The first time I noticed this was when it appeared in a story published in “Estado de So Paulo” on Nov. 3: “In Minas Gerais, the state government cut 2 billion reals (the equivalent of US $735 million) and reduced the deficit.” The story said that through the end of the year, Gov. Acio Neves balanced the budget. According to the newspaper, “the impact of Acio’s administration has already been praised nationwide and become an export product of the Minas government.”
Afterwards, I looked at the weekly news magazine “Veja.” The edition which began to circulate Saturday, Nov. 20, carried a four-page story that started with a photograph of the governor dominated by the headline “A company called Minas.”
The story is conclusive: “In only two years, the state rose out of red ink thanks to a process of fiscal health based on private sector methods.” Briefly, the story said that Acio inherited from former Gov. Itamar Franco a state “practically bankrupt,” “insolvent,” with an annual deficit of 2.4 billion reals, the equivalent of about $885 million, with no credibility to contract international loans. Two years later, “in record time,” he cleaned up the finances.
For the first time the key words appeared: zero deficit. The terms used to describe the phenomenon were, among others, “austere administrative policy,” “administrative rigor,” “impact management” and “competent techniques.”
The story enumerated the measures taken by the government to reach such success and ended with praise for the director of the World Bank for Brazil, Vinod Thomas.
On Monday, Nov. 22, it was Folha’s turn. The op-ed section carried a piece by Gov. Acio Neves, “Zero deficit in Minas Gerais.” On the same day, Acio had lunch at Folha, the newspaper said in its Tuesday edition.
On Tuesday, Nov. 23, the topic “exploded” in the press, mainly in Minas Gerais. The three main newspapers in the state capital, Belo Horizonte, carried ads by the state government and the state’s development bank on a special page that covered the front pages. “An historic day for all Minas residents. Minas Gerais announces zero deficit.”
Publicity campaign
“Estado de Minas” had this headline on its front page: “Minas ends public deficit.” The newspapers “O Tempo” and “Hoje em Dia” did not have a headline, but had teasers on the front page for the information that the governor would announce that day that he had wiped out the deficit.
On Wednesday, Nov. 24, since the three daily newspapers from Minas Gerais had already used the expression zero deficit the previous day, another focus, but with similar headlines, came out: “Minas will invest 1.7 billion reals (the equivalent of about US $625 million) in 2005″ (“Estado de Minas”), “Minas resumes social investments” (“O Tempo”), and “Minas resumes investments in 2005″ (“Hoje en Dia”). And they all carried at the bottom of their front pages a new ad by the government: “Zero deficit. Minas on board.”
Outside of Minas, “Estado de So Paulo,”and the Rio daily “O Globo” carried small stories about the data announced by the Minas government. The financial daily “Valor Econmico” carried a bigger story. Folha did not publish the news. Throughout the week, at least three columnists reacted to the event: at Folha, Lus Nassif (Wednesday) and Gilberto Dimenstein (Sunday); at “Globo,” Tereza Cruvinel (Thursday).
The headlines, stories, notes and columns were edited together with an advertising campaign by the Minas government that lasted six days. During this period, according to the deputy press secretary for the state, Eduardo Guedes, ads were published in Folha, “Estado,” “Globo,” the Rio daily “Jornal do Brasil,” the financial daily “Gazeta Mercantil,” “Valor Econmico,” the Minas newspapers, the magazines “Veja,” “poca,” “Esto,” and “CartaCapital,” as well as messages on radio and TV in the state.
Critical reader
What made an impression about this was not the initiative by the Minas government to launch a publicity campaign to announce balancing the budget and attract new investments for the state. What makes an impression is the indecisiveness and submissiveness of the press.
The notes and stories published were reproduced uncritically concerning the official data announced by the Minas government. There is no other side, there is no questioning, there are no doubts, there is no curiosity to deepen the topic. The journalistic coverage follows the timing and focus determined by the Minas government.
In all the material that I analyzed I found very few accounts that broke free of the press releases by the governor’s office.
Folha columnists Lus Nassif (“The Minas case and the economy”) and Gilberto Dimenstein (“Is Minas turning debt into gold?”) praise the management and appropriately place the announcement of the zero deficit in the context of the next presidential election. And I found a letter from a reader, Alexandre Magnoni, in Letters to the Editor in “Estado de So Paulo” complaining about the “terrible” highways in Minas Gerais.
Folha did not publish the announcement. The ideal thing would have been to take advantage of the occasion and publish a story that showed how the event was positive and negative for Minas Gerais, with independence and a critical spirit.
I took this topic about Minas as an example why it ended up happening. But it is not the first time, and unfortunately it won’t be the last, that the press is subjected docilely to the promotional agendas of governments.
For their part, there is always the argument that the campaigns meet the public interest. As for the press, there is almost always a lack of willingness to look after other interests.
MAIS!
The new format
I received messages from various readers lamenting the change of format in the arts and entertainment supplement Mais!, which circulates Sundays.
The readers who wrote demonstrate a great appreciation for the section, but they criticized the new broadsheet format. They defend the tabloid as easier to thumb through and save. One e-mail sums up some of the frustration: “I am an assiduous reader and I anxiously await the arrival of the Sunday newspaper to be the first one to grab the section, which is coveted in this house. But today, when I finally found it so much the same as the rest, my first feeling was that of betrayal: how could they make these changes without first consulting, listening to and considering the opinion of readers? What is the meaning of this change?”
I sent the question to the newsroom. I transmit the response I got from the editor of the section, Marcos Flamnio Peres:
“Folha has a tradition of changing graphics and editorial projects for its weekly sections to revitalize them and make them more attractive to readers. The change in Mais! occurs in sequence with other renovations, such as those in other sections, Folhateen, Folhinha and Equilbrio. Mais! last changed its format in December 1999 as part of a wider project at the newspaper to “tabloidize” its supplements. The return to standard format accompanies new sections, such as “Basic Library,” in which personalities chosen by the section write about a book they consider fundamental, and “Counterpoint,” with new approaches by intellectuals about various areas of the arts and knowledge. The section even started a column by psychoanalyst Renato Mezan.”
Are you convinced? Me neither. But many readers liked the change.
Translation by John Wright
