We Have a Reporter in the Streets

02/02/2016 - 10h34

The headline in Folha on Friday (Jan. 29): "Odebrecht bankrolled remodeling of country home used by Lula, suppliers say."

It was a scoop, and every scoop deserves to be celebrated, but in this one, in particular, there is a difference that makes the story very noteworthy: the revelation by reporter Flávio Ferreira was obtained through interviews with people up to now outside the radar of investigators in the Lava Jato ("car wash") scandal.

It's unusual when a report is not the result of leaks or official testimony, but by identified people who speak openly (in other words, on the record), an usual event in scandals about powerful people: the owner of a store who supplied construction material, a mason, neighbors, and even an Odebrecht engineer at the Corinthians soccer stadium, who, according to what he told the newspaper, moonlighted by giving informal, free support to the project at Lula's country home when he was on vacation - even without knowing that he had any link to the former president.

Those who follow this column know that it is critical of the dominance of anonymous leaks. Not for being a romantic purist -in the end, big scoops are born this way- but for the conviction that news fed by anonymous sources and those without proof should be the exception. In the "car wash" scandal, it was the rule, mainly during the initial phase.

It was not the only change brought about by the mega-operation. Not so long ago, it was investigative journalism that pulled the trigger on national scandals and "plucked the feathers" that revealed unsuspecting chickens, to use a metaphor attributed to Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki.

The Lava Jato ("car wash") scandal changed the focus, thanks, perhaps to the combination of two opposing, independent movements which occurred simultaneously: an economic contraction, forced by budgets in sectors, and another of expansion, forged by the maturity of institutions.

In recent years newsrooms have shrunk, lost some of their most experienced staff members, and have been overwhelmed by demands for immediate digital coverage.

At the same time, institutions such as public prosecutors and federal police have learned from previous mistakes, gained strength and "expertise," and assumed an unprecedented role as protagonists. Partly stunned by internal jolts, the press got used to it and has followed behind.

The story confirmed in Atibaia inverted this script and imposed its own agenda, following the classical step-by-step work of a reporter: frequent visits to the town, getting to know people and becoming known to them, conversing and checking information to tell a story that was right there, found by the author.

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Defined by what we read?

The debut of Kim Kataguiri as a columnist on the website and the discussion about plurality of opinion exposed in this space led to an interesting exchange of ideas last week with some readers.

I edited below part of a message from José Costa Júnior, professor of philosophy and sociology at the Minas Gerais Federal Institute's Ponte Nova campus, whose reflections are worth sharing.

"The newspaper was always recognized by the distinction of its columnists, who every day brought opinions, the relevant essence, to our homes. However, I have identified a strange movement. The team of columnists increasingly has reflected the debate which is thrashing Brazil: a strange and phantasmagoric ideological division which annoys and provokes instead of informing and discussing.

"What's going on? Playing for - and with - the fans? Offering ammunition to both sides, with columnists increasingly identified with 'the sides'?"

"I know that this is about a movement that will end up dominating Brazilian journalistic territory. Soon, what we read will define us."

"Hegel pointed to reading newspapers like a kind of prayer that is accustomed to understanding reality. However, reading about reality divided into 'sides' informs less, omitting that it deforms."

Translated by JOHN WRIGHT

Read the article in the original language