Maria Ines Nassif: “The Danger of Demonizing the Federal Police”

Maria Ines Nassif is the extremely articulate opinion editor of Valor Econômico — the business daily, a joint venture between the Folha and Globo groups, presents real hope for a different sort of future for Brazilian journalism destined for elite readerships. I read it every day! For work, admittedly, but I would read it anyway.
When [...]

Folha Columnist: “The Phantom Menace To Democracy”

Luis Nassif reproduces a column today by Janio de Freitas of the Folha de S. Paulo.
The columnist is reacting to a concerted media campaign by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court here, who is saying in interviews that a wiretap of a conversation of his, published by Veja magazine, proves that Brazil is living [...]

“Brazilian Crime Net Treated Like Facebook By Corrupt Users”

Senasp admite fraude em sistema de dados, mas promete maior segurança: The official Agência Brasil news agency reports that someone not supposed to have the data is getting into a national crime information network and selling it off the back of the truck.
Ouch.
You certainly can’t accuse the AB of sitting on bad news for the [...]

Dantas’ Inferno and the Ghost of Toninho Malvadezas: Working Notes

Here in Brazil, another fascinating little scandal is playing out, as you may have read briefly in the International Herald Tribune (which apparently considers New Jersey and Brooklyn to be foreign nations.)
Veja magazine (Veja lies) recently published a transcript of a conversation between an opposition senator and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, saying [...]

Lies, Damned Lies, and South American Opinion Polling? Or Was IBOPE Just Sloppy?

Ibope “rechaça” denúncia de manipulação: Rio mayoral candidate Fernando Gabeira of the Green Party accuses IBOPE — the Brazilian Nielsen & Co., you can think of it as — of throwing a bias on its polling results.
One for the Numbers Guy — the Wall $treet Journal blogger who often focuses on polling controversies like this [...]

A Fair Question

“How The New York Times Killed Morgan Stanley”

Sometimes, it is said, we use “I know” where we should be prepared to substitute “I believe,” as when we say “I know he’s in, because his hat is in the hall”:thus “know” is used loosely for “believe,” so why should we suppose there is a fundamental difference between them? … the presence of the [...]

Rio Fahrenheit 451: “Armed Firemen Round Up Extra Edition”

The head of the group, who identified himself as a colonel in the state fire brigade, said the objective was to buy up 10,000 copies, though they wound up carrying off only 850, bought from distributors at the door of the newspaper’s central office.
From the front page of O Globo (Rio de Janeiro) today, according [...]

“Dantas’ Inferno and the Dossier Factory”: CartaCapital on the Carla Cico-Kroll Correspondence

Posted to Google Documents: My (hasty) translation of a June 7, 2006 article in CartaCapital magazine on the espionage charges against Daniel Valente Dantas, founding partner of Opportunity, the “brilliant but controversial” Brazilian and Caymans financial services group.
I have been working on completing my scrapbook on the case after a profile of the “quiet Brazilian,” [...]

“Brazilian Money Laundering Policy in the Age of Dantas’ Inferno”

The following superb article on money laundering policy in Brazil in the Age of Dantas’ Inferno was published yestetrday on what appears to be the blog of its author, Caio Junqueira — the Valor reporter, not the actor — and datelined to the Valor Econômico business daily, 26 September 2008.
I have not checked to see [...]