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 [...]

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 [...]

Ere I Saw Elba Ester | AMLO on the Comeback Trail

At first I found it mildly irritating. Now I find it utterly abhorrent. The U.S. press is reporting on this year’s presidential race in Mexico as though it were a Manichean choice between two sharply defined alternatives: the return of the PRI or the perpetuation of the PAN. The result of this crude statistical hack [...]

«Clean Slate» Law | The Decline and Fall of Senator Torres?

Leandro Fortes of Carta Capital magazine breaks an astonishing story. In 2006 the federal police obtained evidence of ties between gambling racketeer Carlos August “Charlie Waterfall” Ramos and Senator Demóstenes Torres (DEM-Goiás). Three reports signed by Deuselino Valadares dos Santos, head of the financial crimes bureau in Goiânia, reveal that Torres received 30% of the gross from [...]

Abril Fools & The Downfall of Waterfall

Brasilianas.org,a Ning community anchored by economic and  business journalist Luis Nassif — I am a subscriber-contributor — once again raises the specter of corruption in the relationship of the major news weeklies to organized crime. This takes some guts, seeing as how Nassif found himself on the wrong end of a a series of defamation [...]

Todd-Frank and The Risco Brazil

Source: Folha de S. Paulo | 19/02/2012 In an item on financial market regulation in today’s Folha, the São Paulo daily appears to be mistaken or confused about the Dodd-Frank Act of 2011  when it summarizes legal provisions that actually belong to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Dodd-Frank deals extensively with oversight of trading, banking and [...]

Rio | Celebrations to Come Off On the (Black Polka) Dot?

Belying a news flash issued just an hour ago, organizers — if that is the word for what is essentially a low-tech flash mob reminiscent of the opening verses of Piers Plowman — of the Cordão da Bola Preta have received assurances from officers of the state military police that the event will count on [...]

Mea NEWS Corpa | Dines on the NOTW Debacle

Writing in the Observatório da Imprensa, the ever-irascible Alberto Dines trots out the argumentum ad Nazium to give NEWS Corp a good thrashing over this News of the World affair It is a mistake to consider Rupert Murdoch as a contemporary version of those press barons of the past. His lineage does not pass through W.R. [...]

Satanic Mills and The Pigs of Steel

A black-hat carvoaria in Piauí — entire debt-enslaved families engaged in illegal deforestation and the defrauding of carbon-steel production standards.   It is a shame that Brasil Econômico is hiding today’s report on the black-market carbon industry behind its pay-to-play firewall. Although it has taken some time to get up steam, the BE — which takes the [...]

DEMise | The Kassab Defection and the Sambodian Machine

The Estado de S. Paulo reports what we already know: São Paulo is run by a political machine, although the case in point is something of a trivial one. São Paulo, 15 – Appointed civil servants of the city of São Paulo are collecting voter signatures for the creation of the new political party of [...]