“Every source of evil is the Folha de São Paulo”: the relationship between Bolsonaro and Folha through of the ombudsmans

Abstract

Abstract

President Jair Bolsonaro’s relationship with the press, during the election and the first year of government, was marked by conflicts and controversial statements. One of these statements was targetting one of the biggest papers in the country, the Folha de São Paulo, when Bolsonaro came to say that “every source of evil is the Folha de São Paulo”. In order to understand the relationship between those two actors of social importance, and propose a reflection on journalistic ethics, this work aims analyze how the Folha’s ombudsmans interpreted the media coverage of the vehicle in 2018 and 2019. The analysis method was the content analysis. The studied section comprises the years 2018 and 2019, the election period and the first year of Jair Bolsonaro’s government, and two mandates of Folha’s ombudsmans. Within that period, 45 texts were selected that mention Bolsonaro or his government, which were analyzed from the analysis categories: ombudsmen mediation, conflicting ideas and critics needs. Thus, it was possible to identify that the conflicts between Bolsonaro and Folha intensified with the increase in the appearance of the politician in investigative reports and journalistic scoops of the vehicle, and that the ombudsmans point out saturation of controversial statements by the president in the Folha de São Paulo news.