Its too early to judge the coverage of the war by the United States against Iraq. At the start, it calls attention to the inclination by U.S. media to support the action of George W. Bush or just be resigned to it, even critically.
In the same way, with the exception of the United Kingdom (where there is division), the European press vehemently condemns Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The fact that RTP, Portugals state-run network, rather than CNN, was the first network to show the images of the initial attacks remains curious.
In Brazil, the main newspapers have been against the conflict and Bushs unilateralism in their editorials from the start. The attitude adopted by Folha for the coverage of the war has been like this: Empire attacks. The Rio daily O Globo had: Bushs war. It remains to be seen up to what point this opinion will compromise journalistic impartiality and equilibrium in the stories and analyses published.
Folha has one big trump card: It is the only Brazilian daily, up to now, to have gotten an entry visa into Iraq to send special reports (reporter Srgio Dvila and photographer Juca Varella).
According to the managing editor, the request was made Jan. 21, but only on Feb. 3, after various requests, did the Iraqi Embassy in Braslia agree to analyze it, demanding a profile of the two journalists.
A positive sign came on March 13, but the visa was given only after a personal conversation with the journalists by Ambassador Jarallah al Obaidy on March 15.
Dvila and Varella took a two-day course on war survival and left for London, where they bought bulletproof vests, helmets, masks to protect against radioactive dust and chemical and biological arms, as well as communications equipment.
They arrived in Jordan on Tuesday, March 18. After being turned down 11 times, they found a driver who carried them, for US $200, to Iraq via the Amman-Baghdad highway at 85 miles per hour.
Lets hope that the newspaper, for the benefit of its readers, makes good use of this trump card.
With scolding, without scolding
In two stories, one on Monday and another on Wednesday, Folha reported that President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva used Wednesdays ministerial meeting in the presidential residence to shake up his team, to demand more results and better performance.
A story on Thursday with inside information about the meeting reported that an awaited subtle sermon to the ministers did not happen. Therefore, there was none of the scolding that had been expected.
The fact that this could signify a change of intentions in presidential behavior was not in the contrast between information in Folha and in O Estado de So Paulo about the same event.
Under the headline, Lula demands more action and less intrigue from his ministers, Folhas competitor reported that during the meeting, the president also scolded his collaborators who could not resist the spotlight …
Which of the newspapers ignored the chance to report something wrong from one or another version of the participants in the meeting? How is it that serious news organizations get information that is so clearly opposing about a single event?
The backdrop of the disagreement could be the result of how information is checked, the degree of confidence of the sources and checking the revelations.
One of the groups of readers (either Folha or Estado) was misinformed. Those who read both newspapers must, at the very least, be confused.
Adviser-reporter
There are many complaints by journalists about the difficulty of access and obtaining information about the new government. Along these lines, a symptomatic event happened during the week in relation to the coverage of Lulas lunch with architect Oscar Niemeyer (the architect who designed the futuristic capital) on Tuesday.
Although reporters had access to both individuals after the event, the presidents press secretary, Ricardo Kotscho, wrote an op/ed piece and made it available to newspapers afterward.
Among the best-known newspapers, the op/ed piece was printed by Globo, and the Braslia daily Correio Braziliense used passages. I spoke with Kotscho, and the press secretary said that he did not intend to make this a habit but that it could happen again.
I fear that the idea, paradoxically, ends up feeding those complaints of journalists. I believe it is improper to merge the functions of press secretary and reporter.
In any case, the responsibility about whether or not to print the piece will be that of the media. The Lula-Niemeyer matter resulted, in and of itself, in something inoffensive. But if the habit takes hold …
The judge, Gaza and the dog
The symbolic importance of this murder is that the crime seems to have beaten and intimidated society more than a discreet advertisement on the front page … Such a violent event does not occur daily in civilized countries where the mafias do not run society, places that do not appear to include Brazil.
These are passages from an e-mail from a physician-reader who was saddened by Folhas coverage on Saturday (March 15) about the killing of judge Antonio Jos Machado Dias of Presidente Prudente, So Paulo state, apparently on the orders of organized crime. And he is right.
The scandalous case, with international impact, landed on the front page of the newspaper with only a one-column teaser on the lower left part of the page.
Inside, in the national edition, it was placed at the foot of the page of daily news, becoming the main topic, at the top, only in the So Paulo edition (which closed at 11:23 p.m.).
On the front page, the change only came in a later edition, which closed at 1:30 Saturday morning, under a bigger headline over four columns, but still below the fold.
This was not, however, the only example of the week in which Folha showed little sensitivity to journalistic relevance of a topic whether of the event itself or its symbolic significance.
On Monday, at least 11 Palestinians, including a 4-year-old girl, were killed in the Gaza Strip in confrontations between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen. The event, however, ended up far from the front page of Tuesdays edition. Worse, it was mentioned only in a roundup of briefs at the bottom of the world news page.
The most curious episode involved the dog Michelle, when the main newspapers on Thursday published a photograph of Lulas fox terrier arriving at the presidential residence, where there was a meeting of ministers, in a vehicle intended exclusively for official use.
Folha mentioned the event, saying that the vehicle was for exclusive use of the presidents office, but did not publish the compelling image of the dog in the car, nor did it make it clear to readers that it could have been an irregularity.
The photograph came out on Friday, illustrating a story about the debate stimulated by Michelle in Congress. This timidity contrasts the openly critical tone adopted in 1991 when the wife of the then-minister of labor and social security, Rogrio Magri, was caught using an official government van to take two dogs to a veterinarian.
On May 15 of that year, the matter was put on the front page of Folha and got a lot of space on page 4.
The degree of irregularity in the situation involving Michelle is not clear. But, at least for its symbolic importance and for the unusual nature, the discreet, reserved editorial treatment given to it suggested a clear example of the saying that the same rules are apply differently to different people.
