The election on Tuesday morning of Severino Cavalcanti, of the conservative Progressive Party (PP), for the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies came as a surprise not only to the administration of President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva. The big Brazilian newspapers – Folha, “O Estado de So Paulo” and the Rio daily “O Globo” – also failed. Not because they did not point in advance to the congressman’s victory, but because they were unable to understand the size of the political phenomenon that was suffocating legislative support.
I reread all of the stories published by the three newspapers starting Jan. 25 to do this critique. Throughout recent weeks, these newspapers spent time, paper and ink on official declarations and estimates, with unimportant details and information obviously planted. The result, with rare exceptions, was superficial, repetitive, boring and dispensable journalism.
Mistakes
I point out, as follows, some mistakes that I noticed in the coverage. My main reference is Folha, but the other newspapers had similar problems.
1 – The newspapers did not believe that Eduardo Greenhalgh, the official candidate of the president’s party, the left-leaning Workers Party (PT), could lose because they are used to the idea that historically the majority party wins and because they rely on the official analyses. They acknowledged, in the end, the possibility that Congressman Virglio Guimares, a PT dissident, could advance to the second round with Greenhalgh.
On Sunday, Feb. 13, the eve of the election, Folha’s editorial, “Competition in Congress” reflected the belief: “… the PT leadership prefers to cautiously avoid threats to Guimares, even though it has not given up on the possibility that he could win the election. This hypothesis – or the improbable defeat of Greenhalgh to another candidate – represented a political defeat for the PT leadership …”
2 – The coverage captured from early on the importance of the division that split the PT over the dissident candidate, but it was restricted to the internal party fight and did not know how to perceive the consequences of the event inside Congress. The focus stayed all the time on the maneuvers to strengthen the official candidacy and the threats to punish the dissident candidate. The other candidates were ignored.
3 – The sources were always the same: the PT candidates and their entourages, the presidents and leaders of the parties allied with the government and the opposition (Liberal Front Party, or PFL; Brazilian Social Democracy Party, or PSDB; and parts of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB) and Cabinet ministers. There was no story that doubted the official calculations and perused the Cabinets and corridors of the Congress to speak with the anonymous sources who form the “lower clerics.”
4 – The newspapers, blinded by the certainty that the candidate for the majority party never loses, ignored the signs that things were not going well for Greenhalgh due to what the president-elect called the general dissatisfaction by members of Congress. And there were various indications. I will cite the two most recent. On Saturday, Feb. 12, the day before election eve, Folha’s op-ed page published a piece title “Jinxed.”It said: “An almost imponderable factor in the horse race for Congress is the effort by Severino Cavalcanti. Some members of Congress believe that the “king of the lower clerics” has increased his base of support in recent days, advancing over support for Virglio Guimares.”
In the same edition, reporting on a meeting of Greenhalgh’s campaign and the PT’s worries, the newspaper reported: “Cavalcanti’s advance, by the way, was the topic of conversations at the meeting. One of the leaders asserted that he would not be surprised, with a campaign promise to increase salaries of members of Congress, if he beat Virglio.”
5 – Considering these signs and the importance of the election, it was expected that on the weekend newspapers would assign their main political reporters to the final task of scrutiny, something that would allow it to offer readers, on the Monday of the election, a more precise report than what indeed occurred in Congress. This was not done. The stories on Monday were only quotes that don’t add anything.
6 – Finally, a critique that is valuable for all newspapers, but which is particularly suitable at Folha because it abandoned a tradition of planning editions. The newspaper had the obligation to publish on Sunday or Monday a decent presentation of the five candidates. A decent presentation needs to tell what the candidates think, their work in Congress, reports to electoral authorities about their assets, and a profile.
Throughout the campaign, the newspaper tried to resuscitate the Lubeca case, which involves Greenhalgh. There is nothing wrong with it, but the same effort should have been made with the other candidates. Only after the election did readers know that Cavalcanti holds conservative positions, that he does not keep money at his house and that he has bounced checks.
For the sake of justice, the exception was the column by Janio de Freitas on Jan. 20 which sketched a brief but informative profile of Congressman Severino, proof that the journalist took the candidate seriously.
Reflection
The errors that the newspaper committed are not exclusive to this coverage, but they were repeated and point to a failure in the model of following domestic politics that today is used by the big and medium-size newsrooms in Rio, So Paulo and Braslia. The newspapers should take advantage of the opportunity for serious reflection about the directions of political journalism.
POLITICAL JOURNALISM
“More facts, fewer statements”
I spoke with two journalists about political coverage in newspapers.
Maria Cristina Fernandez, political editor at “Valor Econmico”:
“I endorse the recurring criticism of journalism concerning the agenda set by sources, declarations and absence of reporting, but I do not believe that we will manage to fight it until newspapers return to having more national coverage. Most newspapers have a strong newsroom in the headquarters and another big one in Braslia. The capillarity only appears in catastrophes, crimes and indictments. Politics only exists in Braslia, Rio and So Paulo. The country has a federal structure, and political coverage does not keep up with what happens in 24 units of the federation, legislative assemblies and city councils. There is reasonable coverage of governors in newspapers since they go through Braslia and give their versions, but they are rarely confronted with the reality of their states and the contradictions of their fellow countrymen. Mayors are also always going to Braslia, but readers never know if their demands are just because they don’t know the reality of the municipalities. In summary, Brazil is missing from the political coverage.”
Valdo Cruz, Folha’s bureau chief in Braslia:
“There was a lack of evaluation by the bureau by not believing what it had found in the possibility of victory by Congressman Severino Cavalcanti. The information was published, but it was in a timid form. We determined that Severino would repeat his traditional repertory: he launches his candidacy for the presidency of the Chamber, but at the last minute trades it for another post in the leadership. I believe that the newspaper needs more stories that deepen the investigation of the political underworld in Braslia, about how negotiations happen – most of them involving economic interests. A way to improve is to increase the scope of people contacted, to avoid always speaking with the same members of Congress and the Cabinet, and spending more energy on the sectors that seem excluded from power but have the political strength to produce results like we see now. In summary, escaping, in a certain way, from relying on declarations – even though in politics they have their importance – and seeking more facts.”
Translation by John Wright
