"Dear ombudsman, what is happening with Folha's sports department? Are they closing down?" asked reader Oswaldo, worried about his São Paulo, which only won a victory in the fifth round of Paulista. "Among the less important matters, this is one of the most important to me."

The phrase is great, it simply translates the feeling that readers have in front of newspapers, the curiosity for anything. In equal measure frustration occurs when something is not there.

São Paulo's games are not in Folha because Esporte now only covers classics, explains the editor to another subscriber. And as the club has not yet faced any of the other big players in the state, for the time being São Paulo has not been featured in the newspaper. Not that before all the matches of the various competitions deserved attention, Folha was never that, but the minimum record was made.

When the Agora newspaper closed down in November last year, many of its subscribers, who migrated to Folha, asked for the survival of sports coverage, one of the daily's hallmarks alongside the retirement headlines. They only managed to get the popular economy news, which always provided a good audience, already integrated into the Market.

Asked about the issue, the Editorial Department says that the newspaper "is moving towards a qualitative edition, in which it can offer different approaches to the reader, content that he does not find in the massive sports coverage of TVs, streamings and social networks." It will not be easy to convince the São Paulo player in the first paragraph to detach himself from the team's games, as much as Paulistinha, as Juca Kfouri would say, only serves to disrupt the calendar.

Just as it is not easy to convince those who used the Guide to plan the weekend that the newspaper now only does so-called curation.

Folha, however, does not just live with requests for more coverage. There are those who ask for an end to some of them, such as the BBB, a program that generates opinions formed on everything, including herpes, with a lot of engagement on social networks. "There is good receptivity on the part of our public for the material we publish," justified the Secretariat.

Wouldn't there be receptivity for more film and football programming? Lots of, and for more service, live coverage and, why not, even for fait divers. But resources are scarce, and Folha has clearly been making choices for what it perceives as the most important for its maintenance, exclusive information. "We seek to expand the reach and sustainability of our journalism, which translates into a paid digital audience."

Meanwhile, O Globo reports that it was the most read newspaper in the country last year.

IMPRESSIONS

The debate on diversity and freedom of expression continues in the country thanks to the philosophers on duty who start to discuss complex issues, such as the convenience or not of a Nazi party for democracy, with the naturalness of a reality show. In an armed confusion, readers complained about two titles used by Folha during its coverage.

The first was published after the dismissal of the presenter Monark, from the Flow podcast, on Tuesday (8): "Monark's words about the Nazi party divides opinions on freedom of expression." The utterance was considered condescending, an attempt to soften the podcaster's speech. Most of the plaintiffs had blood in their eyes, they wanted summary conviction. The newspaper obviously cannot do that, but it needs to be careful with the weight it gives to things and with false equivalences. It's subtle, but notice how this other headline from Folha does not allow for inclinations: "Discrimination and racism are not protected by freedom of expression in Brazil; understand."

The next day, it was the turn of a Jovem Pan commentator to be defenestrated. Folha reported the fact as follows: "Adrilles Jorge is fired after alleged Nazi salute." It is clear that the group was tangled up with the presumption, suggested by the title, of the ex-BBB not having made the gesture. The matter ended up in the internal criticism of the ombudsman addressed to the Newsroom. It took a lot of goodwill not to see the greeting in the video. In the end, the article ended with another formulation, less interpretive: "Adrilles Jorge is fired after Jovem Pan sees Nazism in action."

The point is not to escape polemics, but to have the intelligence and balance not to become one. The paper's role is to elevate the debate, even as the country insists on returning to the fifth grade.

EXPRESSIONS

Adrilles Jorge was the second Jovem Pan commentator to be fired for anti-Semitism in just a few months. The problem, of course, is far from freedom of expression.

José Henrique Mariante

Trained as an engineer and journalist, Mariante has been a reporter, correspondent, editor and editorial secretary at Folha, where he has worked since 1991. He is the ombudsman.

_{Translated by Kiratiana Freelon}