About Speeches, Screams and Whispers

05/24/2016 - 12h23

If the first week of a new administration is insufficient to evaluate it, it's up to journalism to follow the rule of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) in "The Prince": "The first impression of a ruler's intelligence is based on the quality of the men he chooses to advise him."

Interim President Michel Temer announced on May 12 that the team with which he will run the country, at least until the Senate trial of Dilma Rousseff, the president who was temporarily suspended under accusation of the crime of fiscal responsibility in the process of impeachment.

Since the composition of the new Cabinet was presented to the country, the choice of Temer's team has dominated political coverage.

In Folha, the first editions about the new administration had slight reports, without context and critical reviews of the proposals. The newspaper also erred by disorganization, with news spread out in diverse sections without reference to one text from another and without editorial coordination between them.

On the other hand, it conducted good interviews with some highlights about the new administration and invested in long journalistic profiles about its key figures, offering the reader deeper material.

From the swearing-in through Friday, May 20, Folha chose six headlines based on declarations, coming from press conferences or exclusive interviews. The voices of the new ministers should be known and have great journalistic interest.

It would be much better, if not to say obligatory, if the headlines were articulated with reports that bring comparative numbers, heard from independent analysts, given context and point to directions in the discussion. Journalism cannot be limited to bla bla bla.

It lacked adequate measurement of the real possibilities of implementation of each measure announced in comfortable interviews with the new advisers of the new president. What good does it do readers to simply reproduce what each minister says without the necessary discussion about its viability?

An example was the interview with the health minister, Ricardo Barros, who asserted that the government will be unable to guarantee universal coverage stipulated in the Constitution. The next day, surprised by the repercussion, he retreated and said that the size of the publicly funded health care system will not be revised.

The newspaper highlighted the declaration that it reaped, but it did not make an effort to give context to the current situation concerning health care resources in discussing numbers served and expenditures and narrating the bottlenecks in the system.

Interviews by Folha became topics of the debate in the government, showing the relevance of journalism's role in the pubic sphere. A point for Folha. But were readers satisfied?

DROWNING IN NUMBERS

The start of a new administration is a time to bring out cuts, forecasts, and budget reformulating. It's already time to look at numbers released by different ministries, whether they are portraits of the inheritance received from Dilma's administration or plans of the Temer administration.

The newspaper needs to be better prepared to translate and interpret such data for the reader. Not only economic topics but also social themes.

The topic was always considered fundamental, but prickly, and delayed by successive administrations. The Temer administration reopened, for example, the discussion of proposals to reform the retirement system.

The issue lacks depth, memory and analysis. The nature and the cause of the lack of funds could be seen in a different way according to the ideology of an analyst, for example. It's up to the newspaper to stimulate the plurality of these viewpoints about the topic to increase the richness of the debate about the matter.

THE SCREAM OF CULTURE

The Culture Ministry, one of the departments with the smallest budgets since its creation, has become more strident in the new administration.

From the protest made on the red carpet at the Cannes Festival, put on the front page on May 18, the increase of occupations of cultural installations spread around the country, surprising that the chorus of the malcontents was far from integrating with radical social movements.

The newspaper did not discuss in depth what the Culture Ministry represents to the sector, what it has assembled since it was created and if its cost/benefit analysis is justifiable. It did not show numbers, explain policies or demonstrate results.

It even failed to discuss up to what point the intervention of the state in culture is good, bad or anodyne.

It did not want to poke artists who complain about having lost production and how they provoke conservative bastions.

The newspaper did not even occupy itself with showing who are the occupiers of the public buildings around the country.

At the Capanema Palace in Rio, it missed the talented parody of "Carmina Burana," by Carl Off, with a chorus of hundreds of voices shouting "Down With Temer," but it recovered by telling about "I hate you, Temer," with Caetano Veloso, Erasmo Carlos and the malcontents.

Amid so much shouting, it ignored the discussion about the merger of the Science and Technology Ministry with Communications. Without the same scenic and wordy ability, the complaints by scientists were mere whispers.

Translated by JOHN WRIGHT

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