Brazil's current cycle of accusations did not become a journalism anthology but it is a disturbing collection of journalistic missteps.  Journalists seek credibility. but few offer transparency, they intend to bring morality to public life, but the press backstage remains immersed in shade:

** Everything started with a cover story from Veja magazine on kickbacks in the Post Office, a classic of misleading journalism.

** It was completed by two interviews with daily Folha de S. Paulo by federal deputy Roberto Jefferson about  the "mensalão" (big monthly kickback),  a classic of statement journalism.

** Things got worse with an investigation by Isto É Dinheiro magazine, that focused the spotlight on adman Marcos Valério and is being ferociously contested by the competition.

** And, thanks again to Veja, the leak of a secret document pushed the hurricane inside the PT's  national leadership.

These five articles, even if they are the last of the series, have already produced one of the largest political shocks since 1945 and, due to their repercussion, they might provoke profound changes in the political practices and habits of the country.

We still have to see if they will be able to change our journalistic practices and habits. They will become part of Brazil's modern journalism history thanks to the effects they have caused and still will cause. About some of these journalistic pieces, however, there hover shadows concerning the procedures adopted to produce them and the interests that motivated them.

Illicit Operation

It is not the case of the interviews given by the accused-accuser Roberto Jefferson to Folha de S. Paulo. Reporter Renata Lo Prete, the newspaper's former ombudsman, was careful to inform a few days after the first interview that House representative Jefferson, as habitual source, had taken the  initiative of contacting her. It eliminated any kind of speculation about eventual interests or beneficiaries of her revelations.

This sad and noisy season overture played by Veja lacks the same transparency. Two months later, the disclosure of the Post Office kickback video remains wrapped up in shadows, surrounded by doubt and distrust. And, as you might expect from facts kept in the twilight of uncertainty, new questions arise every time the subject is examined or argued under a strictly professional point of view.

That's what happened also to the interview with Jornal Nacional (Globo TV, Thursday, June 30) by ABIN's former agent, Martins de Souza, author of the kickback tape. The private eye - who,  by the way, calls himself journalist  and does business with journalists - revealed that he offered the video to reporter Policarpo Júnior, from Veja's bureau in Brasília, and that he accepted it even before examining its content.

At the delivery time, the journalist allegedly used a DVD's portable recorder to evaluate the images quality. How did the tape reach the journalist and why did he accept the video are matters that haven't been explained till this date.

Both the reporter and the magazine absolutely refuse to offer the readers any kind of satisfaction or explanation. It's not a case of protecting sources: they would have to be revealed when Maurício Marinho, the employee caught on tape, started to testify.

It was exactly what happened and today Veja carries the onus of having been the beneficiary of an illicit operation - blackmail of a scorned corrupt man or Abin's formal action to demoralize an uncomfortable ally (Roberto Jefferson's PTB party).

What Is Behind?

The aura involving the weekly's second bomb (cover story of issue 1.912, of July 6, written by reporter Alexandre Oltramari) is something else: based in an entirely secret document, protected by bank secrecy laws, it was obtained in a way that doesn't raise any suspicion - it resulted from a leak or from investigation, but it is a legitimate reporter work. Private eye is not journalist, secret video is not recognized as a journalism genre yet. Perhaps it will be in the near future.

Different from the others is the performance of Leonardo Attuch, from Isto É Dinheiro, which revealed the existence of the former secretary of adman Marcos Valério, her patriotic indignation and, above all, the former boss's precious agenda book with his daily appointments.

Devastating revelations that no one dared to contest, although wrapped up in controversies concerning their real beneficiaries and/or sponsors. It is one of their strong points - it opens to the readers the discussion on the press backstage - but it is also one of their weaknesses - since they show important contradictions.

The healthy disposition of reporter Attuch to be grilled in the TV edition of the Observatório da Imprensa (Tuesday, July 5, 10:30 PM, live by TVE) puts him automatically in a differentiated level.

But the easy-going declarations of the former secretary in Jô's Program (Globo TV, Wednesday, June 29), the several texts published in Isto É Money and a discreet article ("The secretary's lie", pp 72-73) buried in the middle of 31 pages packed with accusations, in the last issue of Veja, do reinforce crucial questions:

** Why an article that was written in early September, 2004, was published only at the end of June, 2005?

** If the idea was to transform the deposition of Fernanda Karina into a cover story (according to Veja, she posed for pictures in a Belo Horizonte studio), why the revelations were only made public in the magazine site nine months later, during Roberto Jefferson's first deposition in the Chamber of Deputies Ethics Commission?

** Who looked for whom? Was Fernanda the one who took the initiative of searching for the former editor of economy of the daily O Estado de Minas or was the journalist who came to the secretary of the powerful businessman-adman amid an investigation?

** Why Veja, the one responsible for starting the Lula government's most serious crisis, is now investing against  key witness Fernanda Karina and why Carta Capital, the magazine that practically ignored the series of scandals,  now does make an effort to discredit the reporter who discovered the ex-secretary?

** Can we justify the suspicions that behind these accusations war is the telephone operators war?

Values to Preserve

The press cannot play the game that the end justifies the means. The press is a mean - or a set of means, media - that cannot be discredited. The moralization of society is not done with blows of doubtful ethics. The search for truth demands a minimum of transparency from the searchers.

The current hurricane reveals a serious political crisis but, above all, a very serious crisis of values. It befits the press to preserve them. Without values, the press is worthless - together with those receiving the mensalões, the demented, the utopians, the irresponsible and the corrupt, active or passive.

This Watergate, luckily,  was not baptized. It is not Correiogate neither Mensalãogate, much less PTgate. Better would be to call it "The Great Catharsis", the purge. The press cannot be left out.

Alberto Dines, the author, is a journalist, founder and researcher at LABJOR - Laboratório de Estudos Avançados em Jornalismo (Laboratory for Advanced Studies in Journalism) at UNICAMP (University of Campinas) and editor of the Observatório da Imprensa. You can reach him by email at obsimp@ig.com.br.

Translated by Arlindo Silva.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites