Agência Brasil demands a statement from Datafolha.

247 - The "journalistic fraud" that favored interim president Michel Temer last weekend, or "inaccuracy," as Datafolha itself defined it, also resonated with Agência Brasil, part of Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), which is demanding a statement from the Frias family's institute.

The Datafolha institute published that only 3% of Brazilians want new elections, when the real number is 60%. The topic has had a major impact on social media since the weekend, and Datafolha's credibility has never been so questioned as it is now.

Agência Brasil, which is reporting on a story by The Intercept, by journalist Glenn Greenwald, said in its article that it had "contacted the Datafolha Institute and the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, but has not yet received a response." 247 is also awaiting responses.

Read the report from Ag. Brasil below:

Datafolha admits there were inaccuracies in its poll about Temer, says website.

From Agência Brasil - After being questioned by the independent news website Intercept about the Datafolha Institute's research data, published by the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper last weekend, regarding Brazilians' preference for Michel Temer remaining in office or Dilma Rousseff returning, the Datafolha Institute admitted inaccuracies in its data analysis. The website claims the newspaper committed "journalistic fraud."

"Yesterday [19], the complete data and supplementary questions [from the survey] were released. It became evident that, whether through dishonesty or extreme incompetence, Folha committed journalistic fraud. Only 3% of respondents said they wanted new elections, and only 4% said they wanted neither Temer nor Dilma as presidents, because neither of these response options was available in the survey," says the text from the news site.

In an interview with The Intercept, Luciana Schong of Datafolha said that "any analysis of this data claiming that 50% of Brazilians want Temer as president would be inaccurate, without the information that the response options were limited to only two." Luciana stated to the news agency that it was Folha, and not the research institute, that established the questions to be asked of the interviewees and acknowledged "the misleading aspect in the statement that 3% of Brazilians want new elections," "since this question was not asked of the interviewees."

The research was published on Saturday (16) in Folha Online and on Sunday (17) in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper. The Intercept news agency was launched in 2014 by journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill. Greenwald was the journalist who, in partnership with Edward Snowden, revealed the existence of secret surveillance programs in the United States, carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA).

According to a table released by American journalist Alex Cuadros, the survey asked respondents the following question: "In your opinion, what would be best for the country? For Dilma to return to the presidency or for Michel Temer to continue in office until 2018?". The table shows that 50% of respondents want Temer to remain president until 2018. 32% prefer Dilma to return to the Palácio do Planalto (Presidential Palace). The remaining 18% did not choose either option, said they didn't know, or that they preferred new elections.

The Intercept notes that Folha de S.Paulo did not disclose the questions asked, nor the supporting data, thus making it impossible, according to the website, to verify the facts that support the claims. The Folha article states that 3% of respondents said they wanted new elections, and 4% said they wanted neither Temer nor Dilma as presidents, because neither of these response options was available in the survey.

Therefore, the website considers the statement that 3% of Brazilians believe that "new elections are best for the country" to be incorrect, since the survey did not ask respondents this question. As it is a binary question, The Intercept argues that, by asking whether Temer stays when the only remaining option is Dilma staying, it is "incorrect to say that 50% of Brazilians believe that Temer's remaining in office is best for the country" until the end of Dilma's term. It is only possible to claim that 50% of the population wants Temer to remain in office if the only other option is Dilma's return." The website interviewed Unicamp political science professor Andréa Freitas, who stated: "since new elections are a viable option, they should have been included as one of the options."

The website also notes that the possibility of new elections was raised both in a previous survey by the institute, on April 9th, and by several political figures, such as Marina Silva. In the Datafolha survey from April, conducted before the analysis of the impeachment process by the Chamber of Deputies, 60% of the population supported impeachment, while 58% were in favor of Temer's impeachment. The poll also showed that 60% of respondents wanted Temer's resignation after Dilma's impeachment, and 79% advocated for new elections after the departure of both.

CNI/Ibope

A CNI/Ibope survey, published by Agência Brasil on July 1st, indicated that Michel Temer's government was considered bad or terrible by 39% of the population. The percentage of people who considered Michel Temer's government excellent or good was 13%, compared to 10% for Dilma. Those who rated Temer's government as average were 36%. In March, 19% said Dilma's government was average. In the last CNI/Ibope survey evaluating Dilma's government, in March of this year, 69% of respondents considered the Workers' Party president's government bad or terrible.

Agência Brasil contacted the Datafolha Institute and the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, but has not yet received a response.