Journalistic coverage of the crisis provoked by accusations made last week by Congressman Roberto Jefferson of the left-leaning Brazilian Workers Party (PTB) entered a new phase, even more complicated than in the previous six weeks.
I believe that there is no doubt that we are experiencing the worst political moment since the end of the military dictatorship. The perplexity and bad feelings are visible, given the uninterrupted series of accusations and indications of irregularities and corruption.
The scenario became even more complicated last week with the expansion of investigations, with evidence that the scheme which centered on Marcos Valrio also benefited members of Congress from the governing leftist Workers Party, or PT, (and not just allied parties) and opposition parties (such as conservative Liberal Front Party, or PFL, and centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party, or PSDB) and the first cases of personal enrichment.
Readers
It is interesting how the type of criticism sent to the ombudsman by readers has changed little by little. During the month of June and I already commented about this previously the daily complaints were frequent and almost all of them similar. Readers mainly questioned what they considered persecution of the PT by the newspaper and partiality in making accusations without proof and statements by a congressman they considered lacking in legitimacy.
The idea that the press participated in a coup against the administration of President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, explained by Professor Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos in his column in the daily newspaper Valor Econmico, was adopted by the majority of these readers. From the beginning of July, however, the documents received by the congressional investigation into the postal service began to emerge, showing a grand scheme of funneling assets to the PT and to allied parties, complaints about coverage decreased and their focus changed.
I continued to receive complaints from readers who believe that the newspaper is anti-PT, but two other types of messages began to arise: readers who wrote asking for more investigations and suggesting ways to report, and those who considered that the newspaper was helping to shield Lula and that this protection was not in the interest of society.
I do not believe that the newspaper is protecting the president, but the caution with which it has treated the institutional crisis and the role of the president is obvious. The case about the company which belongs to Lulas son that received 5 million reals (about US $2 million) from phone company Telemar has disappeared from the newspaper.
The opposition
Until Friday, the newspaper seemed hesitant to expose opposition legislators who had also been beneficiaries of Marcos Valrios scheme. The magazine poca last Sunday published a story showing that the scheme was already functioning in the 1998 election, benefiting legislators in the PSDB and conservative Progressive Party (PP). The revelation, perhaps because it referred to a long-ago date, had no repercussion.
The most recent documents evaluated by the congressional investigation showed on Tuesday the presence of the PSDB and PFL in the movement of money from accounts of the executive branch. Valor had an inside headline saying: Diversions involved PT, allied base and opponents, a summary of the scope of the difficulty in which the case has been transformed. Folha only published the news the next day.
The worst edition, in my opinion, was Fridays, which omitted from the front-page headline that Congressman Roberto Brant, who received 150,000 reals from the account of mining company Usiminas in 2004, belongs to the PFL: Congressman says he received from Usiminas through Valrio.
I dont consider the omission of breaking bank secrecy laws a mere detail for one reason: like all of the cases of financial diversion that occurred up to now refer to parties in the allied base of PT, it required an explanation. Besides this, it was a matter of similarity once the newspaper identified all the parties involved.
With the increase in the number of banks that broke confidentiality records of all those involved in the congressional investigation into the postal service and retreated from the date of the investigation prior to the Lula government, it is probable that the large number of congressmen and parties also included the opposition, whether involving electoral crimes or corruption.
I dont believe that the newspaper will fight again to cover everything that appears. Two editorials from last week, one on Tuesday (Truth and lies) and another one on Friday (Beyond the PT) showed the newspapers willingness to not protect any party or politician.
New phase
As I wrote above, the coverage has entered a new phase. And this occurred for two main reasons. First, because the news will depend increasingly on information that emerged from the postal service. Up to now we had a period in which accusations, declarations and eyewitness accounts predominated. The documents sent by the banks are already giving new direction to the investigations.
Folhas coverage last week focused on these documents and following the information that originated in congressional commissions, the Federal Police and in investigators offices. It is normal that it be that way.
I did a survey of editions from Saturday, July 16 to Friday, July 22 and analyzed 223 stories published by the newspaper about the crisis. This included editorials, opinion pieces, columns and graphics. In journalistic coverage, I classified the unorthodox types with the objective of understanding some details. That way I classified the news into 80 stories (36%) that related, a few exclusively, the facts and data that arose from the official investigations. There were 15 stories with their own investigations (7%) that showed the difficulties that teams at the newspaper are having at this time.
I believe these numbers are positive in comparison with the stories that are only declarative (interviews, repercussions, lectures) that totaled 11. Interviews with accusations, the strength of the coverage in the first phase, practically disappeared last week, when there were only three and none of them relevant. The newspaper gave a lot of space to 16 supporting stories (remembrances, profiles, personalities and didactic information) and the versions of people accused, the so-called other side of the news, with 27 separate pieces outside of the other side built into stories.
Coverage entered another phase for a second reason. The scope of the international crisis changed levels with the open discussion by the opposition of solutions in case of direct involvement by the president in the scandals.
The newspaper gave space to opinions in the editorials (there were six in the period analyzed), fixed columns (30) and opinion pieces by contributors (seven, an average of one per day). This discussion, however, still has not been contemplated in the journalistic coverage. Through the week, I counted only four pieces with inside information about the crisis and three that analyzed it in some way.
I see two other problems in Folhas coverage. The newspaper continues to associate names of people or companies in the scandal without checking the facts and without getting their side. The whirlwind of complaints cant serve as an excuse for the worsening of internal vigilance.
Information is being published by itself. The volume of news is huge and needs to become stronger by assembling it, to show how this puzzle fits together that already has thousands of pieces and still has no design.
While the acceleration of the crisis and its imponderabilities leave no space for much elaboration, it is indispensable that the newspaper take advantage of this period to improve the quality of its journalism and to open up more space for analyses and political discussion with quality, rigor, balance and pluralism.
PHRASE
The newspaper continues to associate names of people or companies in the scandal without checking the facts and without getting their side. The whirlwind of complaints cant serve as an excuse for the worsening of internal vigilance.
