Dennis Redmont, the head of the Associated Press Lisbon news operation in the 1960s, and Vasco Abecassis, co-founder with his then wife Snu Abecassis of Publicações Dom Quixote, share their stories about the foreign press' coverage of the Colonial Wars / Wars of Independence in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique (including Vasco's stint as Guinea-Bissau Governor General Arnaldo Schulz' foreign press liaison), and the political realities in Portugal (including Dennis' visiting with lawyer Mário Soares the site where Gen. Humberto Delgado was murdered); the Estado Novo's use of New York-based public relations firms to push extensive propaganda in the American press during President John F. Kennedy's administration; how their publications challenged the Salazar regime's domestic and international narrative, reporting repressed information despite the dictatorship's extensive censorship; PIDE's (secret political police) harassment of Dennis (declared persona non grata by the Ministry of Defense) and Snu; lively parties with Amalia Rodrigues and Natália Correia, and the politically eclectic patrons of the Botequim; Vasco's memories and speculations about the tragic death of his ex-wife Snu, her then partner the Portuguese Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro, and the Minister of National Defense Adelino Amaro da Costa on a plane crash in Camarate on December 4, 1980. Dennis and Vasco also reflect critically on the current crisis of legacy media in the age of algorithm-driven social media, \"tech bros,\" and the loss of press freedom.
In their opening segment Miguel and Gil talk about Irish bar culture in Portugal, immigrant associations, and the 30th anniversary of the great Lisbon institution O'Gilins Pub in Cais do Sodré.
The episode was made with the support of the “Export Portugal. Cultural Diplomacy and the Rebranding Strategies of the Estado Novo in the United States (1933-1974)” a
National Science Foundation of Portugal project (FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia-2022.08653.PTDC, PI Annarita Gori)
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