12/08/2007

Journalism Knocked Out

By Mário Magalhães
ombudsman@uol.com.br

At the end of the night on the first Saturday of the Pan American games, reporter Paulo Cobos arrived at a restaurant in the Barra de Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro to share a shrimp risotto with two colleagues from Folha. They did consume even half of the platter.

Cobos was the one who ate the least - some know how to "satisfy" hunger with a "scoop" sent a little earlier to São Paulo: the desertion of the first Cuban athlete, a handball player. It was a good start to coverage about the Caribbean delegation.

Afterward, with the disappearance of a gymnast's trainer and a pair of notable boxers, Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara, the newspaper got an exclusive interview with a German boxing promoter who said he had signed the champs to a contract.

The writer was reporter Eduardo Ohata, a former amateur boxer whose resume summarizes, in three fights, three defeats by technical knockout. Fidel Castro cited the new "scoop" in the official daily newspaper "Granma."

In the final stretch of the competition, Folha let down its guard. It reported that in the canoeing there was "another Cuban trying to create confusion." Which Cuban, what confusion, why one more? It did not say.

The team's departure was treated as "dispersal" because of "rumors of mass desertion."

As it happens, there was no lack of opportunity to escape in the pilgrimage the Cubans made to street markets in Rio.

In my daily critique on July 30 (available at www.folha.com/br/ombudsman), I listed inconsistent points in the stories.

I wrote: "What I condemn is, at this point in the 21st Century, ideology in sports coverage based on the editorial premises of opinion."

With the reappearance of Lara and Rigondeaux, the lightning trip and anemic transparency of Brazilian authorities, the opinion seemed to overcome the facts in Folha.

Less information

On Wednesday, the editorial "Rights knocked out" asserted that the government "violated" the Constitution and the right to asylum. As for the hypothesis about "routine operation of repatriation," it attested: "This would be a case of Cuban athletes in fact wanting to return to their country... the circumstances of the deportation, meanwhile, make this hypothesis a type of fairy tale."
It continued: the athletes "were kept incommunicado." It lamented that they did not have "contact with representatives of independent institutions, such as... the Brazilian Lawyers Association (OAB) or federal officials... If such interviews had occurred, at least there would not be doubts about the real willingness of the athletes to return."

Until then, the news focused on statements made to federal police, the chatter between government supporters and opponents, and the fake journalism in "Granma."

An admirable story in the Rio daily "Extra" on Thursday reconstituted the nearly two weeks during their revelry in freedom. Besides recounting the excess of steak and gunmen, the newspaper talked with lifeguards and the fisherman with whom the boxers asked to call the police, with the intention of returning to Cuba.

From what is known today, there was no request for asylum. Representatives of the OAB and federal offices were with the foreigners and heard their desire to "return."

It is not the role of the ombudsman to discuss the merit of editorial positions. It is legitimate for the newspaper to have them and publish them. In this episode, however, it seems to have too much opinion in contrast to so little information. And it was premature to confer the status of fact to what was supposition. Since the controversial "dispersal," the opinion space appeared to influence the news.

Readers would win if Folha demonstrated by investigation of the story the same determination it showed with opinion when the facts still recommended prudence.

Mysteries still need to be investigated: the break of the fighters with the Germans; eventual common actions by the allied Brazilian and Cuban governments against fugitives and agents; why the federal police, in an obscure way, avoided the press; the threats of Fidel's political police against families of opponents; and much more.

The commitment to facts does not relate to the evidence of the Cuban regime as a one-party dictatorship in which unions and private business, strikes, independent newspapers, books, and Internet access are prohibited, and those who yell "Down with Fidel" are beaten.

The boxers have a right to try their luck where they can be understood. It is painful to imagine their future outside the boxing ring, as "repenters" - humiliation that the Brazilian military dictatorship imposed on adversaries "convinced" by torture.

Election crowns Godard with... 3 votes

Folha has promoted historic cultural "elections" of personalities by readers (those on the Internet). It made noise about the choice of the best in Brazil, with 200 illustrious and almost-illustrious voters.

In the name of transparency: even knowing that, as sophisticated as the jousting of the arguments was, treated like a joke, the "lists" delighted me.

I went to Mais! (arts and entertainment) on Sunday after reading on the front page: "Survey points to Godard as best filmmaker nowadays, followed by Lynch, Resnais and Coppola."

In the section, the headline: "And the crown goes to... Godard!" The "fine line": "At Folha's invitation, 16 critics and directors vote and elect the Frenchman as the best filmmaker alive; Lynch, Resnais and Coppola followed behind."

How many voted for the winner? Three! The newspaper published the consecration by perhaps the smallest electoral college of "cultural lists" for all time.

This type of initiative makes work. That way, the triumph of Jean-Luc Godard with the support of only three is not sustained even as a hobby.

"Clairvoyant" sees new tragedy and gets space in Folha

When so many families bury their dead and succumb to the tragedy at Congonhas Airport, when so many are afflicted with uncertainties about aviation, Folha highlighted the day with a kick by a so-called "clairvoyant" from Águas de Lindóia in São Paulo state. The headline: "Prediction of air accident agitates on the Internet; investigators point to indications of fraud."

The opening: "A supposed premonition agitates discussion groups on the Internet and becomes a topic at bars. She said that there would be a new accident in a large airplane on Oct. 29 this year, with at least 600 deaths."

The story said that the "prophet" predicted the victory of Geraldo Alckmin against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula won) and an attack that did not occur against the pope.

It is scary that the newspaper published with airs of seriousness, at a time unpleasant to hearts, a story of this type. "Clairvoyants" are given to entertainment journalism, behavior or fun.

Within three sad pages, it is even more inappropriate to tell the daydreams of vultures hungry for the spotlight and seeking a credulous audience.

-Translation by John Wright