From The Globo Dossier: Kucinski Passes Kamel Through Eye of Needle

Veja parody issue, dated September 25, 1929. “NYSE: A safe investment with guaranteed returns. Also in this issue: Nazi plans for building the world’s safest airship!” Source: Desiclopedia (Brazil)
When Ali Kamel, executive director of Global Journalism Central, reacted with indignation to a recent article by Bernado Kucinski in the Agência Carta Maior, the following was [...]

Rio: “Militias Expand Into the Green Zone”

Message from the Night Vigilante, delivered to our doorstep here in São Paulo: “The peace of mind and tranquility of your esteemed family is worth much more than any modest monthly fee.” (”Smoking Marlboros can cause pickled babies in a jar.”) See also São Paulo Diary: The Avenue of the Owls Irregulars.
Milícias estendem campo de [...]

Nassif: Veja Starts to Eat Its Young

Veja magazine, March 2002: “The Dossier Wars: Politicians and spies have set up a slander industry in Brazil.” Right: And Veja has evolved into that industry’s Yoyodyne. Ask Veja about the work that Jairo Martins later did for it (and testified to a congressional committee about).
Luis Nassif (Brazil), who has written extensively about Veja magazine [...]

VarigLog: Shadows and Fog

If Gol and TAM thought jumping up and down on the corpse of Varig was going to guarantee them a domestic duopoly, they must not have been counting on Trip and Azul.
(Attorney and lobbyist Roberto)Texeira’s role was much more that of the Fool than of a Rasputin in the court of the crimson petistas.
The Gazeta [...]

Ali Kamel: “It Is a Lie To Say That Globo Journalism Central Tried To Centralize Globo Journalism”

Kamel.

Zé Dirceu notes an interesting exchange between Bernardo Kucinski, journalist and former Secretary of Communications of the Braziian federal executive, and Ali Kamel, director of journalism at Globo Journalism Central — a figure I have been known to refer to as “the most intellectually dishonest man in the Southern Hemisphere — over an article of [...]

Character Assassination Veja-Style in the Diamond Fields of Rondônia?

“No to the invasion of Cinta Larga tribal land!” Bad trouble in diamond-rich regions of the far north.
“Newspapers are like revolvers: You keep them around so you can pull them out when it’s time to come out blasting.” — Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Colombian media owner; see “A Newspaper is Like a Gun”: Armed [...]

Is It Pulp Yet? Contemporary Brazilian Popular Fiction

Cheap literary thrills at a price that’s not too polpudo.
I am constantly on the lookout for something decent and not too expensive to read in New World Lusophone.
Brazil lacks the sort of developed publishing and book distribution industry that produces, for example, the likes of Penguin editions or those cheap newsstand thrillers you buy to [...]

Speed Eraser: Road Testing Net Serviços

I have this sneaking suspicion, as you know, that NET Serviços, my cable broadband provider here in São Paulo, as we say in Brooklyn, sucks big-time. See

Navigating With NET Serviços: The Traffic Shaping of Things

Speedtest.net offers an online tool to measure upload and download speeds and compare them with other parts of the world and [...]

Vai Tomar no Q: Record and Globo on Quality of Service

Q Is For Quality: Record and Globo in Semantic Octagon Match! (Google Video)

Dueling ad campaigns as the rivalry between Brazil’s two leading TV networks heats up. Here, upstart TV Record mocks and mimics the legendary (in its own mind) Globo Standard of Quality. Yes, I know the subtitles are fup duck. I am still getting [...]

Hunger Artistry: Confirmation Bias At O Globo

“Globo innovates.” In point of fact, its three-card monte style of journalism tends to employ some of the oldest tricks in the book.
The Bolsa Familia and the Reality-Based Community: Confirmation bias at the O Globo daily (Brazil) is a case for the Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Guy.
The Bolsa Familia Income Subsidy and Inflation
Luis Nassif and [...]