The business of the media and health communication.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00000616 An emblematic case of journalism that is contrary to the public interest was the coverage, by newspapers O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo about the worst socioenvironmental disaster in Brazil, which affected the municipality of Mariana, Minas Gerais State, and the entire Doce river valley, caused by mining company Samarco, a joint venture between Brazilian Vale and Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton. The collapse of the Fundão and Santarém dams, on November 5, 2015, released 62 million cubic meters of mining waste, which fell like a tsunami, dragging along all that was in the way. The first ones to be hit were the workers, and then the population of the Bento Rodrigues district (destroyed by the mudflow) and four other districts of the city of Mariana. The local administration counted 631 displaced by the accident, and, until December 16, 17 deaths (mostly mine workers) and two missing people. The flood of waste, sediments and toxic substances, such as iron, manganese, barium, lead, zinc, aluminum, chrome, cobalt and arsenic advanced 850 kilometers through the Doce river bed over sixteen days, destroying houses, burying agricultural land, killing fish, silting and compacting river beds and banks, contaminating and making infeasible water treatment and use, impacting the life of hundreds of thousands of people. The Doce river valley ecosystems, dispersed over rural, Indigenous, urban and tropical forest areas and the ecosystem of the shore of the state of Espírito Santo were gravely compromised.