in Folha's crudeness and/or the public's refusal to see their star for what she was.

To a comment by Leo Jaime, who asked what the newspaper was doing, a follower on Twitter replied that Folha was "being @folha", a classic criticism of this newspaper. Another comment went further: "It's repositioning the brand as a mouthpiece for the far right and fascism." It's curious to see moralism as an argument on both sides of the dispute, but it's reasonable to imagine the frustration with the newspaper not limited to the damn title.

The recent history shows Folha being relentless with the new government, since before the victory in the elections. Editorials, in a heavy sequence and tone, and articles contradict the expectations of many readers, who were expecting a period of tolerance and reconstruction. People who saw and see the Bolsonarism coup attempt as something still latent, lurking, and perceive the newspaper as being far from its trajectory of care for democracy.

Reputation, incidentally, has made it comfortable to swim against the current and sometimes abuse the practice, like this last week. Folha may not have gone off the rails, but part of its reading audience thinks it has. Or, as a reader said, in an old discussion, it remains hostage to its own style. May Saint Rita forgive us all.

Jose Henrique Mariante

An engineer and journalist, he was a reporter, correspondent, editor, and secretary at Folha, where he has worked since 1991. He is the ombudsman

_{Translated by Cassy Dias}