15/07/2007
Herding effect and slowdown
By MÁRIO MAGALHÃES
ombudsman@uol.com.br
I don't know if former Cabinet minister Silas Rondeau is a thief.
Or, to put it better, whether he got a bribe from Gautama construction when he headed the Mines and Energy Ministry.
The Federal Police suspect that Rondeau pocketed a bribe of 100,000 reals (about US $200,000) in exchange for favors in the Light For All program. He denied it.
On May 21, Folha reported the contents of a video making the rounds internally at the ministry. The Federal Police obtained it in the investigation about fraud in public works that resulted in Operation Razor Blade.
The newspaper asserted: "The images showed an employee of Gautama, Fátima Palmeira, entering the ministry in a private elevator on March 13 of this year. She carried a dark envelope which the Federal Police believe contained 100,000 reals."
The text continued: "The financial director of Gautama went up to the floor where Silas Rondeau's office is located. There, she met with the minister's adviser Ivo Almeida Costa, who has been arrested in Operation Razor Blade. A half hour later, the images showed Fátima and Ivo leaving the office. Then, the person holding the envelope was the adviser."
I asked, and the newsroom informed me, that it had access to the images "through a source." The night before, the "Fantástico" TV news magazine showed them first and used a description similar to that in the newspaper - strictly, in a good part of newspapers - the next day.
That envelope got disproportional attention in the details of the police investigation. The Federal Police followed the withdrawal from a bank, got eyewitness accounts, intercepted phone calls dealing with the money and the incursion of the Gautama director through a discreet entry in a public building. It would be strange to focus on the envelope and not a reasonably sized purse in the arms of the visitor.
The minister resigned May 22, without conclusive evidence against him, although indications are far from negligible.
Report
Last weekend, the magazine "Carta Capital" released a report commissioned by the defense of Ivo Costa, the former adviser to Rondeu. Investigator Ricardo Molina de Figueiredo maintained that Fátima had no envelope and that Ivo Costa was holding a blank sheet of paper in his hands.
On the Saturday before last, the evening news on TV had a story about the report. On Monday, Folha headlined it: "Federal Police do not give up on suspicions about former minister."
It said that "according to the Federal Police investigation (the bribe money) was (taken) to the ministry in the pocket of the financial director" of the construction company.
The newspaper did not recall having used the Federal Police's original impression. More serious, it asserted again that Fátima Palmeira and Ivo Costa had an envelope. It said that Molina "concluded that it is not possible to put 100,000 reals in an envelope like the one in the images" when the report goes much further: it denied there was an envelope and asserted that aside from her purse, Fátima was only carrying a cell phone and "a type of book with a dark cover."
I decided to check on it: On the Internet, I looked and looked again at the video transmitted by the Globo TV network, the same one analyzed by Molina.
I did not identify an envelope with the Gautama representative. The former adviser had in hand a white object that appeared to be in reality a piece of paper.
I scrutinized the report, which seems faithful to the images. The report did not say: the volume estimated by the study of a package with 1,000 notes of 100 reals would fit into a woman's purse.
The newsroom said the May story was correct: "(Folha) received information from a qualified source and had access to a jump drive with the images. In them, Fátima carried something under her arm, which seemed to be a dark envelope, and the adviser was also carrying a paper."
"It is arguable, as the report indicated afterward, that these were not envelopes big enough to carry 100,000 reals, but the image does not allow you to say this.
"As the image was analyzed unofficially by the investigators in this case, the 'Federal Police suspect' version was used." The newsroom continues to insist: "There is an object in the hand of the adviser that could be an envelope."
A deficiency in journalism is when some versions are associated without the necessary critical sense. It is enough to observe the video paying close attention to notice that it does not show an envelope, dark or any other color.
Even though Federal Police agents say so, the newspaper should not accept the mistake.
When reporting about suspects and accusations, journalists follow a certain herding effect: one takes off and others run behind and echo the same.
When dealing with corrections or retreating, a slowdown goes into effect, a throwback, often involuntarily. Those who lose are readers.
Neither theatrics nor childishness; boos deserve headline
There was never a sporting event in Brazil that showed a challenge to journalism like the 15th Pan-American Games inaugurated the day before yesterday.
For newspapers, there is an additional challenge: an overdose of information, established by TV and amplified by the on-line news services.
If newspaper readers deserve to get a better synthesis of information from the day before, some of them already saw - through other means - games, matches, wrestling and presentations.
The 2006 Cup confirmed that, without surprises, newspapers wake up wrinkled. The surprises are given as "scoops," opinion, presentation of information and delicious narratives.
The great stories in sports are about triumphs and frustrations. Recounting them does not imply giving up on oversight over power. Folha does well monitoring expenditures on the games with public money.
It erred in not giving a headline yesterday to the historic boos for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the Maracanã stadium.
Refusing the promotional role, nevertheless, should not turn a newspaper into a collection of gripes. It needs to avoid not only in the theatrics but also the childish tone.
Since Wednesday a section about the games has circulated, with a variable number of pages. Folha sent 15 staff members (including two photographers) and six reporters from the Rio bureau - they cover, besides the competition, events in the city, including violence. Columnists for the newspaper and guests are writing. In São Paulo, 13 journalists work on the edition.
Rio dreams of holding the 2016 Olympics. "The Pan American Games is a test, not only for sports, but for the city and the media," said Folha's sports editor, José Henrique Mariante. "We want to find in our coverage a good measure between thrills and criticism, knowing how to value what is important and what is just froth.
Translation by John Wright
