Roberto Marinho
| Roberto Marinho | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Robero Pisani Marinho 3 December 1904 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Died | 6 August 2003 (aged 98) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Occupation | businessman |
| Known for | founder of Rede Globo |
| Net worth |
 US$ 6.4 Billion (2000) |
Roberto Pisani Marinho (December 3, 1904 – August 6, 2003) was a publisher and businessman who expanded into radio and television, creating a large, successful media conglomerate known as Organizações Globo. He founded and was the president of the Brazilian TV channel, Globo, the bigest television network in the country that now has 123 stations and associates.
Roberto Marinho was born in Rio de Janeiro to Irineu Marinho, a publisher, and his wife, who were of Portuguese and Italian descent, respectively. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and was educated in local schools.
On July 29, 1925, Irineu Marinho started a morning newspaper called O Globo in Rio de Janeiro, which he had intended to complement his afternoon paper. He died three weeks later. At the age of 21, Roberto fancied being a journalist and appointed himself as a trainee reporter at the newspaper he inherited. He advanced to chief editor six years later.
In the 1940s, Marinho expanded into commercial radio. In the 1960s, he took his company into television. On April 26, 1965, he founded Rede Globo, which became the principal TV station in Brazil and the second largest in the world. This was during the period of the military dictatorship, which pressured the media to support the government.
According to journalist Aristotle Drummond, Marinho was a loyal Catholic who opposed the "liberation theology" developed in Latin America in the 1970s, in which leading clerics supported popular political movements seeking social justice. He criticized his friend Helder Câmara, who was archbishop of the "miserably poor" Olinda and Recife diocese from 1964 to 1985, during the worst of the military dictatorship. Marinho greatly admired John Paul II as pope.
By the 1970s, Marinho was considered one of South America´s richest men and one of the most important media moguls of the world. The holding Organizações Globo controls not only the newspaper and TV Globo, but also a chain of radio stations, such as Rádio Globo and Rádio CBN, as well as many other cable TV channels. Globo Television reaches almost every home in Brazil through 113 stations and associates. The network is powerful enough to decide when Brazil´s soccer matches kick off.
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