When Journalism Becomes a Government Department
There was a time when journalism prided itself on being a watchdog: barking, biting, making life difficult for those in power. Today, what we see more and more is a different breed of press — house-trained, submissive, obedient. Journalism not as a counter-power, but as an auxiliary department of the government machine.
In Brazil, this phenomenon has reached almost laboratory levels. Major outlets, which once thrived on exposing scandals and denouncing abuses, now seem content to simply echo official press releases. Worse: they act as enforcers of the official narrative, “fact-checking” dissenters, issuing verdicts on what can or cannot be said.
The idea of the journalist as an enemy of power has been replaced by the journalist as a curator of acceptable discourse. And the justification is always the same: to protect democracy, to combat disinformation, to preserve institutions.
It’s the same mechanism Tocqueville warned about: the transformation of the free press into a tool of soft despotism, where censorship is no longer imposed with tanks or batons, but through algorithms, editorial lines, and demonetization policies.
Of course, no one admits this openly. On the surface, everything looks clean: headlines about "protecting rights," long articles on "fighting fake news," roundtables filled with experts. But underneath, the message is clear: there is only one truth, and it is the one sanctioned by the new priests of information.
What remains for the reader? Two options: either consume this government-approved content passively, or seek independent channels, risking being labeled a heretic, extremist, or threat to the democratic order.
Because in this new ecosystem, the ultimate blasphemy is not insulting the president or criticizing the court — it is daring to say that journalism has ceased to be free.