Yellow+Journalism+Part+II

**Background of Yellow Journalism:** Yellow journalism happened to be one of the key factors that would push the United States towards war with the Spanish. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer spread newspaper articles on romance, melodrama, and hyperbole during the 1890's (it then became known as yellow journalism). The origin of the term "yellow journalism" descended from a __New York World__ comic called "Hogan's Alley". This comic involved a character dressed in yellow who was called the "Yellow Kid". Newspapers such as the New York Journal and the New York World relied on these sensational stories in order to sell more newspapers. The sinking of the Maine is one example of which William Randolph Hearst used. He immediately blamed the Spanish for it which would only increase tensions with the United States and Spain. It would also create an attitude for war in the United States. The yellow press sent many reporters down to Cuba to record some of the accounts occurring in Cuba and the amount of hostility there was during that time. Unfortunately, very few reporters were able to make through to Cuba, most only made it to Florida. The reporters made their stories off of their personal experience or based them on the press releases of the Cuban Junta. The results from this were accounts of many Cuban victories that never actually occurred and portraying the Spansih cruelty and brutality towards the Cubans. Even though there was a lot of abuse from the Spanish, the reporters tended to exaggerate. The primary target for the reporters was the military governor, General Valeriano Weyler. Although, this governor was deserving of the hostility in Cuba, the reporters made up things about him. The Yellow Kid Comic He was born in San Fransisco, California on April 29, 1869. Hearst attended Harvard and ended up purchasing The New York Journal in 1895. The window of opportunity that he saw for himself was writing about the Cuban Revolution and that he would sell more newspapers by attacking this event. This event would promote his paper so he tried to show support towards the Cuban insurgents and disgrace the Spanish as much as he could in his papers. Hearst even took a trip to Cuba in order to report for himself; getting himself involved in battles with the Spanish. When one of his fellow reporters got injured in battle he said to him "I'm sorry you're hurt. But wasn't it a splendid fight? We beat every paper in the world!" This demonstrates how much Hearst cared for his newspaper and about journalism.
 * William Randolph Hearst: **

He was similar to William Randolph Hearst because both of them had well established newspapers. At one point, Hearst was almost an apprentice to Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer owned the New York World and also used yellow journalism in order to promote and benefit his newspaper. Joseph promoted the war with Spain for the same reasons of Hearst and he pounced on the event of the sinking of the Maine. He accused the Spanish of destroying the ship, attempting to try to wage war with the Spanish because war would be salutary to his newspaper.
 * Joseph Pulitzer:[[image:http://wlls.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/josephpulitzerpinceneznpsgov.jpg width="253" height="239" align="right"]]**


 * This is an article published after the Maine exploded and is the quintessential example of how the authors such as William Randolph Hearst would pounce on events such as this. Notice how they say in the headlines "Work of an Enemy". This demonstrates how unreliable journalism can be because automatically they assume that an enemy had destroyed the ship. Something inside the ship could have triggered the explosion, but since the newspaper industry wants to sell newspapers, they exagerate the headlines and manipulate people into believing that the Spanish destroyed the Maine. This also demonstrates how much William Randolph Hearst wanted war with Spain because he was deliberately framing the Spanish just to increase tensions between the United States and Spain.

 This cartoon is depicting how William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer pushing for the Spanish American War. The reason they were pushing for the war so much was because if a war with Cuba began, then not only would he sell newspapers, but would also obtain a position of national prominance. Hearst would promote war with Spain by ordering the reporters to write stories about Cuba that would make the citzens of the United States feel remorse and would want to intervene in order to alleviate the situation. He would portray starving women, women being executed, female prisioners, penury, and rebels fighting in Cuba. This would create a sense of odium towards the Spanish and the next horrible deed the Spanish committed would drive the United States over the edge. Then the United States would declare war upon Spain. This event would happen to be the sinking of the Maine, when the Spanish were framed for it.

www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_**journalism**.html library.thinkquest.org/C0111500/spanamer/app.htm www.onlineconcepts.com/**pulitzer**/**yellow**.htm
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