Political thought and the Brazilian press in the post-war period: democracy and popular participation in the view of Correio da Manhã in the Second Vargas Government

Abstract

This article will address a topic still little explored by historiography: the political thinking of the Brazilian press in the post-war “democratic period” (1946-1964). Analyzes about the political positioning of the main newspapers of the country are quite frequent. However, such works are mainly devoted to identifying the partisan political affiliation of the periods and the possible strategies of “information manipulation”. In some cases, we find research that focuses on the ideological preferences of print, but even here, the principle that newspapers are only reproducers of the interests of the groups and / or social classes that would control them prevails. Contrary to this general trend, our article aims to explore the newspaper Correio da Manhã’s view of Brazilian political democracy during the Second Vargas Government (1951-1954). Our intention is not to identify the positioning of this journal on Getúlio’s management, already well explored by historiography. On the contrary, we intend, based on the arguments used to evaluate the democratic regime, to present the negative diagnosis that this important carioca print makes of this regime, indicating, even in the 1950s, its fragile commitment to the existing democratic institutions. As a key reading about this position, we will relate the newspaper’s view in its spaces of opinion with the ideas of thinker Azevedo Amaral about Brazilian politics in the 1920-1930s. Remember that Amaral was an important writer and editor of the Courier and had a great influence on its main journalists, notably Pedro Costa Rêgo, editor of the newspaper during the period studied.