26/04/2009

Journalism does not rhyme with mockery

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

The moralistic bias adopted in the focus on events in Congress is insufficient to collaborate with the improvement of institutions

Congress has been buried for two months under an avalanche of revelations about improprieties that run from castles in the desert to no-show executive jobs given to thousands to free airplane travel for family members, friends and girlfriends.

They are scandals which have ideal characteristics to please the public: shocking, funny, and mundane, arousing justified indignation by those who work hard to pay the taxes which fund this irresponsible spree.

All these things really need to be denounced vigorously. Society has the right to know in detail what public authorities do with their money and demand punishment for those who exceed the limits.

Journalism has the obligation to investigate everything irregular that happens and expose the national loathing of all those who abuse the collective confidence.

Folha has fulfilled its role. But the moralistic bias adopted as a prism to focus on the facts is insufficient to collaborate with improving institutions and brings on itself an enormous risk to help corrode the confidence of society and motivate a paralyzing ire.

This destructive focus reached its apex on Wednesday, when the edition on page A4 tumbled into complete mockery, territory of the humorist, not of journalism.

The rude mockery could feed vindictive anger in readers. But it is difficult to cooperate to organize the citizenry in a way to correct the distortions and improve political practices.

All week, the newspaper dedicated two small items (one on Sunday and one on Wednesday), for a total of 67 centimeters, to offer analyses that barely touched on the problems, understanding them and proposing solutions.

In the book suggested below, John Thompson of Cambridge University came to the conclusion that "the culture of political scandal is difficult to facilitate the task of creating a stronger and more inclusive form of democracy." Folha, with the type of coverage it has been doing, incites this culture.

Why not show readers how to act to interrupt this overflowing absurdity by Congress? What non-government organizations are dedicated to fighting it? What measures can be taken to stop it?

And why not a little self-criticism? Maybe no journalist has acted like the character Jude Law played in the film indicated below, in which he actively collaborates with the flagrant misdeeds of a corrupt governor.

But why did the newspaper not point out earlier the existence of more than two politicians to run the Senate? Why have there been no occasions for the 49 years tickets have been offered from Brasília to Rio, since the capital moved, to mention them? How many times has it not been used as a tool for politicians who uncover the abuses of adversaries only to benefit themselves?

Old documents of Bush and Dilma

Two months before the U.S. presidential election of 2004, the CBS broadcasting network showed a report by respected journalist Dan Rather using compromising documents about George W. Bush, a candidate for reelection, when he was in the military.

CBS did not prove the authenticity of the papers, later confirmed to be fraudulent. The network and Rather were accused of trying to influence the election. Everything indicates that there was no bad faith. But the credibility of both was shaken.

The already complicated story in Folha about the activities of Dilma Rousseff, chief of staff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, during the military dictatorship followed a similar path.

The newspaper has no way to prove that Dilma's police file during the period, reprinted in the newspaper, is authentic. In a phone call to the ombudsman, she said she is sure that it is fake.

The mechanisms to control the authenticity of information in the newspaper must be reinforced. The Internet, where the file has been circulating for months, is fertile for fraud. It is terrible to try to get untangled from it. The cost could be high for the newspaper, the public and the people involved.

What Folha did right...

South Africa
A special report by its own correspondent gave valuable coverage of the South African election

Prouni
A good story on Thursday points to irregularities in the scholarship program

...And where it did badly

Jackson Lago
The political arguments of the former governor of Maranhão state are ignored by the newspaper

Advertisement
Page B4 on Thursday leaves readers confused if it is an ad or news

Presidential travels
A story on Wednesday is curious, but the essential (results of the travels, not the amount) is omitted

Brief money
The thinness of the business section last Sunday is impressionable

To read

"Political Scandal: Power and Visibility in the Media Age," by John B. Thompson, translated by Pedrinho A. Guareschi, Vozes, 2002 (starting at 46.33 reals, or US $20.80)

To see

"All the King's Men," by Steve Zaillian, with Sean Penn, 2006 (starting at 19.90 reals)

Topics most commented during the week

1. New section for readers
2. Ombudsman's new mandate
3. Chatter in the Supreme Court

Who are letters to the editor?
Letters:
44 from readers
11 from people in the news

Centimeters:
370 from readers
188 from people in the news
*from April 18 to April 24, 2009

Worth remembering
Cases that need to be looked at again

How is the investigation into responsibility for the depredation at the Amadeu Amaral School in São Paulo?

Translation by John Wright