An Illustrated Census of Brazilian «Dirty Blogs»

Above, the blogosphere shreds the mainstream media. The Meme Pollution Meme An interesting sidelight to Brazil’s ongoing «bicho» scandal — Al Capone-level numbers racketeers corrupting politicians, police and journalists — has been the accusations of undue influence by a semi-organized faction of self-described «progressive» digital samizdat artists, known to their vociferous opponents as the Dirty [...]

Anxieties of Influence | Some Key Brazilian Bloggers

As a wannabe beat reporter trying to get oriented in a strange land, my raison du blog is to identify influential media strategists and strategies and reverse engineer their techniques and implementations. In some cases, the structure of hyperlinks in a galaxy of related content provides evidence of a Collaborative Networked Organization (CNO) in action, [...]

BINGOs e Broncas | Kátia, Camila e a Lei da Floresta

Recomendo o artigo por Simon Romero do New York Times sobre a Lei Florestal. Diferentemente do trabalho do antigo correspondente principal no País, Larry Rohter, o Romero parece buscar ouvir uma amostra mais ampla de vozes para ilustrar o conflito social, citando outras reportagens boas como as do jornal Valor Econômico. Pode-se até dizer que a Dama [...]

«Pay, José» | Case Studies in Partisan Payola

Above, Felipe Calderón of the PAN National Action Party is endorsed by — no, this is not a Simpsons episode — Brozo the Televisa Attack Interview Clown, 2006. Portal Imprensa [Brazil] | Mexican presidential candidate admits to paying journalists for favorable op-eds You can hold your nose and take the plunge — or hell, you [...]

Mutatis, Mutantes | Is Civita The Tropical Murdoch?

Civita is our homegrown Murdoch: The Observatório da Imprensa (Brazil) reprints this editorial response from CartaCapital magazine. The little newsweekly that could — brainchild of Veja founder Mino Carta and like-minded friends —  deconstructs a recent O Globo editorial alleging that the argument «Roberto Civita is our homegrown Murdoch» fails to mutante the mutatis properly, and allegedly stems from [...]

The Veja File | «Ai, Robot!»

Item, to translate and file under «Journalism» and «Life in Sambodia»: Veja accuses Rio de Janeiro internaut of being a Twitter robot paid for by the government In a growing dispute among Brazilian newsweeklies, the  Turing Test is employed to question the authenticity of critics targeting market leader Veja, alleging whopping ethical failures. After involving [...]

The Waterfall Affair | «Something Rotten in the State of Goiás»

Viomundo reports and I translate and tag for recollection later : “Practically the entire government of Goiás was involved with Charlie Waterfall’s criminal organization, according to federal deputy Teixeira, a member of the congressional probe into the affair. Readers with an historical memory will recall similar cases in Mato Grosso and Piauí states, as well as the [...]

Rohter, Rainha do Deserto Cultural?

Alguém me explique – s’il vous plait – como é que uma versão dublada da peça musical Priscilla Rainha do Deserto – musical de Broadway que por sua vez foi uma versão teatral do filme brega australiano de 1994 — chegou a receber tamanha apoio tanto estadual quanto federal para sua estreia em São Paulo. Esses dias, entre um [...]

Brazilian Journalistic Malpractice | Contemporary Comparatives

Other than this writeup in the regional Diário do Grande ABC, there was surprisingly little press coverage or public relations promotion of last week’s International Seminar on Freedom of the Press at IICS — the International Institute of Sciences, Social — here in São Paulo. The event takes place amid clamoring and yammering for a congressional [...]

Virada Cultural Paulista | The Second Life Effect

Why we avoided the Sambodian Virada Cultural Paulista | 2012, or, traduttores traditores. Neuza and I have not been consuming our fair share of Sambodian culture lately, owing both to ennui and to the odd work schedule of a traduttore traditore. We are also somewhat puzzled over the latest pet project supported by federal and state [...]