dimanche, décembre 08, 2013

Samba corruption... the hangover

This post is the sequel of the Samba corruption post I released a couple of days ago where I might have seemed categoric and full of preconceived ideas. But it was only one side of the story. As for every news, as soon as you read it is already both wrong and history fact. I encourage every one to listen to the country and hear all the voices that speak, from facebook, twitter, blogs and newspapers. What remains is a baseline of hope that brazilians are through with corruption, country of low education, high corruption where the money is invested poorly when not kept safe abroad for personal wealth. Things are changing, brazilians are demanding and they want professionalism instead of cheap magic and smoke curtains. I saw this news (in Portuguese) saying that, finally, the game of power from Globo seems over. I was having a discussion with my wife trying to understand how a TV channel could over the years and with the globalization stay always so dominant. Well I read this article and got the answer. I translated it in english for a larger audience to have a grasp of what happened and understand that things, in Brazil, are changing and fast.

The above link, translated in english:

There are many signs showing that the crisis that has developed in the Botanical Garden is here to stay . Growing rumors that the company will not be able to honor payroll and expenses in 2014 and therefore commissioned a study of cuts, mainly in wages paid to actors. For the first time in history, Globo has a manager in charge that came from journalism and used to lower production costs . He was astonished at what he saw in Globo Productions, expenses that go well beyond industry standards. 

And the deviations ?

" There must be a lot of corruption," says a veteran who has held management positions, " One imagines that there is overpricing , things that work well for years . And if he stirs it up there he might fall" he concludes . As we know that the string always bursts from the weaker side, hardly budget cuts will affect the best actors, but the intermediate wages and little thieves as the banks that " deviate clip and elastic". But the fact is that bleeding trigger leaks, raw material for any journalist will never be put in defect in 2014 . After all " In a house where the bread is missing, everybody fights and nobody is right". 

And what's behind this "phenomenon " ? 

A significant drop in sales! Hardly able to keep the Globe BV, the volume bonuses, paid to advertising agencies whenever she concentrates ads on the same channel. The reason ? Less audience. There is no argument that proves the owner that the maintenance of a national campaign in a broadcaster is advantageous, if she does not take the message to the public that it promises. Globo is therefore facing a huge impasse like never seen before . 

But why the audience falls so fast ? 

Analysts polled by this blog say it is time to " review indexes " . The announcement that the competing TV stations just hire another institute to make measurements - using even more meters - is forcing Ibope , which has always been "from the house " , to review its " methodology " . 

Not new, isn't it? 

Any time data is questioned . Since the defunct TV Manchete, of Bloch, who in the '90s challenged Globo's fields where she boasted of having more competence : soap opera and major television news coverage , such as Carnival . At the end of the same decade , another competitor also accused Ibope of manipulation: SBT. Silvio Santos came to ban the audience meter of his station , a sign that did not trust the numbers. But not if none of the cases Globo agencies and TV Globo were concerned. 

What has changed ? 

Recently TV Record thickened the chorus , accusing Ibope of consolidating their numbers down and the competitor station up. That's what finally triggered the search for a more independant system of measurement. Finally was created a culture broth necessary to question the ethics of the competitive practice of Marinho's channel.

But this is only one side of the crisis? 

Yes, it really is " picking " on their side is that for the first time there is no political support from older times . From time to time, the station is also under fire from social networks . Their actions and their methods are questioned all the time .

The signal chickened when?

In June , a crowd of protesters decided to march toward the company's subsidiary in São Paulo on the Cable-Stayed Bridge , new postcard of the city , shouting slogans against the manipulation and the monopoly exercised by the group . " That created enormous instability.We stayed inside afraid of invasion and vandalism" said one official, who was required to wait after hours for the crowd to disperse before leaving the building that night . 

And do not stop there ... 

Everyone remembers that renowned journalists began to be harassed during covering, cars vandalized and torched, reports aborted for safety and a huge effort had to be made in the months after to try to rescue the image and confidence of the channel. But the damage was already done . Today , the station is treated with hatred. Their news lost credibility nor the recent game of chairs implemented worked. 

And friendly fire ? 

Fátima Bernardes and Zeca Camargo left for line shows, which for Globo Production was another sign that journalism progresses on schedule. Result: boycotts . Is difficult to work in some programs , which became the target of friendly fire or internal competition . Another destabilizing factor . 

But that is nothing 

The blow was the scandal of the offshore banks accounts to evade tax authorities. Estimated debt with penalty and interest came to be a billion dollars . That's right , one billion, all audited , documented , judged, condemned , but not paid because of spectacular actions, which involved bribery , theft of public faith document , blackmail , intimidation and even exchange of gunfire , that elicited a typical modus operandi of the best scripts of the films shown in Prime Time. Some maintain that the broadcaster has bought stolen documents from the IRS and to recover the document on the day of the sale, they had forged a policeman striking to send a TV crew to cover the event . 

Any signs of cooling dow?

It seems that this time , however there are still some political action in Brasilia , the order is moving  the process forward . " Let Globo Bleed " was the mantra as it is sung in Bossa Nova very softly , an allusion to the celebrated declaration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Tucanos chiefs , during the Mensalão scandal and the possibility of impeachment of President Lula . Even today the process that pilfered Revenue " has not showed up ." But it is one of the best campaign and blackmail dossiers around the block. 

This weakens the image of the Brothers 

To appear smiling in photos that illustrated the news that today they sum up one of the greatest wealth of the country , the Marinho brothers also contribute nothing to improve the image of the company. In an unjust and unequal country like ours , the news has a devastating effect on the image of the conglomerate . The public begins to think , albeit empirically , that they are the typical white-collar criminals . People who attend the social columns , " detached " , celebrities , but not worth , in the jargon of the class walking train " a sour pot " . 

With a combination of these , what to expect ?

With the words of our worshiped Marcos Valle : 
Today is a new day
Of a new time that begins
From these new days
the joys will be for all
All we need is wanting
All our dreams will come true
The future has already begun ... 

Sought without much interest in knowing its opinion , I admit, the broadcaster would not comment 

Thank you