05/07/2009

Great Men Ronaldo and Michael

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

Print journalism should be a civilized counterpoint to the obsession about celebrities by electronic media

This newspaper shows itself to be adept at the "great man theory," formulated in the middle of the 19th Century by Scottish historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle. "The history of the world is nothing more than the biography of great men," he said in his unshakeable admiration for heroes, if they are real, politicians, soldiers, poets or saints.

That way, while reporting Wednesday on the Brazil Cup soccer finals, the headline on the sports section was: "Ronaldo tries to fill in gap in his resume." For Folha, the game was not between Corinthians and International, but one between Ronaldo and his resume.

What was most important was not that the team came back to win one of soccer's most important titles after falling down from Brazil's soccer elite last year. It was that Ronaldo would add a championship played in Brazil to his list of victories.

Not much value was placed on the role of the manager, coaches, other players, fans, or the occurrence of historic, economic and sporting events that carried Corinthians to success. It was the "great man" who won. The rest is the just leftovers.

Fascination with celebrity manifested itself in coverage of the death of Michael Jackson. Folha gave more space and play to him than did American newspapers. The obsession with celebrity, well portrayed in the film indicated below, seems to be becoming a trademark of this newspaper, which in principle is one of reference.

Folha is attuned with the times. In the exemplary book recommended below, Richard Sennett describes how Western society through the 19th and 20th Centuries let itself be dominated by unrestrained narcissism which definitively privatized social existence. And Sennett wrote his work 30 years ago, before facebook and blogs.

Methodical and well-documented, Sennett shows how a lack of civility affected social relations to the point that only personal, individual and references to intimate feelings (especially regarding stars) are interesting.

In the contemporary world, approval or censure is directed toward actors, not actions. "What is important is not so much what the person does, but how he feels about it."

It's that way in all spheres. In politics, for example, "the modern charismatic leader destroys any distance between his own feelings and impulses and those of his audience and, this way, concentrates his followers on his motivations, deviating from the possibility that he be measured by his acts."
The electronic media, Sennett teaches, inspires this collective energy which demands a permanent "psychic strip-tease" for the public by the famous (in the case of Michael Jackson, to the grave). And they do this because society wants it that way.

Print journalism should be a counterpoint of civility. It's a shame that Folha seems to refuse to exercise it.

It's easy to know if the file is false

For the fourth time, I return to the item from the April 5 report in which reproduction of the supposed criminal file of Dilma Rousseff (chief of staff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva) during the military dictatorship was published.

After she questioned the legitimacy of the file, the newspaper recognized it had not proved its authenticity. I believe that the justification for the mistakes committed was insufficient and suggested an independent commission to investigate it and propose changes in procedures to avoid repetition.

The newsroom, however, considered the verification to be completed. The week before last, Rousseff sent me reports by experts she had contracted who attested to the falsity of the document.

Reporting the existence of the files on Sunday, the newspaper, in torturous terms, suggested that there is still a doubt about the authenticity of the document because the original for the reproduction it published was not examined.

If Folha really wants to clarify the topic, it's simple: it should identify the source that sent the file electronically (that way, the public can evaluate its credibility) and urge him to provide the original document for examination by independent experts paid for by the newspaper.

Only this would clarify the case, while for readers specialized in graphic arts, it would not be necessary. Some sent me convincing material to prove the fraud.

One of them, André Borges Lopes, said that "the art department of the newspaper, dealing with such vulgar falsification of any technicality, could detect indications of fraud in five minutes of analysis."

To read

"The Fall of Public Man," by Richard Sennett (translated by Lygia Araujo Watanabe), Companhia das Letras Publishing, 1989 (sold out in bookstores, available at used book stores and websites)

To see

"The Devil Wears Prada," by David Frankel, with Meryl Streep, 2006 (starting at 19.90 reals, or U.S. $10)

Who is letters to the editor?
Letters
from readers 54
from people in the news 10

Centimeters
from readers 378
from people in the news 148
*from June 27 to July 3, 2009

What Folha did right...

Honduras
The newspaper has excellent coverage of the coup after being first news organization in Brazil to recognize the gravity and importance of the crisis to send a reporter to Tegucigalpa

Pina Bausch
Contrary to the exaggerations surrounding Michael Jackson, the death of cinematographer Pina Bausch on Wednesday is registered in a sober, accurate and precise way

... and where it did badly

Serious Congress
On Wednesday, readers are surprised with news about important advances in the progress of two relevant legislative initiatives (decreasing the work week and a law that would require that restaurants which impose a 10 percent service charge give it to the servers); when Congress does something serious, the newspaper customarily gives it minimal attention

Flight 447
Story about the first conclusions regarding the crash of the Air France flight leaves out a mention on the June 6 front page that the rudder had broken

Topics most commented during the week

1. José Sarney (former president and current Senate leader)
2. Dilma's police file
3. Michael Jackson

Worth remembering
Cases that need to be looked at again

The newspaper never covered complaints about irregularities in the purchase of musical instruments by the Municipal Theater in São Paulo in March

-Translation by John Wright