29/03/2009

Castles of paper, screen and sand

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

More than ever, it is necessary to be careful so the quality demanded of print journalism is maintained in electronic journalism

Times are terrible for printed newspapers in the United States and Europe. The economic crisis accelerated the erosion of this industry's economic model in the main capitalist countries, and the effects are visible.

On Friday, the last printed version of "The Christian Science Monitor" circulated. On Thursday, "The New York Times" announced 5% cuts for nine months in the salaries of almost all its staff, one more extreme gesture in an attempt to improve its finances, and "The Washington Post" began a process of voluntary downsizing.

On Tuesday, four cities in the state of Michigan, including Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is located, found out that this year they will not have a daily printed newspaper because the only one in each of them (which all belong to a chain) will stop circulating.

A few weeks ago, two traditional newspapers, "The Rocky Mountain News" and "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer" stopped printing and will operate only on the Internet.

The European Federation of Journalists, in a clear attitude of desperation, asked the leaders of parties in the European Parliament to save print newspapers, "a cornerstone of European democracy," they said in a letter.

The Sarkozy administration in France already moved in this direction with a?600 million rescue package for newspapers. In the United States, Benjamin Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, argued in the Senate that newspapers deserve as much assistance as do banks.

This appeal to the state is an attack against the essential principle of independence, an indispensable condition to practice good journalism. It is better to perish than to survive as an appendage of the government.

Despite all these indications and the somber predictions about newspapers most recently in the report "State of the News Media" (http:www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2009/index.htm), the game is still not being played there, and even less so in Brazil.

But the trend of migration of print journalism to the screen is indomitable, even if the print versions are maintained. For this reason, more than ever, it is necessary that the quality always demanded in the printed product be maintained in the electronic.

This week, in coverage of Operation Castle in the Sand, the on-line version of Folha made a terrible blunder, resulting from the structural vices in this platform: the rush to put out information and weakening of control mechanisms.

From 8:41 to 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, the third item on the main web page of Folha Online had a mistaken headline ("PT could be investigated for donations from Camargo"), without any basis in information available. The mistake, which did not appear in the print version of the newspaper, was corrected and the headline (which referred to the governing Workers Party and construction giant Camargo Corrêa) was changed.

The indispensable rigor and caution by the print newspaper should be obligatory in the electronic version. Democratic societies can even survive without printed newspapers, but without independent journalism they would be castles in the sand.

About Portuguesa in soccer and blue eyes in the crisis

An old saying goes "soccer is full of surprises," but there have been none at this newspaper lately. It was established as a Petrean clause to adequately cover the four teams with the biggest following in São Paulo: Corinthians, São Paulo, Palmeiras and Santos.

It doesn't matter that they are not necessarily the four teams in the playoffs for the national championship.

Portuguesa is fighting tooth and nail against Santos for the fourth spot in the semifinals. And almost nothing is published about it, even after important games, such as the one on Sunday in an unprecedented situation.

And if Portuguesa makes it to the finals? Will the newsroom continue to respond to its readers that it does not have the resources nor space to follow it?

*

Folha loves to mock verbal bumbling by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It is almost always in a prejudiced, elitist, exaggerated, innocuous and mistaken way because a president should be judged by his administration, not by his use of language or his general knowledge.

On Friday, without a lot of attention, one of those blunders happened: his accusation that the economic crisis is the fault of "white people with blue eyes." The phrase, with a racist and ideological connotation, was uttered before the head of state of a mostly white nation and merits repercussion.

But to play it as a "gocha" for Lula and show the involvement of blacks, Asians and those with dark eyes in the crisis, the newspaper accepts the premise of the argument and puts itself on the same level.

To read

"The Vanishing Newspaper," by Philip Meyer, translated by Patricia De Cia, Contexto Publishing, 2007 (starting at 36.90 reals, or US $15.85) - the most important book about the future of print journalism

"Vestiges of the Crossing" by José Marques de Melo, Paulus Publishing, 2009 (30 reals) - stories about 50 years of journalism by one of the most significant Brazilian researchers

To see

"The Front Page," by Billy Wilder, with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, 1974 (starting at 33 reals) - one of the classics of cinema about journalism tells an amusing story of a reporter in the 1920s who prefers a good story to marriage

What Folha did right...

Antarctica
A special magazine is an example of good journalism and a big contribution to spreading scientific knowledge

Highways in west-central Brazil
A story which went into the countryside documented reality and warned about problems, practicing the best preventive journalism

Water shortage
Also Sunday, another case of preventive journalism called attention to the possibility of water shortages in São Paulo

...And where it did badly

Gilmar Mendes
The rough results of the discussion with the chief justice were portrayed in a teaser on the front page: "Supreme Court president denies being 'leader of the opposition'"

Oil workers strike
The newspaper had little and poor coverage of an important walkout

-Translation by John Wright