The matter of the meeting between Lina Vieira and Dilma Rousseff is complex, but this is the reason that we have news organizations
The back-and-forth at the presidential palace between the former head of the federal tax office, Lina Vieira, and Dilma Rousseff, chief of staff to President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, led to public exposure of a hornet’s next of political groups and unions which are fighting for power in the government.
Folha, which inflamed the process by publishing the interview with Vieira on Aug. 9, in which she said she met with Rousseff alone at “the end of last year,” did not manage to give the reader a clear vision about which interests of people are at risk by not clarifying whether the meeting occurred and what were the contents and context.
The topic is really complex, to the point that Everardo Maciel, an alleged member of the main opposition party, the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), attacked the former secretary, which now is standard for the opposition, and the Ipea research institute. Anti-government forces accused Ipea of being co-opted by the governing Workers Party (PT), releasing a study which defends Vieira, who, when taking office, was considered a tool of the PT to “sweep out PSDB influences” from the tax office.
But this is the reason that news media exist: to explain difficult situations and reconstruct complicated episodes. The newspaper has not been able to show what distinguishes Vieira’s management from the previous. It asserts that the resignations which occurred after her departure constitute “the most serious crisis in the history of the tax office,” but does not prove it (for example, comparing how many officials at high and mid levels left their jobs when she assumed office).
On Thursday, it described the executive secretary at the Finance Ministry, Nelson Machado, as the minence grise at the tax office, but not listen to or identify his role in the hubub. Nor did it hear from the former secretary, Jorge Rachid. And its interview with former secretary Everardo Maciel came out late, but short and less emphatic in comparison with the one he gave to other news organizations.
There was also a delay in the newspaper reporting that Vieira’s husband was an interim minister in the administration of former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, which is not very relevant, but can’t help but be curious.
Folha also did not identify those who left their jobs, who said they left to prevent “politicization” of the office, remained without employment and lost remuneration, given that it would help the reader to distinguish the degree of abnegation and idealism to which they should attribute.
Three weeks have passed, and we still don’t know who is lying. Establishing what is a lie and if it happened always constitutes an ethical deviation or at times could be allowable or even praiseworthy already occupied the minds of the great philosophers, who did not reach a consensus, as revealed in the interesting book recommended below.
Funnier still would be if the wish of the son of the character Jim Carrey played in the comedy film indicated as follows (making the father unable to lie for 24 hours) could be fulfilled for everyone involved in this controversy.
FIGHTING SYMPTOMS IS NOT ENOUGH
The extraordinary “Character” (Oscar winner for the best foreign film in 1997) shows the way poor families in the Dutch city of Rotterdam were evicted in the 1920s. The character of Dreverhaven does not hesitate to carry a moribund woman from her house and throw her in the street in the cold to comply with the law.
On Tuesday, with a beautifully dramatic photo on the front page, this newspaper showed that the methods of eviction have not changed in the Brazilian city of So Paulo after almost 100 years.
Showing the violence of the eviction was well done. But, after a short item Wednesday about the permanence of many of the 2,000 people evicted in the “shakeout” of the slum and the news about a baby kidnaped on Saturday, the newspaper did not deal with the subject again.
Are the homeless people being accommodated? Are there no other personal stories relevant to tell readers? Is there nothing to be said about the housing shortage in So Paulo?
This is one more case resulting from serious social ills and dealing with them as if this was an isolated episode.
Nobody fights a serious illness dealing only with the symptoms.
TO READ
“The Liar’s Tale: A History of Falsehood,” by Jeremy Campbell, translated by Virginia Martins Cortez, Graphia Publishing, 2008 (starting at 48 reals, or U.S. $25.65)
TO SEE
“Liar Liar,” by Tom Shadyak, with Jim Carrey, 1997 (starting at 9.90 reals)
WHAT FOLHA DID RIGHT…
RETIREES
Coverage of negotiations to give stability to workers ready to retire is well done on Wednesday
SO PAULO IN DEPTH
Publication of a book with a series of stories from last year about the city of So Paulo and ample unpublished information rewards one of the best journalistic projects of this decade
… AND WHERE IT DID BADLY
Lobo Atunes
The fact that Portuguese writer Lobo Atunes is dating a Brazilian journalist does not justify the headline on a section, such as arts and entertainment, on Friday
Kennedy
Material about the death of Edward Kennedy on Thursday makes no reference to his role in fighting against military dictatorships in South America, including Brazil, and apartheid in South Africa
TOPICS MOST COMMENTED DURING THE WEEK
1. Dilma versus Lina
2. Jos Sarney (former president and current Senate leader)
3. Ombudsman column
WHO IS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR?
Letters
from readers 40
from people in the news 9
Centimeters
from readers 398
from people in the news 130
*from Aug. 22 to 28, 2009
WORTH REMEMBERING
Cases that need to be looked at again
An opinion piece on Aug. 8 on page B11 raises a series of ethical doubts about the visit of the communications minister to the Supreme Court on the eve of the decision about the postal monopoly, and the topic is not covered in the story
– Translation by John Wright
