12. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer changed American newspapers forever
In 1887 William Randolph Hearst was given control of the San Francisco Examiner by his father, a wealthy miner and US Senator. Hearst hired considerable talent for his newspaper, including Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce, but knew his dream of a chain of powerful newspapers could not be realized without an anchor in New York City. When he learned of the New York Morning Journal’s dire financial condition he purchased the paper, entering the New York market then dominated by Joseph Pulitzer and his New York World. The New York market was a crowded one, but Hearst’s primary target was Pulitzer, and the two newspapers engaged in a circulation war. Increasingly lurid headlines, sensationalist reporting, often based more on rumor than fact, and the use of art and cartoons soon marked both newspapers. Their war gave rise to the term “yellow journalism” as the papers struggled for readers.
The late 1890s featured the struggle of Cuba against Spanish oppression, and both Pulitzer and Hearst used the events on the island to drive their coverage. When USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, Hearst led the charge for reprisals against Spain, blaming them for destroying the American battle cruiser. There was no evidence the Spanish had attacked the vessel and even less motive for them to have done so. But Hearst’s papers demanded its readers “Remember the Maine” and Americans widely accepted the false accounts of Spanish complicity. Both Hearst and Pulitzer tolerated journalism with little or no evidence of facts in their papers, driven by the need to increase circulation (and thus advertising dollars). Both published multiple editions daily, Sunday editions, news magazines, and foreign language editions. Though outright falsehood was not tolerated, speculation presented as factual was. Their readers didn’t know the difference.