JOURNALIST HEARST CAUSES SPANISH AMERICAN WAR

    If you think this headline is hyperbolic, it is nothing compared to the type of journalism employed by William Randolph Hearst at the turn of the 20th century.  It is different however, in that it has more truth than most of his headlines did.  I'll explain:     

     William Randolph Hearst, born on April 29^th 1863, was simply a product of his environment.  Born under a wealthy father who struck gold in the mining business, Hearst was able to attend Harvard to learn journalism.  While there, he studied as an apprentice under Joseph Pulitzer, someone who would later become one of his largest competitors. 

                Unfortunately for Hearst, Harvard did not work out for him, and he was expelled.  Two years later, he asked his father for ownership of the San Francisco Examiner, the paper his father, George Hearst, had purchased as a result of his political endeavors as a U.S. Senator.   It was then that Hearst created his Journalistic Empire.

                With The Examiner, Hearst began his path down the road of sensationalism, eventually leading him down a “yellow” brick road of journalism.  Sensationalism, in this case, is best defined as publishing news that  “excites and pleases vulgar tastes.” At The Examiner, Hearst decided to hire the best, publish the most shocking stories, and become a  Class A sensationalist.  But that was only the beginning; eventually he took his talents to the Big Apple.

                In New York, he purchased the New York Morning Journal, a failing newspaper that he threw money and sensationalism at to gain large audiences and compete for circulation with his once Master, Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World.  Increasing circulation from 77,000 to over 1 million, Hearst didn’t just stop at publishing scandalous stories, he also “hired away” some of Pulitzer’s staff to put together a formidable lineup of journalists.  He paid what it took and published what it took to make the most money possible.  Ethics was merely a word to Hearst, who was arguably a large reason why the U.S. went to war with Spain in 1898.  

Notorious for flashy headlines and a thirst for readers, Hearst used the situation in Cuba as a platform for stories about the bad situations in Cuba.  According to PBS.org, Hearst’s writers wrote about “…female prisoners, executions, valiant rebels fighting, and starving women and children…”, but ultimately used the sinking of the Battleship Maine to propel his newspaper business.  Without clear evidence that the Spanish sunk the Maine, Hearst capitalized on this opportunity by blaming the Spanish and creating a public base that would, according to PBS, “demand intervention.”

                What Hearst and Pulitzer did to the newspaper biz was realize the potential moneymaking found in “yellow journalism”, an interesting term in itself.  The term stems from a comic used by Pulitzer in one of his New York World publications called “The Yellow Kid.”  Not shy about stealing from Pulitzer, Hearst hired the cartoonist, Robert Outcault, to make the comic for his paper.  Pulitzer responded by hiring another cartoonist to make the comic for his paper once again.

                From this information, it appears Hearst influenced the newspaper business in three ways.  First, he figured out a way to use a mass medium like a newspaper to influence political events, like the Spanish American War, by creating public opinion for the war.  Second, he created a journalistic atmosphere that lacked ethics during his time of competition with Pulitzer, now described as yellow journalism.  Today, some of the tactics he used then wouldn’t fly at all, things like hiring away journalists and publishing false news stories.  However, he was able to create an empire, “during the 1920s, that had 1 in 4  Americans read a newspaper he published.  That is not an exaggeration.