Abril Despedeçado

NovaE mounts an anti-hagiography of Citizen Civita.

NovaE magazine has taken up the banner of Mino’s jihad with a vengeance, putting together a “dossier” on, among other media monopolies, the Editora Abril, publisher of Veja magazine.

I will translate one such piece because it summarizes the facts on a topic of interest to me, one that I have often mentioned as a major premise in my own arguments for taking up arms, as a vigilante consumer of information services, against what I see as the violation of the Chinese Wall of journalistic indpendendence by the barbarians at the gate of the business side of the business — and not just at Abril and Globo, either.

It is happening at Reuters and BBC and the Wall St. Journal and News Corp. and its business partners — Globo, for example, and Televisa — and, really, all over the industry, to the great delight and profit of PR revolutionaries like Richard Edelman.

I’ve experienced it myself, after a company I worked for acquired a financial technology business and I began to experience pressure to highlight a certain “convergence,” let us say, between our editorial planning and the “business ecosystem” of that business, which also happened to overlap a great deal with our roster of advertisers.

The article is by Marco Aurélio Weissheimer of Agência Carta Maior and dates from — well, from the primary season earlier this year.

NovaE could have been a bit better about indicating the original run date. Where is it? Grrr. They omitted it. The blogger at Não Acredito notes it back in August 2005.

It is especially timely now because a federal police report on Azevedo’s ties to the “Valérioduto” — a money-laundering scheme run out of Belo Horizonte that topped off the political slush funds known here as caixa dois — is due out tomorrow.

It also happens to be a rather good example of resourcefulness in going after public records not readily available otherwise, though as you will see it comes at the cost of sourcing everything through a PT congressman with an axe to grind.

But at least the axe that is ground is kept in plain sight at all times. Which is, of course, the point.

Veja, the PSDB, and Marco Valério

Data from the TSE show that Editora Abril, owner of Veja magazine, financed PSDB campaigns in São Paulo, among them that of Alberto Goldman. Not illegal, mind you, but it doesn’t hurt to advise the reader. It helps us to understand their editorial line. But what does that have to do with Marcos Valério?

The information comes from the federal Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) and were obtained by the staff of Dr. Rosinha (PT-PR). Editora Abril S/A, which owns Veja, among other publications, donated, during the elections of 2002, R$ 80,700 to two Toucan candidates and one candidate from the PPS. Federal deputy Alberto Goldman (PSDB-SP) received donations of R$ 34,900 from the publishing hosue that year. Federal deputy Aloysio Nunes Ferreira (PSDB-SP), former Justice Minister in the administration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, received a more modest sum, R$15,800. Ferreira is now chief of staff of the mayor of São Paulo, José Serra (PSDB). Emerson Kapaz (PPS-SP), meanwhile, who served two terms for the PSDB before switching parties, got R$ 30,000. According to Dr. Rosinha’s staff, these were the only campaign donations Editora Abril made in 2002.

Around that time, Tancredo Neves died. Also not illegal, and not much of a surprise. It is a useful fact, however, because it helps us to see understand more clearly the editorial decisions of Veja, which took former São Paulo mayor Marta Suplicy over the right to call her the “perua do mensalão”, without presenting any evidence to support such verbal aggression. Perhaps the party loyalties of the magazine’s owners supply us with a more reasonable explanation for such fury.

Editora Abril was also identified as having made a deposit of R$ 303,000 in account belonging to DNA Propaganda, the PR firm owned by Marcos Valério, according to data obtained by the CPI dos Correios and published in the media. Members of the CPI also identified two deposits from TV Globo, totalling R$ 3.6 million, and two from Globosat, totalling R$ 180,000. According to DNA, in the latter two cases, the deposits correspond to payments of commissions and bonuses for the placement of advertising with open-air and cable television broadcastes. In principle, nothing illegal about that, either. But it would be interesting to see what kind of coverage these news organizations provided on the subject of the deposits. Did they get big headlines and cover stories?

In recent days, the revelation that Toucan candidates and others also received money from the accounts controlled by Marcos Valério took many people by surprise, challenging the mass media to adopt a more nuanced tone in its coverage of the money-laundering scandal. The national president of the PSDB, Eduardo Azeredo, had to go on television to offer explanations. Former president FHC hastened to say that it would be necessary to get to the bottom of the matter, but even more quickly said that it was important not to lose focus by dwelling on the past — that is, on his administration. Unlike FHC, the governor of Minas Gerais, Aécio Neves, seemed very concerned with the past and demanded clarifications from four state government aides who received money from the Marcos Valério accounts for election campaigns in 1998. Aécio also seemed worried over rumors that point to São Paulo PSDB members as responsible for accusations that have fallen into his lap. Toucan rivalries over the 2006 presidential nomination will add more fuel to the fire.

And what does Veja have to say about all that? In its online edition of (27), the magazine announced that “the president of the PSDB, Sen. Eduardo Azeredo (MG), reacted swiftly to accusations that he may have received funds from Marcos Valério for his reelection campaign for the governorship of Minas Gerais in1998”. It reported that Azeredo had already placed himself at the disposition of the CPI to explain the accusations, rejecting any comparison with the Minas campaign and the accusations against PT candidates being investigated by the CPI . Not a single line about the R$303,00 that Editora Abril deposited in one of Valério’s accounts. In an official note, not published on the Veja Web site, Grupo Abril stated that it “has a business relationship with the vast majority of PR agencies in Brazil, and that the payment of commissions in the name of such agencies is a normal business practice”. Which is true, as it happens, but that painful discretion and the silence of the magazine on the subject is typical of the firm’s approach to accusations of anything that has the “smell of the Left” about it. In that case, any accusation, founded or not, is immediately splashed all over the cover.

Does the information discovered by Dr. Rosinha have anything to do with that posure? The PT parliamentarian things there are good reasons to think so. “These donations to two political caciques of the PSDB, made by the publishing house that puts out Veja, reveal and intimate relationship between the PSDB and the magazine”, she says. A few days ago, Dr. Rosinha pointed links between the polling organization Ipsos-Opinion (a multinational based in France) and the PSDB. According to him, the magazine used data from the firm to produce cover stories insulting to President Lula. What is therelationship between the two organizations? Ipsos has worked for the PSDB since coming to Brazil in 2001, the PT congressman noted.

He also draws conclusions from the admission by Editora Abril that it supported Toucan candidacies, especially in the case of Alberto Goldman. “Besides having sponsored the Cardoso-era General Law on Telecommunications, Goldman presided over the commission on the “flexibilization” of the state petroleum monopoly. The principal beneficiary of the donations from Editora Abril was Minister of Transportation when Brazilian roadways and ports were privatized”, according to a press release published by the congressman’s office. And there’s more. “One of the largest publishing houses in Brazil, Abril had liquid debt, in 2002, ofR$ 699,5 million. In July 2004, investment funds belonging to private equity house Capital International Inc. took a stake in Abril, profitting from the law sponsored by Goldman”.

Dr. Rosinha says that this deal brought Abril an additional R$ 150 million in capital – and part of that capital may have been used to pay down debt. “The deal involves 13.8% of Abril’s capital. The group’s current debt is R$ 485.9 million”, ahe adds, concluding: “As you can see, even mortgaged up to its eyeballs, the firm did not stop contributing to Toucan campaigns.” So where does that the leave its news organizations with respect to journalistic independence and impartiality?”, the congressman asks.

Veja has vigorously denounced links between the PT and private-sector firm that financed the “mensalão.” There is not a shadow of a doubt but that Brazilian democracy will remain a democracy in name only until, among other things, relationships between the public and private sectors are made transparent to the public. Editora Abril and Veja magazine could set an example and explain what interests were served by their contributions to PSDB candidates. And whether those interests are reflected, in some way, in their editorial choices and emphasis. After all, the lack of transparency in public-private relationships is one of the major factors in the current political crisis. Ou não?

Marco Aurélio Weissheimer (gamarra@hotmail.com )