20/07/2008

The accessory and the essential

CARLOS EDUARDO LINS DA SILVA
ombudsman@uol.com.br

Folha tied itself to the immediate in Operation Satyagraha and still has not done a good analysis about the possible political consequences for the government

The recent arrest of Daniel Dantas, Salvatore Cacciola and others accused of white collar crimes, even though temporarily and independent of proof of their guilt, had an important positive symbolic significance for Brazilian society.

Legal infractions committed by wealthy people, who are respectable and have high social status, are not usually even investigated in Brazil, and even less often punished.

When reading about "masters of the universe," as the great financial geniuses are known, such as Michael Milken, convicted to years in prison in the United States, usually point out these cases as a symptom of their successes and our failure.

Now the country is used to seeing some of its main magnates, who enjoy their fame --justified or not-- as violators of the law and have stopped enjoying guaranteed impunity.

And how does the newspaper deal with this? Operation Satyagraha provoked a true commotion by Folha readers. More than 250 of them contacted the ombudsman, the absolute majority of them critical of coverage.

Many of them seemed groundless to me and motivated only by the sectarian war between the governing, left-leaning Workers Party (PT) and Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) which poisons the social atmosphere and Brazilian politics. But some were very well founded.

The biggest criticism is that Folha stopped doing it. As was asserted by reader Gabriel Pinto, instead of "adopting a critical focus, promoting a dense description of facts, it was lost in the description of useless facts."

An example was the story that seemed to have tried to invalidate the Federal Police investigation, starting with disqualifying the author for committing errors of Portuguese in the report. To the newspaper's embarrassment, its own story contained grammatical errors.

Another example was to summarize the interview of the judge in Thursday's report and the aspects of its psychological appearance instead of discussing, even without quoting, the possibility that it arose from legislation that was modified for connecting the punishment of white collar crimes. Reader Júlio Simões complained about only having learned the judge's opinions because he read them in Folha's competitor.

It involves the tendency to examine the author instead of the ideas. It is contrary to what needs to be done for the intellectual debate to advance.

As reader Maria Tereza de Souza recalls, there was a lack of seeking international examples. What is conceding the right of habeas corpus by courts like in the United States and in Germany? How did Operation Clean hands go in Italy?

Folha has tied itself to the immediate, to the accessory and, in this plan, it did not do so badly. But, even so, up to now it did not show a good analysis of the possible political consequences to the heart of the federal government from Satyagraha nor the internal dissent in the PT that became possible in the confusing way that it occurred.

The newspaper also still did not show details about the degree of influence by the Daniel Dantas group in Brazilian politics. The profile of the financier was short and shallow. It did not explore the depth of his relations with the PSDB, Democratic Party, and Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, as well as the PT, nor figures at the head of these parties.

There were important, unjustifiable omissions. Not a line was published about the business relationship between Dantas' sister and the daughter of São Paulo Gov. José Serra, despite the issuance of a press release to clarify it.

Folha, to its credit, was the one that reported the most --among the big media-- on the suspicions about journalists raised by the police investigation, most of them absolutely inconsistent. But it did not debate important topics resulting from selective leaks by police and government sources.

Polarization of attitudes

Various readers expressed interest in knowing more about the surveys to which I referred last Sunday which showed how the human brain functions to interpret contradictory information, in agreement with previous opinions about how the topic was handled.

The topic is fascinating and has a lot to do with impetuous, radical, exaggerated reactions provoked by the news which attracts general attention, such as the arrest of Daniel Dantas and its developments.

Unfortunately, this is not the place for a deeper debate about the scientific experiences mentioned in the previous column. But they could be read by those who wish. The Internet sites to access academic articles that described them are the end of this column.

Meanwhile, it is worth emphasizing that these conclusions reinforce a pessimistic viewpoint. The hot debate between members of the PT and PSDB tends to deal with what the two biased sides increasingly reading empirical data into objective principles.

To read

"Anatomy of a News Report," by Frederico Vasconcellos, Publifolha, 2007 (starting at 21.60 reals, or US $13.50) - one of the best Brazilian reporters shows the difficulties of investigating companies, the government and courts, precisely those which need to be investigated in the Satyagraha case

To see

"The Bonfire of the Vanities," by Brian De Palma, with Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith and Morgan Freeman, 1991 (starting at 19.90 reals) - the story about a "master of the universe," who in falling into disgrace sees former flatterers, including journalists, celebrate his destruction

"Wall Street," by Oliver Stone, with Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas and Martin Sheen, 1987 (starting at 12.90 reals) - good portrait of the amorality which dominates the lives of people who are devoted to earning money above all

Topics most commented during the week

1. Operation Satyagraha
2. "Exorcism"
3. Municipal elections

What the newspaper did right

Balance
The service offered in the supplement to list 100 ideas to improve the lives of people over 60 was useful

Arts and Entertainment
Intelligent pieces by important authors help to understand the United States on the eve of its most important elections

And where it was wrong

Exorcism
The story generalized all evangelical churches with practices used by one denomination, made mistakes and did not correct them

PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party)
The party that had 7% of the votes in the presidential election has been ignored in coverage of municipal elections; nor was the presence of its candidate in a debate mentioned

-Translation by John Wright