Was candidate José Serra whacked on the noggin with an unidentified flying object hurled by a supporter of his political opponent during a campaign event in Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro earlier this week?
Maybe.
Was the incident transformed into a piece of crude political agitprop by the Globo TV network? Yes.
The contention that he was has been used to paint characterize political opponents as “fascist thugs,” a theme heavily amplified by political advertising in this, the final week of the national runoff campaign.
The response of the opposing camp has been to liken the incident to an infamous penalty kick awarded to Chile after phony histrionics by its goalie.
The SBT network aired a report suggesting the candidate had been struck on the head by a wad of paper, then exaggerated the incident. See
Now, the Globo primetime evening newscast begs to differ, citing cellphone video taken by a Folha de S. Paulo reporter.
The network used violent clashes between police and protesters in France as its lead-in to the story. The 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. cable news editions covered the French civil disturbances heavily, with dramatic footage of tear gas and riot police in action.
The infotainment barrage stopped short of playing “Street Fighting Man” over the footage. Given the crudity of its framing of the incident, I see no reason why it should not have gone whole-hog and used the song.
Precedents
The case is reminiscent of the electric typewriter scandal that overthrew Dan Rather of CBS News in 2004 after a 60 Minutes report on the military service of George W. Bush.
Amateur sleuths organized by the Powerline blog, run by scholars at the neoconservative Claremont Institute, endlessly debated whether a document presented in the report could have been produced by a 1970s-era IBM electric typewriter.
The issue hinged on whether machines of that period could have produced the automated superscripting of the ordinal numbers, such as “5th” and “6th.”
The report, which otherwise provided solid circumstantial evidence that Bush used his father’s influence to avoid combat duty in Vietnam, was thereby discredited.
The “magic bullet” of the Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination also comes to mind.
Update, 22 October: A reporter for a rival network who refers to himself as the “Brazilian Huffington” is now suggesting the Globo footage showing a roll of tape striking the candidate was digitally altered.
He presents with a frame-by-frame deconstruction of the footage aired by Globo. TMI alert! Illustrative of the Globo Standard of Quality, however.
I translate for the record.
Images captured by the Folha show the PSDB candidate, José Serra, being struck by a circular, transparent object during the walking tour of Campo Grande on Wednesday.
The images were examined by expert Ricardo Molina at the request of TV Globo and aired on Thursday evening on the Jornal Nacional primetime newscast.
Molina also examined the images recorded by SBT, in which Serra is struck by an object that appears to be a wad of paper. He concluded they were two different moments.
The SBT video clip is being used to accuse Serra of exaggeration in his reaction to the episode.
The images released by the Folha, recorded with the cellphone camera of reporter Italo Nogueira, who was accompanying the event, show the candidate putting his hands to his head seconds after entering the van on the run.
The candidate arrived at about 1 p.m. at the main promenade of Campo Grande. In an event that was peaceful at first, he greeted voters. During the walk, he decided to enter a store to speak with shoppers.
At that moment, two trade unionists showed up near the store with picket signs criticizing the candidate’s mandate as federal health minister.
According to my personal political focus group of one — my wife, a PT voter with Green leanings — his stint in Health was Serra’s one moment of stellar public service. He played an important role in providing affordable, universal AIDS treatment, and has legitimately played up that accomplishment in his campaign.
PSDB supporters tore down the signs, initiating the first physical aggression. Campaign organizers of the PT joined the anti-Serra duo, generalizing the conflict on the promenade, which involved nearly 100 persons.
Upon leaving the store, the candidate became the target of the protests. PT supporters tried to approach him but were pushed back by PSDB campaign organizers. At this moment, the SBT campaign captured the candidate being struck by a wad of paper.
The 200 Meters of Death
For a stretch of some 200 meters, the PSDB candidate originally tried to ignore the chaos around him. He then grew angry and was contained by his vice-presidential candidate, Índio da Costa.
At the end of the promenade, Serra placed his hand on his head, indicating he had been struck by some object — the moment captured by the cell phone of the Folha reporter.
Green Party federal deputy Fernando Gabeira and Christian pastors who were accompanying Serra say they saw some object striking the candidate.
It has been remarkable to watch the opposition red-bait the situation’s presidential candidate for her time underground as part of an armed resistance group — she did not participate in any armed actions, despite a ginned-up “dossier” to that effect run uncritically by the Folha de S. Paulo — while sparing Gabeira, a coalition partner and very badly defeated gubernatorial candidate in Rio.
Gabeira was one of the political prisoners exchanged for the kidnapped U.S. ambassador during the military dictatorship, in a celebrated incident also involving PT folk devil José Dirceu.
Within seconds, Serra runs into the van, parked on Widow Dantas Street, impelled by security guards.
The van proceeded for about 100 meters, then stopped. Serra got out, surrounded by campaign aides. At this moment, he is shown touching his head, as if in pain. He said he felt “a bit groggy” and put a bag of ice on his head.
Struck by unidentified flying object.
Drives 100 meters.
Stops, emerges, signals pain, applies ice bag to head in presence of photographers.
Give me a break, please.
Source: Jornal da Mídia.
It has been remarkable in all this coverage that no journalist has yet covered the security arrangements for the event — especially significant in a Rio community once dominated by the “Batman”mafia protection racket.
The introduction of the permanent UPPs — “police community pacification units,” roughly — in the shantytowns has been claimed as an accomplishment by pro-situation campaigns.
Do federal candidates use government security, or provide their own?
Update: according to some cross-checking of first-hand accounts assembled by a sympathizer of the federal situation, the two protesters were members of a union representing mosquito abatement workers who lost their jobs when Serra was health minister.
… os seguranças do candidato José Serra, liderados por Júnior, filho da vereadora e deputada estadual eleita, Lucinha (PSDB), rasgaram os cartazes dos mata-mosquitos, aí o tumulto começou.
«Security guards for Serra, led by Junior, son of Rio city councilwoman and state deputy-elect Lucinha (PSDB), tore up the placards of the “mosquito killers,” and there the trouble started.»
Mosquitos are a vector for dengue, and abatement a significant source of patronage jobs.
Some election humor on the episode shows “the great debate” between the wad of paper and the role of tape.
Filed under: Brazil, Democracy, Infotainment, Journalism, Life in Sambodia, Public Relations & Advertising |
The New World Lusophone Sousaphone 