By EMILIANO JOSE*

The Turkish Rifle in the editorial office of Folha de São Paulo

The former rector of the Federal University of Bahia, philosopher João Carlos Salles, published recent article, indicating the elites' intention to end public universities. Opens the text, published on the website the earth is round addressing the newspaper's position Folha de S. Paul, echoing the most conservative interests in our country. As the author says, the editorial, in the title, summarizes with rare felicity the thinking of such elites: “There will not be enough money for a public university”.

The editorial is dated May 23 of this year, the same day as the publication of João Carlos Salles' article. Folha de S. Paul reacted to the joint manifesto of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Sciences, which criticized the contingency defined by the federal government, favoring the dismantling of public universities, soon after mitigated with measures taken by the Ministry of Education, to ensure that higher education institutions could breathe again.

The entire reactionary agenda, whose essence is not to associate the university with a truly democratic nation project, appears in the text. Universities, a failed and expensive project. Conservative banners emerge as if they were obvious, expressing prejudices, as listed by Salles: the end of tenure for teachers, free education and, above all, the guarantee of public funding for higher education.

Such measures are obviously inconsistent, but have great rhetorical appeal. They are about providing subsidies, food for thought for the extreme right, by practically proposing that the place of research and knowledge production in Brazil be dismantled.

Up until now, as is obvious, I have relied entirely on Salles' text, with the summary title: “The elites want the end of the public university”. And I did so using it as a hook, as they say in journalism, to discuss a fundamental book, the starting point of a profound critical vision around the group. Sheet, to unmask it completely, to highlight the position of support for the dictatorship, not only in the daily journalistic discourse, but also in the sharing of crimes, by providing logistical support to the men of repression in that period. The tradition of the group goes back a long way Leaf.

Researcher revealed

This revisitation is a tribute to the author, Beatriz Kushnir. The book could simply be called Guard dogs. But, it has a support line: Journalists and censors, from AI-5 to the 1988 Constitution. It marked an era. It continues to mark an era.

It reveals a dedicated, attentive researcher, an intellectual incapable of hiding behind cloaks of impartiality and at the same time firmly anchored in the results of rigorous research, supported by solid academic parameters.

Beatriz Kushnir dismantles several myths. I highlight one: that journalists were united in their efforts to combat the dictatorship. False. Especially because the editorial line was never the responsibility of professionals. It always came from above. A business decision.

All Brazilian press, with the exception of Last Minute, by Samuel Wainer, embarked with all his bags and baggage to support the 1964 coup.

The author is not unaware of the resistance journalists who sought paths, however narrow, to fight the dictatorship. Nor is she unaware of the role of several who were directly involved in the struggle. There were, however, journalists who collaborated with the military regime, willingly and without any guilt, and she will come across, in her research work, a number of professionals in the field dedicated to censorship, and they were not the only ones, let's call them, collaborators.

Her work is focused on the exercise of censorship, but to say that would be an understatement. It goes much further. And in that much further, it dissects the group Sheet, highlighting how essential he was in supporting the military dictatorship, how he became one with the military, an accomplice in the crimes committed by the military regime.

Largest circulation newspaper

Beatriz Kushnir came to mind because, in recent months, there have been initiatives where Sheet appears as the protagonist. One of them, the book In the service of repression: Grupo Folha and rights violations during the dictatorship, by various authors, which came into my hands thanks to the kindness of my dear friend and historian, Maria Cláudia Badan Ribeiro. With kind autographs by Ana Paula Goulart Ribeiro and Flora Daemon, two of the six authors.

There are other initiatives, and not just publications. They are not new. But that does not mean they are any less important. I sincerely welcome the emergence of these recent efforts, focused on our historical memory, especially those dedicated to journalism and Folha in particular.

I emphasize, however, emphatically: the first time that the group Sheet, consistently denounced as an accomplice of the dictatorship, had as its protagonist Beatriz Kushnir. And the publication of the first edition is more than 20 years old, March 2004. No one interested in the subject is allowed to be unaware of it.

And not just any book. A dense study, over 400 pages long. As a journalism professor and political activist, it was of extraordinary use to me. I learned from it. With it, I taught. Throughout my many years of journalistic research, I have used Beatriz Kushnir's book many times. For all these reasons, I felt it necessary to contribute to restoring the publication to the place it deserves.

Anchor work of all this memory effort to reveal a dark side of our press, in this case with the group Sheet at the center of events. To ignore this, to forget this, for me, would be unforgivable.

My main interest here is the fourth chapter of the book's 400-plus pages. I will not discuss the censors, or I will do so by way of observation of the group's own actions. Sheet. The title of the chapter is intriguing in itself: “The newspaper with the largest circulation: the trajectory of Folha da Tarde”.

It goes without saying, but I will say: circulation here refers to strips, the number of police officers present in the newspaper in its second phase. You will understand, later.

In this chapter, the group Sheet remains naked, exposed as never before, consistently, as an unconditional ally of the dictatorship. In this chapter, we witness the emergence of Afternoon Leaf, belonging to the group.

At first, as an extremely progressive publication, for marketing reasons, competing with the Afternoon Newspaper, from the Estadão group, from the Mesquita family.

Turkish carbine

Created in 1967, in the second semester, at the height of the student movement, and giving full support to the struggles against the dictatorship, with bold coverage, rare at the time, including the participation of journalists involved in the armed struggle, it underwent a turnaround with the arrival of AI-5, in December 1968.

The decisive turning point for the newspaper, however, definitive, transforming it into an official organ of the dictatorship and reaffirming its title as the newspaper with the largest circulation, occurred on June 19, 1969, when the editor-in-chief became Antônio Aggio and his colleagues, who were clearly from police backgrounds.

Antônio Aggio, in addition to being an employee of the Public Security Secretariat, was the godson of Colonel Antônio Lepiane, commander of the 4th Infantry Regiment of Quitaúna, in Osasco, from 1967, from where Carlos Lamarca deserted in January 1969 – about Lamarca, Oldack de Miranda and I wrote a book.

The group Sheet It was the home of the men of the dictatorship in São Paulo. At the newspaper's anniversary lunches, one could find Colonel Lepiane and Erasmo Dias, Governor Paulo Maluf, the São Paulo Deops delegates Celso Telles and Romeu Tuma, side by side with the group's owners. Sheet and all the editors of the company's newspapers, among many other figures representing the military regime, whether in uniform or not. A coexistence of partners, friends, and the same ideals – the ideals of the dictatorship.

Antônio Aggio, upon assuming the Afternoon Leaf, intended to adopt an editorial line that was exactly the opposite of that of the previous period, under the direction of Jorge Miranda Jordão, with an emphasis now on police coverage, which was his area of ​​expertise. A careful internal system of self-censorship was set up, thus eliminating any intervention by the dictatorship. It was as if they were saying to the military: leave it to us. And they could leave it. And they did. They were friends, partners.

From one moment to the next, the publication becomes far-right. And nothing happens overnight, we know. The group Sheet It only revealed his true nature. There was a tense atmosphere in the newsroom. A time of arrests, weapons in drawers or visible on the desks. The atmosphere of terror, lived there, under the command of Antônio Aggio: he made no effort to hide the case he brought with him. Beautiful. It looked like a guitar. Wrong. Inside, a Turkish carbine.

The secretary-general, Horley Antônio Destro, was showing off an automatic weapon. They liked weapons: their arguments. Carlos Dias Torres, head of reporting, was a public relations officer for the IV Regional Air Command of the Air Force. They liked military personnel: close friends.

Horror Headlines

There was a marked concern on the part of the new newspaper about acts of terrorism.

In truth, the first major act of the armed left occurred just a few months after the man with the Turkish rifle took office: the kidnapping of the American ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick, in September 1969.

Such action hardened the military regime's repressive practices and radicalized, from the right, the headlines of the Afternoon Sheet, under the direction of Antonio Aggio.

Terrible headlines, and we won't go into detail about each one. Let's remember one or two as examples, all of which are present in Beatriz Kushnir's book.

“Military honors for the victim of Marighella”, 8/11/1969, burial of investigator Stela Borges Morato, shot by police during the siege of Marighella.

“Oban dismantles terror gangs”, 28/11/1970, about more than 320 political activists arrested.

“Sexual blackmail is a weapon of terror”, about Solange Lourenço Gomes, who surrendered to repression and later committed suicide, July 28, 7. She is a character in the book Lamarca, the captain of the guerrillas.

“Here are the murderers and enemies of the people”, from 28/9/1971, with photos of wanted militants, here he acted side by side with repression.

Beatriz Kushnir supports the existence of numerous attitudes of alignment of Afternoon Sheet with post-AI-5 governments.

The reputation of the newspaper with the “largest circulation”, as we have seen, is absolutely true, given the number of police officers in the newsroom, confusing the two activities, that of journalist and that of comic strip. Police-journalists involved in an authentic “holy war”, alongside the dictatorship, under the management of the trio Antônio Aggio, Horley Antônio Destro and Carlos Dias Torres.

Beatriz Kushnir has the merit of exposing the viscera of the dictatorship and the press. The latter sided with the military coup of 1964 and was an accomplice in the most difficult moments of the military regime. All the media outlets of our major press used the resources of journalism to support the regime. There was no innocence in the journalism practiced.

There was, however, the clearest complicity. In the case of the coup, it is known that media directors were directly involved in the plot and are responsible for the blood that was spilled.

Later, some regretted it, and perhaps the most obvious case is that of Correio da Manhã – after enthusiastically supporting the coup, he realized his mistake, began to fight the excesses of the new regime and was massacred.

I remember Marx, in the Eighteenth Brumaire, the bourgeoisie calls the sword, and then the sword turns against it. So it is with part of the press, the one that was deluded by the sword, as if it could be benevolent or democratic. It never is.

The Brazilian press has not yet been properly diagnosed with regard to its conduct in relation to the dictatorship. We are halfway there. Beatriz Kushnir's work produces a rigorous diagnosis in relation to the group Sheet, by revealing the relations of complete complicity between him and the dictatorship, by directly involving himself in the fight against revolutionary parties and organizations. All of this was anticipated by her, and as a result, it must be insisted, of careful, judicious research.

Unreserved complicity

“Okay, I accept the argument, but don’t change my tune that much,” our Paulinho da Viola helps. Let them use so-called journalism to support a regime of terror like the one that began in 1964, which will last for a terrible 21 years, whatever, and that’s just a way of saying why, from my point of view, it’s unacceptable for journalism to serve this purpose, but it does, and has always served this purpose, unfortunately.

Now, to go further, to cross the border, to put aside any and all scruples, and for a communications group to decide, during a military regime, to get directly involved in the fight, to join the repressive organs, that is too much too much. It is almost unimaginable. Don't upset my samba so much. The group Sheet invaded the signal, crossed the border.

It may be that research into other media outlets uncovers direct involvement in combating revolutionary organizations, but it was Beatriz Kushnir, when studying the period, who revealed this group's policy. Sheet, and there is no other term than to call it a policy, a guideline, because it was. No one will take this originality away from her, and at all costs. No more prison. Other risks.

The relationship between businessmen and repressive agencies is well known, and this has come to light more strongly in recent times. But this complicity between a media outlet and repression, direct involvement, without any subtlety, political repression and journalism completely intertwined, such complicity cannot be silenced, and Beatriz Kushnir took this policy out of the dark and brought it to light.

He had the merit, and this has been little highlighted, of taking the revolutionary press out of the shadows, he gave a voice to that press, the voice of the revolutionaries, denouncing the complicity of the group. Sheet with the dictatorship. Before we get to that, let us observe the Sheet undressing.

Between pages 332 and 333, the Afternoon Sheet and the very Folha de S. Paul tear up the fantasy, in the editorial “Banditism”.

And as Beatriz Kushnir says, through the voice of the owner, Octávio Frias de Oliveira, the first and only time she has written and signed an editorial.

In the piece, let's call it a piece, Oliveira gives a receipt: he reveals that two cars were set on fire, partially destroyed by “a group of criminals, who claimed to be acting in this way in 'retaliation' for news and comments published on our pages”.

Somehow, the editorial ended up revealing the group's collaboration with repressive bodies, by encouraging the use of company cars for repressive actions, with all the consequences.

The play is a masterpiece. For its clearly police-like nature. With language typical of the underworld of that time. For its dictatorial character. For defending terror. It claims not to distinguish terrorism from banditry.

Terrorists, in his understanding, Octávio Frias de Oliveira, of what terrorists are, should be characterized as marginal. In Brazil, there is no place for terrorists – by terrorists the group Sheet understood all those involved in the fight against the dictatorship. He defines the dictatorship as follows: a serious, responsible, respectable government with unquestionable popular support. A government that leads Brazil along the safe path of development with social justice.

It is there, in print. “The country, finally, from which subversion – which feeds on hatred and cultivates violence – is being definitively eradicated, with the determined support of the people and the press. This same press that the remnants of terror want to strike.”

OBAN Official Gazette

The dictatorship, especially its darkest side, did not need a press office. It had its own communications group, the closest. As if the other media outlets, all of which were at least benevolent towards the military regime, were not enough, the latter had the group's outlets. Sheet ardently beside.

And with language and thinking in complete accordance with military ideology and practice, in favor of terror, arrests, kidnappings, deaths, and disappearances. He didn't even hide it.

Brief digression. The old Júlio de Mesquita Neto, when he was in charge of the Estadão, received Carlos Navarro Filho, head of the Bahia branch. He went to inform him of an explosive story, to be written by me and by him: to hear from Theodomiro Romeiro dos Santos, the most wanted individual by the dictatorship at that time, 1979, as he had recently escaped from prison. The old conservative agreed to write the story. He made only one recommendation:

“be careful not to give the police a trace.”

Dignity, without any lack of knowledge of the Estadão having enthusiastically supported the 1964 coup. We did the report, with the rigors of clandestinity, and on the day of its publication by Estadão, Theodomiro sought asylum in the Apostolic Nunciature in Brasilia. Dignity, Navarro and I make a point of recording.

Group Sheet, no dignity. He was proud of his status as an unconditional ally of the dictatorship, a jack of all trades, as Kushnir amply demonstrates. On September 21, 9, revolutionaries set fire to two of the group's pickup trucks Leaf. Other vehicles would then be set on fire.

And the clandestine press of the National Liberation Action (ALN), newspaper We will win, responds harshly to Octávio Frias de Oliveira's editorial. “There he denounced to the people that he really is a convinced fascist and collaborator of Brazilian repression.”

Spokesperson for OBAN – as the newspaper is known Afternoon Leaf, quite rightly.

And in Folha de São Paulo, with the editorial written by the owner, she signed below, if she were not herself part of that whole policy. An active and conscious part. Policy defended by the owner.

In mid-1984, with direct elections in sight, marketing calling, the group fired Antônio Aggio. With that, they intended to erase that story, as if an editorial change could bury the past. It couldn't. There was a document for history, implacable: the book.

The book by Beatriz Kushnir.

It is there for the enjoyment of new generations. And of mature generations. The book prevented the burial of the past. No one will be able to take this merit away from Beatriz Kushnir.

*Emiliano Jose is a journalist, writer, member of the Academy of Letters of Bahia.

Reference

Beatriz Kushnir. Watchdogs: journalists and censors, from AI-5 to the 1988 Constitution. São Paulo, Boitempo, 2004, 408 pages. [https://amzn.to/43xZIrf]

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