News outlets boycott poll showing Dilma tied with Marina in the second round.

Shortly before 11:00 AM on September 9, 2014, the website of the National Confederation of Transport (CNT) released the "121st round of the CNT/MDA survey." According to this survey, Dilma and Marina are once again tied in the second round.

In the 120th round of the poll, released on August 27th, Marina had 43,7% and Dilma, 37,8%. Given the 2,2-point margin of error for the CNT/MDA polls, in the worst-case scenario for Marina, she would have 41,5% and Dilma, 40%. In other words, the PSB candidate was winning against the PT candidate outside the margin of error.

Thirteen days later, the 121st CNT/MDA poll shows that, in the same second-round simulation, Marina rose 2 points (within the margin of error of 2,2 points) to 45,7%, and Dilma rose 4,9 points (well above the margin of error) to 42,7%.

The gap between Dilma and Marina in the second round, therefore, narrowed from 5,9 percentage points to 3 points (outside the margin of error).

The poll is excellent for Dilma because, in addition to returning to a technical tie in the second round, the MDA poll confirms the Ibope and Datafolha polls from last week, which already showed a downward trend in Marina's lead over Dilma in the second round.

However, the CNT/MDA poll shows a significant drop in Marina's 7-point lead over Dilma in the second round, a lead that the latest Ibope and Datafolha polls showed. In those polls from last week, the PSB candidate's lead had fallen from 10 to 7 points.

Despite being sensational, the news was boycotted on the UOL and G1 homepages, and while it was published on Estadão's homepage, the headline inverted the most important fact of the research.

The Estadão newspaper highlighted that "Dilma's advantage over Marina decreased in the first round," in contrast to the fact that Marina's advantage over Dilma practically disappeared in the second round, which is the most important fact.

Although the Folha de São Paulo website's homepage reported that Dilma tied with Marina in the second round, only subscribers can read the articles published there. The UOL portal, which has far more traffic because it offers content accessible to anyone, did not publish the news until at least 13:30 PM on Tuesday, September 9th.

What is most striking, however, are the portals controlled by Globo. G1 and O Globo's website, up until the time mentioned above, had not published any news about the CNT/MDA survey.

Although predictable, it's worth noting that Veja's website also refused to publish a poll showing a consistent recovery for Dilma in the election. The portals IG, Terra, and R7 published the poll. The first two featured the news on their homepage; the R7 portal, owned by Record, did not.

Given the above, the Blog anticipates a strong media reaction against Dilma. However, the pool of potential attacks has greatly diminished. The "plea bargain" that Veja illegally leaked affects Marina as much as it does Dilma, and the economic terrorism has already done all it can.

A sound reflection from the electorate is becoming increasingly clear. Aécio's moralism, despite his and his party's ethical problems, and Marina's worrying proposals, in addition to the ethical questions she faces, signal to the population that it's best to stick with what they have.