A military coup d’état interrupts the direct elections for president.
The “Diretas já!” movement begins
Part of the press tries to ignore the popular demonstrations.
300 thousand people gathered at the Sé Square for the Diretas Já rally.
Nobody can ignore it anymore.
THE PRO-DIRECT ELECTIONS RALLY
Are you recording?
Ok, it’s recording.
Good evening, Mr. Goulart de Andrade.
Once again with you, your reporter Ernesto Varela.
We’re here… Ok…
Good evening, Mr. Goulart de Andrade.
Once again with you, your reporter Ernesto Varela.
We’re here at the pro-direct elections rally.
You’ve probably seen a lot of reports on this rally
that will be happening this Thursday, today,
in the city of São Paulo.
That’s why I’m going to show you how the people of the press
work and report this rally.
Journalists, reporters, illuminators, cameramen,
people that, like me, dedicate their lives
to the profession of reporter.
Let’s go! … and the civil police are ready.
They’re ready to keep the peace and the order here,
at the Sé Square.
You have a really nice voice.
What kind of lozenge do you take, Antonio?
Well, unfortunately I don’t take any lozenge at all.
I’d love to,
so I could kill the pain I’m feeling
deep in the back of my throat.
Osmar, why did you choose this profession, as a reporter?
Ah, that naturally happened in my life.
It wasn’t something planned, prepared,
like “I want to be this, I’ll be that”.
I always liked radio a lot.
Since I was boy I used to listen to it, to impersonate the announcers.
But I never imagined myself as an announcer.
And now that you’re in the television:
did your family like it?
Are they watching you on TV?
– How’s that? – Oh, they love it.
Now my mother can see me everyday in the countryside,
I say “hi” to her.
“Lath the sloth and slap the fatty”.
Thanks a lot, Osmar.
Why journalists are always complaining?
They’re always complaining…
Why is the journalist such a complainer?
I think it’s part of our personality.
– Is it? – I think this daily frustration
of not being able to express yourself completely
makes us complain about everything.
That’s true. Let’s work, then.
Thanks.
Take a look in there:
a great microphone for a great artist,
as you see.
The press gets pressed, sometimes.
Hey, Henfil, excuse me.
You’re starting a career as a reporter
for RTC too.Is that true?
It is. I’m broadcasting for RTC.
What’s your inclination to be a reporter, Henfil?
When did it start?
It started with the general incompetence,
because I thought…
– Whose incompetence? – Everyone’s, in a way, I think,
it’s not possible anymore.
All this fluency of mine you’re seeing,
I mean, it’s available.
I think that’s pretty much it.
I didn’t get a word of what you just said, Henfil.
You’re a very confuse reporter.
Therefore: competent.
Every reporter has a boss. I can barely pronounce…
Do you think a reporter can say of what he thinks
or he has to say just what his boss thinks he should think?
Look, the boos, he doesn’t think anything.
It’s all about the standard: that’s the problem.
We have a sound standard, and that’s a complication.
We have an image standard, and that’s a complication, ok?
All theses standards are the problems, aren’t they?
I think we should keep talking this way,
because is out of standard.
– The standard is our problem! – It’s not the boss?
It’s the standard.
It usually comes from above, is that right?
That’s the problem: the standard.
Wait, just a second.
Our reporter Henfil just dirtied the camera lens.
Let’s get out of here.
What are the next steps in this democratic journey?
There’ll be a lot shows, mixed concerts, as they call them,
it’ll be all over the country…
We are two teams working together.
We’re all engaged at the campaign, you see.
Will it really work?
I think it will, since they don’t play deaf.
If they play deaf…
Otherwise, it’ll find an echo
and it’ll reach where it has to reach.
Thank you.
This was Chico Buarque’s pronouncement.
Excuse me, why did you choose to be a reporter?
Well, you see, it’s a family thing.
My father is a journalist, my mother is a journalist,
my brother is a journalist, it could only come to this, you see?
This messy-messy profession…
Reporters are all a bunch of dissatisfied people.
They really enjoy complaining,
it’s part of their job.
Let’s go.
I’m here with a reporter colleague from the Folha de São Paulo,
Miguel de Almeida.
Miguel, why did you choose this profession?
I needed to live. I’m a poet,
I’m a writer and I needed to survive.
And journalism luckily helps making a little money so we
can buy some books, make a little trip,
book a hotel room for some baby, once in a while.
So, as I see, you’re fulfilled
with your profession.
No, not at all.
I’m here with Tramontina,
a reporter colleague from TV Globo.
Tramontina, why did you choose this profession?
Why I did?
I chose this profession because
I thought I could do well in it.
Do you think the bosses make us
don’t say whatever we want to say
at the expensive of some guideline, some standard?
Yes, I do.
I think that, once you start
working for a company,
a newspaper, a radio station, a television channel
– and newspapers, radio stations, televisions, they’re all companies –
then you logically is obliged to follow the company’s guideline.
Are you about to make a live broadcast?
Yes, we’re going live, we’re broadcasting now.
Do you generally speak what you want in your profession?
I have a very sincere attitude in my job:
I do whatever I want to.
This is my part of the job.
After that, to decide whatever is shown, that’s not my job.
They can show whatever they want.
It’s the editor’s job, is that right?
For those who don’t know it,
the editor is the person in charge of choosing,
according to his own will, the best parts of the reports
sent by the reporters. For example:
I’m talking to you right now, but I don’t know if the editor
will choose this part to show to you.
Specially on TV,
where editors are very rigorous.
They sometimes make us do stuff we didn’t do.
Didn’t do– Didn’t do–Didn’t do– Didn’t do–
That is, I mean, he must have cut this already,
so I should stop talking.
I’m here with a reporter colleague, Tonico, from TV Globo.
Tonico, why did you choose this profession?
Well, I chose it a long time ago, you know.
I chose it I 1967,
back when I used to edit small opposition papers, as a student.
Oh, is it true? What you’re doing nowadays is a bit different, isn’t it?
Nowadays I make big papers for the establishment.
For example: why did the TV Globo didn’t talk so much
about the direct elections this time?
It’s a company’s decision,
of the company’s CEO, to not cover it.
Till two days ago.
– Now it’s covering it. – Now we’re covering it.
I’m going to talk here to a reporter colleague:
Luciano Borges, from TV Gazeta.
Luciano, why did you choose this profession, as a reporter?
Because I end up meeting a lot of important people. VIP.
You see? Here, today, there’s only VIP.
– It’s impressive. – This is nice, isn’t it?
It’s like a social status. Everyday, my mother goes,
I live in one of those little villas with Italian families,
and she tells everyone.
Like, today he interviewed president Figueiredo,
he interviewed Maluf, he went to the rally yesterday
and saw a lot of important people.
How did you get to work at TV Gazeta?
I had this girlfriend, she studied at the Objetivo school.
I didn’t have patience to wait in there, among the students.
So I used to go up and walk around the Rádio Gazeta
checking the old studio they had in there, the shows.
Then one day I said to myself:
I’m going to work in here.
And I did.
Well, now, like Cide Moreira my reporter colleague
at the Jornal Nacional always says: good evening.