dear new york times/alexei barrionuevo...

A few minor complaints about your recent coverage of the Brasilian elections:

1. When you cite sources like Datafolha or Veja, it would be a nice to tell your non-Brazilian readers that they have a strong and freely admitted right-wing bias.

2. You could at least try to hide your disappointment that the "scandal" you tried so hard to peddle didn't really take off.

3. When you say that Lula "deepened" Fernando Henrique Cardoso's economic policies, it would be good to point out that this did not include the wholesale privatization of public resources, or the meek obeisance to the IMF and World Bank.

3b. Actually, maybe it would be better not to say it at all, given that it is not true, per se.

4. The idea that Dilma might steer the country to the left is not, as you suggest, a universal "concern." Nobody really believes that this will happen, but a lot of my friends think it would be a good idea.

I'm not trying to endorse Dilma or anybody else, but I think it's important to look at how relentlessly the NYT distorts its coverage of Latin America to promote a neoliberal agenda that's in line with Brasil's right wing.  Given the paper's importance on the world stage and its supposed neutrality, its coverage is often cited in Brazil as an example of unbiased outside reporting, even though most of its content comes cribbed from ideologically slanted sources (imagine reporting on the States based only on what's in the Wall Street Journal or Fox News).

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/world/americas/03brazil.html?ref=americas