21/09/2008

Don't give up...

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

In the era of the blogosphere, sections of letters from readers of print newspapers are an oasis of good manners and civility; they should be increased

It was 18 years, nine months and three weeks ago that this column dealt for the first time with the Letters to the Editor section. It was done by the first ombudsman, Caio Túlio Costa. The topic has appeared 31 times on this page. Most recently in my mandate, on July 13 of this year.

All of the ombudsmen defended that the space in the section of letters by readers not be occupied by people in the news or their advisers. The demand is one of those which has come most frequently.

Diverse suggestions were made to resolve the problem: increase the section, create one only for answers or the right of response, including "the other side" on the news pages, or follow the model of the "Washington Post," which on Saturdays has an entire page for letters from readers.

The newsroom has remained impervious to this flood of demands. It always responds that "authorities are also readers" and that the division of space between "experts and anonymous" is "democratic."

I don't agree. Nor do I accept any of the justifications given by the nine journalists who have occupied this job. It is not democratic when people who already have an ample chance to express their opinions take the small amount of space from those who have limited access.

Even more so because the space limits imposed on letters from common people do not apply to celebrities. That does not taken into account that the letter from the famous person almost always receives triple the space from the newsroom, which decreases the space for readers.

Bernardo Ajzemberg, ombudsman between 2001 and 2004, pointed out correctly that one of the motives why the newspaper publishes so many answers from people in the news is probably the failure to make reporters fulfill the obligation to listen to the other side.

That way, readers are punished doubly: they don't get both sides of the story on the day the news comes out and it lessens the chance to see their opinion published in the newspaper. Authorities also lose because it is much better to get their side in the original story than having to contest it.

Letters to the Editor is a tradition in the western press. In England in the 19th Century, they amplified the voice of those who could only express their views to the public at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park. In the United States, the intellectual and writer E.B. White said in 1950 that "the privilege of writing to the editor is basic" and that letters to the editor are "the hot dish on the menu of scrambled eggs that is America."

In the era of the blogosphere, sections of letters from readers in print newspapers are an oasis of good manners, civility and respect for the expression of dissident points of view. They should be increased.

Folha is, among the three big newspapers in Brazil, the one with the fewest letters from readers on average, as verified by ombudsman Marcelo Beraba in 2005, and continues.

It created an electronic addition, which doubled the number of letters accepted (www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/paineldoleitor/), but does not satisfy the absolute majority of readers.

Because of this need not met up to now my immediate predecessor, Mário Magalhães, received a message which said "the ombudsman is like a man's breast, which does nothing."

I intend to keep the topic on my agenda so the title of this column can end up with "... until we make it" or "... until we fail."

The wall in New York

The world this week passed one of the most serious crises in the history of capitalism. Someone used the image that it could lead to the fall of the wall in New York, which has for the economy the symbolic importance that the Berlin Wall had for politics.

It could end up not being that way, but the problem is huge. Folha began with poor coverage, but was good on Tuesday and Thursday and, in my opinion, ended up badly on Friday.

On Monday, predictions of the storm were clear. But the newspaper preferred to pass over them and made an illogical story its main one, making the absurd connection between the promises of the federal government to use income from the new offshore crude oil deposits on education with the failure of municipal education in Rio de Janeiro, which got lots of money from oil.

During the week, news and especially analyses of the financial hurricane were extensive, wide ranging and diverse.

On Friday, in my opinion, the newspaper erred in not leading with the most significant effects of the confusion for Brazil, with the rise of the dollar and the first intervention by the government to contain it.

Columnist Vinícius Torres Freire disagreed with my evaluation. He argued to the ombudsman that U.S. government studies which were the object of the headline and Folha were more than this: "Assuming the bad debt is the central problem of the crisis."

For him, the reader would not have a better understanding of the situation if the headline had been about the dollar. To the contrary, it lost its essence.

That might be. But I have no doubt that the emphasis on the plans of the U.S. government weakened Folha's front page and were distant from the curiosity of readers.

What is important is that the newspaper hold their attention and focus in the coming days on explaining to readers what is happening and try to anticipate how these events could transform their lives.

To read

"Dear Sir, Dear Madam - Studies of Letters," organized by Walnice Nogueira Galvão and Nádia Battela Golib, Companhia das Letras, 2000 (starting at 48.89 reals, or US $30.50) - collection of 40 essays about letters of a literary nature that has among its poor cousin letters from readers to editors

To see

"84 Charing Cross Road," by David Hugh Jones, with Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft, 1987 (starting at 19.90 reals) - simple and moving film about the true history of a 20-year correspondence between a book lover in New York and the owner of a used bookstore in London, initiated through a newspaper ad and ending with the two never meeting each other in person

What the newspaper did right...

Small midwife
Simple, well-told story and excellent photo of Roberto, age 8, who helped his mother give birth to his baby sister illuminated Tuesday's edition

Smoking tourism
Supplement devoted to nearly the single topic about the relationship between the tourism industry and tobacco provided a valuable service to travelers who smoke

Automatic corrections with Word
The technology section helped readers irritated by tools in the program, which corrects what it should not

... And where it was wrong

Folhinha
The newspaper erred in not increasing the number of editorial pages in the supplement when it got more ads; on its 45th anniversary, Folhinha and its readers deserve more journalism, not less

Pink Floyd
A two-paragraph story Tuesday was very little to report on the death of Richard Wright, one of the founders of that important band

Sage
As reader Sérgio Nicastri showed, the story about the "Diviner's sage" erred by informing only in the final paragraph of the second story that the drug is one thing and the spice is another

Topics most commented during the week

1. Telephone wiretaps
2. Bolivia
3. Police strike

-Translation by John Wright