26/07/2009

At the edge of irresponsibility

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

Reading a teaser on the front page about influenza A, even the least paranoid people should have found that the chances of contracting the illness are enormous

The story, and mainly the teaser, on the front page about influenza A (H1N1) last Sunday constitute one of the biggest journalistic errors committed by this newspaper since I assumed this job in April 2008.

The headline on the teaser at the top of the page said: "Swine flu should affect at least 35 million in this country in 2 months." The assertion is taxing and the number is impressive.

The night before, hospitals were overflowing, with lines of eight hours to wait for help.

Even the least paranoid people must have believed that their chances to contract the illness are enormous. Those who had a fever and a cough when opening the newspaper could have sought medical help.

The text in the teaser said that the mathematical model of the Health Ministry "estimates that 35 million to 67 million Brazilians could (instead of should as the headline said) be affected by the flu in eight weeks... The number of hospitalizations would be from 205,000 to 4.4 million."

It is almost impossible to read this and not get alarmed. This more than implies that the mathematical model quoted results from studies starting with the cases of influenza A (H1N1) already confirmed in Brazil.

But no. Those who went to page C5 (and not C4 where the teaser mistakenly sent them) discovered that the mathematical model, published in April 2006, was based on data from previous pandemics and aim at formulating scenarios for the bird flu (H5N1).

There, the story said that "to be a general scheme and not a specific study for the current virus, some caution about extrapolating it regarding the current surge is necessary."

Now, if it needed to be cautious, why was the newspaper so imprudent? Or, as reader Martim Silveira asks: "since current circumstances are not based on anything, what is the relevance of publishing something that evidently could only cause panic in a population that is already overloading health clinics because of the flu when the cases of the illness turned into thousands?"

Many readers contacted the ombudsman. José Rubens Elias labeled the teaser "flippant and irresponsible." José Roberto Teixeira Leite said that "if the objective of the newspaper is to spread panic, it achieved that goal." For José Clauver de Aguiar Júnior, "it dealt clearly with sensationalism."

What's worse is that the newsroom does not admit the mistake. In an answer to the Health Ministry, which tried to reestablish the facts, it responded with formalism, as if the letter writer and readers did not know how to see the obvious. In response to the ombudsman, it said that it considered the report "adequate" and that "informing about the genealogy of the study in the teaser would have been interesting, but was not absolutely essential."

AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS

Folha dealt badly with the death of Walter Cronkite. The news anchor on the CBS broadcasting network between 1962 and 1981 was more than the main journalist in the United States during that period. He represented a type of practice that influenced the profession around the world.

Cronkite was part of a school of professionals who formed the coverage of the Second World War under the command of Ed Murrow, about whom you can learn a little by seeing the film recommended below.

Various obituaries in the American press this week emphasized that he was the biggest symbol of an era that already ended a while back and will not return. That's true. But reading his autobiography, indicated below, could still teach a lot to those who are dedicated to this activity.

One of them is that the moral authority that he enjoyed from the public that could not guess his opinions. Cronkite was proud to be a reporter, not to give his opinions. But in the few times he gave them, they had enormous impact exactly because it was rare and based on facts. The impact was much bigger than a thousand opinions of others.

TO READ

"A Reporter's Life," by Walter Cronkite, translated by Mário Vilela, DBA Publishing, 1998 (for sale at the publisher's website for 19 reals, or U.S. $10)

TO SEE

"Good Night and Good Luck," directed by and starring George Clooney, 2005 (available at video shops)

WHAT FOLHA DID RIGHT...

HONDURAS
Keeping a correspondent with the deposed president, the newspaper gives readers the hot news from where the action is taking place

CAETANO VELOSO
A good interview with the singer-songwriter on Wednesday heats up the debate about the culture law

... AND WHERE IT DID BADLY

ARTHUR VIRGÍLIO
Accusations against the leader of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) in the Senate don't match the graphics which summarize the scandals in Congress on Sunday

ENGLISH TRASH
After having done well last month with the news, the newspaper has done poorly following developments of the case of English trash being exported to Brazil

EDITORIALIZING IN THE NEWS
On Thursday (a story about the code of ethics in the governing Workers Party, or PT) and Friday (about the interview with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva), stories written with an editorial tone undermine credibility of the information

-Translation by John Wright