What Comes After Last Week's Fight of the Century

05/15/2017 - 12h23

There was the sense of an impending epic tie, a martial-arts political fight, in the journalistic coverage leading up to and preparing the reader for the testimony of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva before Judge Sergio Moro, which took place last Wednesday (the 10th).

In conjunction with social networks, the coverage stimulated passionate supporters rooting for both sides to manifestations, mobilizing thousands of police in the Capital of Parana.

By the end of the testimony, without any unreasonable verbal aggressions or threats of detention, readers/rooters were left with a certain sense of frustration. It was, after all, an important step in the investigation of one of the five cases in which the defendant is a former President of the Republic, without, however, any motive for the climate accompanying the end of a championship match.

The next day, the opening of sealed testimony from political marketing guru João Santana and his wife, Mônica Moura, returned the former president to the headlines. According to them, it was Lula who gave the final word regarding off-the-books contributions for PT Party electoral campaigns.

Readers have questioned what concrete proof exists for crimes committed in the so-called Car Wash investigation, beyond accusations born out of plea-bargain agreements. Some are troubled by the unquestioning reproduction of these testimonies.

Examples: Emílio Odebrecht said "I have no doubt" that Antonio Palocci "could be" a PT Party operator. João Santana commented on criticism by Lula of Graça Foster, who was President of Petrobras at the time and who was turning off the faucet for the construction companies: "Seeing it in hindsight, it looks like there could be something more. I can't say this with assuredness, but it creates a cloud of meanings that could be a little different"

There are already 155 plea-bargain agreements in place. The work is arduous. Reporters have to listen critically to very long testimonies, put together the stories reported by some with those told by others, find and decode documents delivered to the Judiciary, question and compare versions and counter-versions and explain to the reader the evidence or proofs that plea-bargainers provide.

Newspapers evidently have to perform the role of immediately publishing the most important facts. This is what the reader expects. At a certain minimum level, all of them are doing more or less the same thing. Reproducing segments of testimonies, contextualizing the way they are given.

However, newspapers in general, and especially Folha, need to yearn and strive for a more relevant role. If they act only as transmitters, they are dispensable.
I understand the call from readers to publish what exists of concrete proof.

Folha has to be careful in what it declares, while at the same time demonstrating that evidence can be used to construct circumstances that can lead to a conviction by a judge and then on to a condemnation of the accused. It isn't always necessary, contrary to what some readers think, to have concrete proof like bank statements, irrefutably signed documents, recorded confessions of guilt, videos of meetings, etc.

You can't prove things with probabilities, as a justice of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) likes to say, but an accumulation of evidence can turn into proof for attributing a crime to someone.

On the 7th of May, Folha published a story which points the way forward. In the story, it was revealed that testimony from plea-bargainers from Odebrecht and material delivered to the Federal Public Prosecutor as proof contained factual errors, contradictions and inconsistencies, in cases involving governors and members of congress, among the others who have been accused.

I urge that a similar effort be undertaken with regard to the primary players in the Car Wash.

Folha needs to invest a lot in improving and sophisticating the utilization of its digital platform.

With so much news happening all of the time, the digital edition is the decisive tool due to its unlimited space, ability to be updated, and by the potentialities that characterize it.

In the midst of political tag-team wrestling, the reader is the one who gets dizzy. It is up to the newspaper to show what it's got and put itself in the ring.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

Read the article in the original language