|
 At the beginning the chicanery took a long time to be debunked. In a mere eight years, however, the Brazilian society developed ultrafast antidotes and antibodies: the last show of misleading tape-based journalism, a contemporary version of yellow journalism was unmasked in just two days.
The dossier authors are in jail, those who wanted to take advantage by publishing the document have been publicly incriminated, the electoral situation tends to change drastically and the publication that did the dirty little job for crooked politicians was pushed to the grave's edge. Or perhaps it's already tucked inside it, just waiting for earth to be thrown in. The "Vedoin Dossier" was published in a hurry by weekly magazine Isto É on Thursday night, September 21, (the regular issue comes out on the weekend). Friday night, the magazine cover was highlighted during the electoral program of Orestes Quércia (PMDB), a São Paulo gubernatorial candidate. But since Friday morning the Federal Police had already arrested two key figures: the representative of the seller of the DVD produced by the Vedoin famiglia (Valdebran Padilha da Silva) and the buyers' representative, Gedimar Pereira Passos ("hired by the ruling Workers Party's National Executive Committee", according to the Federal Police). The police found in the hands of the two criminals the amount of 1 million and 700 thousand reais (about US$ 800,000) in dollars and Brazilian currency to pay for the dossier. Part of this money, according to the Federal Police, was supplied by the PT; the other part, by an important national-circulation magazine. The megatrickery debunking 15 days before one of the most contested elections since the redemocratization in 1985 - besides influencing the pre-election climate, the result of the ballot boxes and, above all, the post-election unfoldings - should decisively define the role of the press in the Brazilian political process. This is the angle that interests this observer. Gutter Viewpoint Isto É is not the only protagonist of tape-based journalism. The weeklies decadence all over the world helped to push our news magazines to this corner (Veja magazine, for example, revealed the Post Office's kickback video and to this day the Brazilian society ignores the methods and resources the publication used to obtain the tape). The Brazilian weeklies have been alternating with equal determination and irresponsibility in the propagation of the most abject distortion of the sacred right to inform - the publication of charges without any investigation. Isto É developed the tape cult. For the weekly, any revelation as long as transcribed from a secret recording was synonymous with truth. It didn't matter whether the recording was staged, or that the revelation would have more impact if emanating from the Congress tribune or converted into a charge from the Public Attorney Office, even when it was used just to save a criminal's skin (generally one prodigal in granting rewards). The tape and secret dossier cult, besides jeopardizing our journalism in general and the investigative journalism in particular, placed the press in the gutter, brought together the outlaws of politics with the outlaws of the security area. Worse than that: the tape-based journalism developed the Gutter Viewpoint, through which disqualified characters like former São Paulo mayor and governor Paulo Maluf succeeded in propelling themselves in the political scenario thanks to a combination of lack of scruples with inexhaustible resources in fiscal paradises. It befits to notice that the Post Office kickback video was produced by a former-agent of the ABIN (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) and journalist double (Jairo Martins of Souza); and that Gedimar Pereira Passos (the current Vedoin Dossier buyer) also worked in security agencies (the Federal Police) and acted precisely in the information area in the PT. Business Men and Godparents Isto É (together with two other magazines at least) was brought forth and kept alive in the first few years thanks to generous loans from Banespa (São Paulo state bank) when Orestes Quércia was São Paulo state governor. He and Domingo Alzugaray, the capo of Editora Três, that publishes Isto É, always had great affinities. Quércia, then, always liked the smell of ink - if not for the olfactory pleasure, at least to enjoy the media powers: he owned a newspaper in Campinas, he owned the daily Diário Popular in São Paulo (this newspaper was sold to the Globo group and converted into Diário de São Paulo) and today he is the owner of the DCI (Diário do Comércio e Indústria, which obviously has nothing to do with this story). In 1985, when Quércia tried to take over the PMDB (Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement), the party rebelled and launched Fernando Henrique Cardoso to dispute São Paulo's city hall against Jânio Quadros. Quércia allied himself to daily O Estado de S. Paulo, which supported Jânio, and started supplying the newspaper with all kinds of information that might disqualify the candidate of his own party. This is Quércia's line of business. He has tradition and experience not only producing fans but also the mud to be fanned. Isto É is in a pre-bankruptcy state, it doesn't pay its suppliers and many contributors are appealing to the courts to get their money. This week's Veja tells that the magazine is on the verge of being sold to a Rio de Janeiro communication group. The portion of the money that the magazine would put down for the Vedoin Dossier's purchase certainly didn't come out from Editora Três's empty chests; moreover, no bank would lend them such sum in cash. This money came from some partner - historical or new. The immediate utilization of the document by Orestes Quércia, a gubernatorial candidate, puts him as the first but not the single beneficiary of the publication of a slander against his main competitor, José Serra. And, naturally, as one of the suspects as the scandal's mastermind. It's not my intention to minimize the ruling party's as well as the government's responsibility in this first-of-its-kind and surprising episode. This is a matter that political observers will know how to resolve and to carry on. My interest here is to press for a minimum of transparency inside our newsrooms. With businessmen like Alzugaray and godparents like Orestes Quércia it will be impossible to bring about a healthy, plural, reliable and democratic press. Shameful Episode Unless the communication managerial entities find the civic bravery to get rid of the bad apples in their midst the Brazilian media will continue walking sideways like crabs. Businessmen who profit by the tape-based press are the yellow journalism's great instigators. When Isto É Dinheiro (the economy magazine from Editora Três) got a big chunk of money from Marcos Valério to shelve the charges from his secretary Fernanda Karina, it reaffirmed a behavior standard not only for its employees and contributors, but also and mostly, for journalism students. The old Chatô (late media mogul Assis Chateaubriand) had under him some journalists with the highest moral standard who refused to act unethically, but he still manufactured dozens of other little Chatôs. The cover story of Isto É number 1926 is a political dirty trick and a journalistic con game. A classical fib signed by the magazine editor-in-chief, Mário Simas Filho. In contrast to the explanation published by the Alzugaray family those seven pages do not constitute "a journalistic coverage". They are a hoax, a sensationalistic sham. Since by then (late Thursday, September 14) the Vedoins hadn't yet received the remainder of the money they only gave the reporters vague and brief informations. No document, consistent evidence, proof or photo. As Luiz Weis observed in his blog that was not an interview, but a joint declaration by the Vedoins intermixed with formal questions by the reporter trying to simulate a conversation. Actually those seven pages written in a hurry can be summed into two (pp. 30-31) where the reporter hastily used as example a few incoherent data that do not affect José Serra, the dossier's main target. It's obvious that that article should act like a trailer: the article-bomb would be published the following week. After having received the rest of the money the Vedoins then would liberate the rest of the information. Worse than the fib produced and signed by a journalist who occupies important executive position in a national-circulation magazine was his declaration to Folha de S. Paulo (September 19, p. A-11) "...if I knew that someone was buying someone so that someone would give the interview I would also have published that..." This all-is-allowed doctrine prevails today in the once "wonderful world of weekly magazines." Mário Simas Filho then concludes: "From my signature backwards I don't know what happened". Meaning: nothing called his attention, he saw no contradiction between what the Vedoins always told the Congressional Inquiry Committee and what they were telling him now in Cuiabá. He did not find odd the way those informations ended up in his hands, neither the omissions he was forced to deal with. This is an unfortunate chapter of our political history and, at the same time, a shameful episode in the history of the Brazilian press. With characters and plots of such level, the developments are even more worrisome. *** When the Diário da Noite from Rio de Janeiro denounced, in 1960, the scandals magazines and called them "imprensa marrom" (brown press) - the national designation for the American yellow press - their owners ended up in jail. The tape-based journalism should expect the same outcome. 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 from the Portuguese by Arlindo Silva.
 |
Articles 
Subscribe to this comment's feed