Hacks x Flacks: Globo and the GIGO Fallacy Fallacy

The Fundamental Attribution Error is to explain one’s own behavior and opinions as rational reactions to external circumstances and to the available data, while attributing the behavior and opinions of others to their emotional state and psychological biases. – SkepticWiki

Comunique-se, a trade mag for the Brazilian journalism and PR rackets — under Brazil’s odd industrial classification scheme, the two are considered one and the same racket — reports.

A few years ago, the presiding magistrate of the Labor Tribunal of São Paulo — where my late father-in-law used to practice — was found guilty of involvement in a scheme to inflate the costs of putting up a fancy new building for the court, then skim money off the top.

The federal court hearing the case issued a press release at the time the judge and accomplices were arrested and charged.

The Globo nework’s version of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, the Jornal Nacional, got the story wrong.

In a follow-up, the JN — its Dan Rather is a guy whose name is pronounced “boner” — attributed its own error to the press release prepared by the federal court’s PR guy.

The flack sued Globo, and won, pointing out that all the other news organizations that received the release managed to Ctl-C, Ctl-V the facts accurately.

Technically, this is a case of the “fallacy fallacy” — fallaciously attributing fallacy or error to another.

Here, the fallacy falsely attributed is the GIGO — “garbage in, garbage out” — fallacy.

A news organization evoking the GIGO fallacy is problematic in the first place, however — as the judge in the libel case points out.

It would seem to imply that the reproduction of facts stated in press releases, with no independent corroboration, constitutes the practice of journalism.

Personally, I prefer to read the original press release on PR Newswire. After all, some very talented and high-paid English majors worked hard to write these things, and write them well. I have written some myself.

And unfortunately, sometimes journalists do garble them in translation — which is why they call us “hacks.” Talk slow and use short words. I majored in journalism.

Na ocasião, a Globo noticiou, no Jornal Nacional, que além do ex-juiz Nicolau do Santos Neto, condenado por desvio da verba destinada à construção da sede do Tribunal Regional do Trabalho em São Paulo, e de Monteiro de Barros e José Eduardo Corrêa Teixeira Ferraz, a mulher de Nicolau, Maria da Glória Beirão dos Santos, também estaria envolvida no esquema e que sua prisão teria sido decretada. Após perceber o erro e ser informada do equívoco, a emissora atribuiu a “barriga” ao então assessor de imprensa da Justiça Federal de São Paulo, no noticiário do dia seguinte.

At the time, the JN reported that in addition to the the ex-judge, later convicted along with two others of embezzling money destined for the construction of the court building, the judge’s wife was also involved in the scheme and that a warrant had been issued for her arrest. After perceiving the error and being informed of the mistake, Globo attributed the error to the public relations director of the São Paulo federal courts in a report aired the following day.

Editora Abril: Building the Chinese Wall?

Veja’s Diogo Mainardi on Globo’s late-night Letterman clone (the Jô Xô) repeats the unsubstantiated rumor that senior government officials have bribe-stuffed offshore bank accounts — defending the exercise in logic-chopping gibberish with a gibbering tautology.

The Brazilian journalist does not feel free to write. More than just having to follow the editorial line of the publications they work for, the complaints principally have to do with coercion by political or business groups. –“A Profile of the Brazilian Journalist”

Comunique-se. O portal da comunicação reports on management changes at the Editora Abril, publisher of Veja magazine — a jaw-dropping example of the New Lacerdist yellow press at its most vicious and venial.

The most striking of these is that journalist training will now be handled by the publisher’s Editorial division rather than its Corporate division.

Implying that prior to this, journalists were trained by Corporate rather than Editorial.

I imagine there is an Abril flack somewhere right now drawing up a press release that touts this reorganization as an example of the publisher’s commitment to “innovation.”

Previously, Abril’s top lobbyist and ad sales exec was also in charge of its journalist training — which strikes one as precisely the opposite of the traditional “Chinese wall” between the business and editorial sides that all of us are so nostalgic for these days.

Abril announced a new corporate code of conduct recently in which it announced that limits on gifts to journalists and other personnel — the infamous jabaculê — would be limited to R$100. Not clearly whether that means per day, per hour, per contact, what.

Standard value of gifts journalists may accept at most global publishing firms: R$0, which at current exchange rates equals US$0 and zero Japanese yen. Also zero UAE dinars. And so on. See

• The Abril Pledge: “Information, Education, Culture and Entertainment with Excellence® and Impartiality®”
• Editora Abril: Self-Regulating The Lords of Misrule?

A editora Abril começa o mês de agosto com uma série de mudanças no comando da empresa. Alfredo Ogawa, que ocupava a direção do Núcleo Esporte Motor, assume a Diretoria de Serviços Editoriais, que vinha sendo acumulada pelo vice-presidente de Relações Institucionais, Sidnei Basile.

Editora Abril began August with a series of changes in top management. Alfredo Ogawa, who formerly headed the Motor Sports group, will take over as director of Editorial Services, previously occupied by Sidnei Basile, who simultaneously served as group VP of institutional relations.

Na nova função, que passa do Corporativo para a Editora, Ogawa será responsável pelas gerências de Apoio Editorial, Dedoc, Diretoria de Arte e Editoria de infografia, além do Treinamento Editorial, que será comandada por Edward Pimenta, que já era, no Corporativo, responsável pelo Curso Abril de Jornalismo e outras ações de treinamento.

In the new post, which will be reassigned [from Corporate to Editorial], Ogawa will be responsible for managing Editorial Support, Dedoc, Art Direction and Infographics, as well as Editorial Training, the latter to be managed by Edward Pimenta, former manager of the Abril Journalism Course and other training activities on the corporate side.

Journalism 2.0: The World As It Is Rumored To Be

“Internet user captures the moment: Someone jumps from building in flames.” Source: UOL. Problem: This is the cheapest Paraguayan Photoshop job possible, recognizable as such with the naked eye. UOL ran it as gospel truth on the front page of its portal for hours before recognizing and regretting the error.

“If we continue down the current path, more and more of the news will consist of regurgitated press releases and wire copy,” Torves concludes.

Not to mention uncorroborated leaks from anonymous sources, which is just a variation on the same one-note samba.

This week, for example, Veja magazine creates a horrendous scandal over an alleged bribery scheme at the Rio de Janeiro state independent audit tribunal, the TCE-RJ.

Its source: the proverbial Brazilian “leaky police,” whose cavalier handling of information developed by Swiss authorities in the Alstom case has reportedly led the latter to stop sharing information with Brazilian officials. See

• Leak Journalism Plagues Alstom Investigation in Brazil

The Veja story is in my translation queue — I try to keep track of the “failed prognostication ratio” of various local news organizations as an aid to spending my content budget wisely — but what is immediately notable is that it is based entirely on leaked documents from a police investigation, and lacks any account of how the leaked material came into the magazine’s hands, or from whom.

Compare a similar story by CartaCapital this week, using information from a federal police investigation in Rondônia.

The accusations presented cite the full name, profession and residence of the witness in the case and the full name of the federal police officer she gave the statement to. See

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

The sourcing of the Veja story is handled in precisely the opposite way.

The absence of anonymous sourcing tends to correlate significantly with credibility, I tend to find. Over-reliance on it tends to correlate with the opposite of credibility. It is not a hard and fast rule, but a notable statistical trend, I think.

I can only find two sourcing statements in the entire Veja exposé, both on the order of “police say” or “police suspect.”

That is to say, some member or other of the leaky police force says so, not the police as an institution or an authorized spokesperson.

The Brazilian federal police have taken a very firm position on the semantics of that sort of sourcing recently, insisting that leakers not authorized to speak to the press will be hunted down and ruthlessly scalped of their pensions. No news that this has occurred yet, however.

See also

• Nassif on Veja and the Leaky Police

The charges against the Rio audit board could be true or not, of course — there are well documented cases of such things taking place here, but there are also cases of honest public servants being lynched in the pages of the yellow press — or possibly dishonest onesbeing auto-da-fe’d for acts of dishonesty the did not actually commit. See, for example,

• Veja Só: Editorial Integrity at Brazil’s Grupo Abril

In any event, we should also recall that nothing has ever come of a similar, more recent Veja scandal story — bribery of the elections tribunal of the federal district! — and that the magazine seems to have never followed up on the story. See

• Brazil: Were Elections Judges Bribed?

I never read about any outcome in that case from any source, but then again, the Dickensian dead march to the beat of which Brazilian legal proceedings slouch toward Bethlehem to be stillborn may also be a factor.

In general, however, these sorts of stories are never followed up on. The purpose of this sort of story is to create an immediate sensation, generally targeted at a specific person or institution as as service to a third-party agenda, in exchange for some quid pro quo.

The comments collected by this reporter from Brazil’s Comunique-se — by telephone, presumably — are echoed in a report issued by a committee of the House of Lords this week. Note the Lords:

The market pressures faced by news organisations have led many to scale back on investment in journalism and news gathering. Much of the news available on the internet, on the new television channels and elsewhere is repackaged from other sources.

I sometimes wonder whether these “market pressures” are not really just a phantom menace used as a thin rationale for hardcore union-busting.

At any rate, that is the theme of today’s exercise in ham-fisted translation at the speed of two-fingered typing:

Desk-Bound Journalism

Reporting produced while sitting at a desk in the newsroom: clipping service or real journalism?

Marianna Senderowicz
Comunique-se (Brazil)
July 2008

Translation: C. Brayton
Boi Zebu Editorial Services

Called “deskbound journalism,” this type of reporting has gained ground mainly due to the ease of access to information provided by the Internet, which is constantly updated by news agencies and is a tempting source for those who have too little time or money for on-the-scene reporting.

Jornalismo de gabinete literary means “office journalism,” “journalism done from the office”. Compare the English expression, “phoning it in” (doing a half-assed job.) I have engaged in some creative translation here in rendering the phrase as “desk-bound journalism.” Compare the English expressions “armchair general,” “Monday morning quarterback,” and the celebrated “pyjamas media.” –Trans.

Though no hard data exist to demonstrate that this type of reporting is on the rise, the practice, while sparking controversy among journalism professionals, has found support in a corporate culture and a readership that demand more and more agility in the processing of news, driving a perceived demand for real-time coverage.

“To a certain degree this technique is influenced by the new technologies, but there is also an attempt by news organizations to cut costs”, says Fenaj director José Torves.