There seems to be
a fatal attraction. Weekly newsmagazine Isto É grabs former
Finance Minister Delfim Netto and doesn't let go. Or is it Delfim Netto that
clings to the magazines published by Editora Três? It doesn't
matter, really. The truth is that we are now watching for the second time
in less than 15 days, live and in color, a fascinating spectacle—the
whitening of the former economy czar of the military regime, performed by
a media company that sells its "independent" image in the Brazilian
market.
The seductive image
of the extremely popular congressman from Partido Popular (PP) is featured
on the cover of the November 19th issue of Isto É Dinheiro.
The story is his attempt to respond, with no mention to source or content,
to the accusations included in the third volume of Elio Gaspari's book about
the years of dictatorship (A Ditadura Derrotada—The Defeated Dictatorship,
Cia. das Letras), which was featured very prominently in two major newspapers,
O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo.
The story reveals
a flustered man, driven by the need to decrease the size and speed of the
snowball in order to avoid compromising his term. His state of haste was such
that the story ended up harming, instead of helping, him. Delfim wanted "Omo"
(the famous detergent that according to its makers' ads washes clothes whiter
than any other) but was offered pitch instead. The rotten eggs mentioned in
the book and reprinted in the press became even more visible given his ostensive
disposition to ignore them.
Every client is
entitled to quality services, and Delfim Netto was awarded the `red border'
interview in the flagship magazine (Isto É, 12/3/03, pages 7-11).
Once again the publication omitted any of the news involving him in the beginning
of the month and once again readers see him hailed as the finance wizard who
made the country grow 10 percent a year with the hoax of the "Brazilian
Miracle".
This time a special
focus is provided—Delfim sides completely with Lula and is seen as a
born "developmentist" who plans to help take the country away from
the claws of the IMF. And the man is given an additional benefit: he talks
at length about the competitive bid for the purchase of the FAB (Brazilian
Air Force) fighter jets.
Considering the
environment we live in, where everyone is trying to cover himself, what should
have been a brief parenthesis actually gained huge visibility. Someone is
doing the lobbying and trying to receive some dough from the groups coming
up with the bids. It must definitely be the interviewee who, as the Chopin
lover that he is, must be nostalgic for the times of "polonetas"
(worthless promissory notes). This is a delicate matter, and an embarrassing
one at that. Delfim mentions South Korea and its business with Boeing, but
the magazine features a note about North Korea, a loyal consumer of Migs and
Sukhois. The cure was worse than the ailment. Let's wait for the Corrections—or
for compensation.
DELFIM RIDES AGAIN...
...and the cash register keeps ringing
Delfim Netto is a fast
shooter and never sleeps on the job—thus his longevity. When spending
is necessary, he spends. When favors need to be returned, he is right there
to see that they are returned. Accusations about the financial and statistical
swindles by the Father of the Brazilian Miracle appeared in the national press
on November 5th. That was the day when the third volume of the book by Elio
Gaspari about the "anos de chumbo" (years of lead) (A
Ditadura Derrotada, Companhia das Letras) arrived in bookstores, with
all evidence recorded in remarkable depositions.
On November 17th, the
regular issue of Isto É Dinheiro (number 325, 11/19/03) arrived
in newsstands with a cover story intended to free Maluf's successor from the
difficult situation he found himself in. A masterpiece of cynicism and a depressing
exhibition of journalism at the service of the government. The monstrous photo
on the cover has the following title: "Exclusive Story—The Secret
Files of Delfim Netto". The headline is another pearl: "The former
czar of the economy talks for the first time about how the military contrived
to generate the miracle of growth and then went on to break the country".
This sentence has a record of five colossal lies in just 31 words, as follows:
** Delfim never opened
any file, secret or otherwise. He always prided himself in throwing away any
piece of paper that irritated him. He just gave opinions which, by the way,
were never even investigated, confronted or complemented.
** This is not the first
time that he talks about his administration during the military regime—it's
at least the tenth time.
** It could at best be
the first time in which he saw himself unmasked in such a complete way. He
was naked this time and it was a horrible show.
** The military did not
"contrive to generate the miracle of growth". It was him, Antônio
Delfim Netto, who bought the media in order to invent the first and most disastrous
growth bubble of our economic history.
** The military didn't
break the country, either. The person who did it—because he was at the
service of the military—was himself, Antônio Delfim Netto.
Not content with printing
all these many hearsays on its cover, the magazine still manages to contradict
itself. In the summary (page 7), the interviewee is introduced as "the
most powerful man in the Brazilian economy during the military regime".
In opening the story (page 26), it ranks him as the "operator of the
Brazilian miracle". If he was that strong, then he was responsible for
the disaster.
The most curious aspect
of all this is in the small text that introduces the interview, when Delfim
Netto says that he is going for the counter-attack "with no half-words".
He never mentions the content or the authors of such attack. Pure esoterism.
The story is eight pages
long and lavishly illustrated with archive photos, some in the style of a
family album, with Delfim hugging Paulo Maluf, both rigorously innocent. The
secret archives have not produced any document whatsoever. Just quotation
marks, royally billed.
Alberto Dines,
the author, is a journalist, founder and researcher at LABJOR—Laboratório
de Estudos Avançados em Jornalismo (Laboratory for Advanced Studies
in Journalism) at UNICAMP (University of Campinas) and editor of the Observatório
da Imprensa. He also writes a column on cultural issues for the Rio
daily Jornal do Brasil. You can reach him by email at obsimp@ig.com.br
This article
was originally published in Observatório da Imprensa —
www.observatoriodaimprensa.com.br
Translated by
Tereza Braga. Braga is a freelance Portuguese translator and interpreter
based in Dallas. She is an accredited member of the American Translators
Association. Contact: terezab@sbcglobal.net
