“With the press and with everything”: from João Goulart (1961-1964) to Dilma Rousseff (2015-2016), the role of the media in discrediting politics

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of the press in the destabilization process of João Goulart’s administration, which culminated in the 1964 coup, and in the President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment process. We demonstrate that in both periods the media constructed a narrative to legitimize the constitutionally inaugurated presidents overthrow. We also address the rise of the extreme right, from the discourse of discrediting politics, and the return of the military to the center of power as permanence of the authoritarian past in the present time.