By Maira Magro
Presidential candidate José Serra (PSDB) became upset with the press during an interview session and accused the paper Valor Econômico of favoring his opponent, the governing party candidate Dilma Rousseff (PT), iG and Folha de S. Paulo report.
A journalist asked Serra, the current governor of São Paulo state, about reports that a former engineering director at the state’s public works office funneled money to the PSDB. When he learned that the reporter worked for Valor, the candidate said that paper didn’t seem care about a federal government influence-peddling scandal and that it writes pro-PT headlines during election season. He ended the interview immediately after, iG explains.
Both President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his preferred successor Rousseff were critical of the press after it published reports on the influence-peddling scandal in Lula's government.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
