Lapse of memory
By Bernardo Ajzenberg
October 5, 2003
In denouncing Benedita da Silva for an administrative error, President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, in a radio interview with journalists on Thursday, used the following rationale: In the way that she sent a travel request to the presidents office, saying that was for a religious event, it obviously gives you, me and any Brazilian the right to ask: How could she travel to a religious ceremony?
He was referring to the trip the social services minister took to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Sept. 24 to participate in a meeting of evangelicals. Nevertheless, the indignant surprise that even the president unexpectedly showed was not the case at Folha, at least did not in a way that might be anticipated.
The scoop about the ministers unprecedented trip (whose agenda also was understood to include public commitments, her advisers argued later) was reported by the Rio daily O Globo on Sept. 25 in a front-page headline saying: Public funds pay for Beneditas prayers in Buenos Aires. It was based on publication of the travel authorization forms in the governments official gazette the previous day.
The next day, Sept. 26, the same newspaper and O Estado de So Paulo gave a great deal of play (even on the front page) to photographs of the minister giving a speech at the religious event, along with texts carrying statements by the opposition pointing out the use of public money for private functions.
Through Friday, Folhas competitor in So Paulo continued to publish material about the topic for four more days; the Rio paper carried it another two days. What did Folha do? On Sept. 26, it only had a one-column story, with no greater play, on an inside page. After that, nothing. It only returned to the topic on Friday (Oct. 3) after a week, starting with the statement by the president and the decision by authorities to investigate the event (that carried a teaser on the front page and headline on an inside page, besides two pieces on the op-ed page).
So, while the topic of Beneditas trip is not the scandal of the year, it should not evaporate either, as everything indicates it is doing, like a minor event. It speaks about the dangerous abolition of the border between public and private by a member of the government, as relevant a question as many scandals reported in the media. During the previous administration, Folha was at the forefront in these matters, often under the impulse of Lulas left-leaning Workers Party (PT), which was active in the opposition at the time.
Besides this, there is an obvious relationship to the internal political dispute touched off in the government and party just a few months after changes in ministries (Chief of Staff Jos Dirceu has already shown a desire for the minister to leave her job).
What also merits attention is the newspapers timidity in this coverage. It contrasts with the more desirable attitude of keeping watch that it previously exhibited in the coverage of Lulas government and adopted, in similar cases, during the administration of his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
This time it seems that Folha had a lapse of memory in its customary critical sense.
Petrobras belongs to us
After attempting to transform Independence Day (Sept. 7) into a peoples party, the government invested heavily in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of state-run oil company Petrleo Brasileiro (Petrobras).
The initial kickoff occurred in Fridays newspapers (Oct. 3, the date of the companys founding): They were filled with ads by state-run companies, starting with the celebrant which paid to have full-page ads covering some front pages.
I have nothing against this abundance of advertising, especially at a time of crisis. Media entities admitted their difficulties during the week by releasing a document complaining about conditions and demanding a specific financing policy.
It is appropriate here ponder up to what point the avalanche of patriotism concerning the state company was contagious (or not) in editorial content in news organizations. The three biggest newspapers with nationwide circulation Folha, Estado and Globo on Friday published special sections to mark the date (look in the box, also with the full-page ads based on editions from 1953 of these same newspapers).
Thats fine. Its impossible to let the date go by without something special when you are dealing with the biggest company in the nation. The problem is that they all, each in its own way, left a lot to be desired in terms of critical distance. Estado and Globo put out editions that were overly laudatory in their exalting tone, starting with the headlines, a good part of them semi-advertisements.
In compensation, there were mainly in Globo stories about the deaths that occurred in accidents on offshore platforms (highlighting the tragedy on P-36 in 2001), besides controversial aspects regarding events at Petros (the pension fund for workers at the company) and the administration of the company (how subcontracting of workers is alleged to weaken the security of employees).
Folha did not give this section a festive tone, using more sober and less exciting language, which gave it a more critical dimension. It also emphasized, for example, the political and economic use of the company by different governments over the half century. However, it played down the story about the deaths and did not mention Petros or subcontracting.
It would be precipitous to make generalized inferences about the motives that supposedly guided the behavior of each newspaper in this matter. But it is worth remembering, especially at a difficult time, that caution is required to maintain a strong and independent media.
Numbers served
The box to the side sums up the data relative to numbers of readers helped by the ombudsman department in the third quarter. What calls the most attention is the peak in August, with 932 contacts. It is derived mainly from the protests against stories on Aug. 14 that said there were irregularities in the ranking of a player on the Santos soccer team in Brazilian championship games in July.
The matter, about which I commented on Aug. 17, generated 224 messages, most of them by Santos fans. The decline in September (530 contacts) seems to reflect the absence of the ombudsman, on a trip overseas in the second half of the month to participate in a meeting of the Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO).
From January to September, there were 6,100 messages, a 1.8 0ncrease in relation to the same period in 2002. They are mostly in the form of e-mail as the main means of contact (90.40f the total), followed by telephone (6.4%) and letters/faxes (2.8%).
