29: The Birth of Click Bait & Fake News: Yellow Journalism

2022/1/26

Dark History

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The episode introduces the concept of Yellow Journalism, tracing its origins to the competitive rivalry between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, which led to the sensationalization of news and the spread of misinformation.

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Hi, friends. I hope you are having a wonderful day today. Oh, look at little undressing. I'm taking my robe off. Oh, just kidding. I need to tie it. My name is Bailey Sarian, and I'd like to welcome you to the Library of Dark History. This is a safe space for all the curious cats out there who are like, hey, is history really as boring as it seemed in school?

Oh, nay, nay. This is where we can learn together about all the dark, mysterious, and dramatic stories we never learned in school. Or maybe you didn't learn in school because I know I sure did not. What about you, Joan? Joan, if you don't know, is my bird. Joan Crowford. You get it? She's a crow. Oh, she's dressed up. That's so cute. You came ready today, Joan. Not newspapers. That's so cool. You got a little hat on.

Joan, you are just adorable. So usually I like to kind of tell you how I get to a certain topic. Today's episode is...

I mean, we're going to relate with it so much because it goes with today like spot on. I mean, think about how Google works. When you Google something like global warming, you and I will get completely different results. Yes, if you did not know that. It is an algorithm that tells us what they think we will like, right? What we're reading. And this algorithm tells us...

I don't know, just assumes this is what you're going to want to see. This is what you're going to want to read. I don't know. It gets really confusing, right? Long story short, what I'm getting at is that Google and the internet is filled with

with correct information where you can learn a lot of stuff, but actually there's a ton of misinformation online. I know, shocker, whoa, misinformation, whoa. What if I told you there was a time when people who sensationalize things were so dedicated to the idea of shocking people that they started printing misinformation just to sell papers?

I know you're probably like, yeah, no shit. And what if I told you there was a point in time where misinformation started a whole ass war, like guns and bombs and a real war.

Oh yeah. Let me tell you, today's story is about a point in time known as yellow journalism. And at the front of the story are the two men whose war, both on the page and in real life, led to lies being embraced, even today, as a business model. Yeah. So you know all the misinformation we're constantly reading and seeing to this day? I mean, it started somewhere and that's what we're gonna talk about. Let me open up my book so we can get right into it.

I found the correct chapter. Today we are going to be learning about, oh, I already said it, yellow journalism. Okay. Our story begins with a man named Joseph Pulitzer, as in Mr. Pulitzer Prize? Question mark? Yeah, that guy. Joseph was born on April 10th, 1847 in Macau, Hungary, but he grew up in Budapest. Where the hell is Budapest? You're probably wondering. That's a great question. Let's show a map.

Oh, if you're listening on the podcast, then you're not going to see the map. But he grew up in Budapest. His father, his name was Philip. He was a really successful grain merchant and gave Joseph a pretty good upbringing that allowed him to attend a number of good schools where he learned to speak French and German. Oh, cool. So things were really good for the Pulitzer family for a while. But when Joseph was just 11 years old, his dad suddenly died.

Joseph had nine brothers and sisters that his mom was busy taking care of, so she was unable to keep up with the family grain business. So over the next few years, the business goes bankrupt, which sends the whole family into poverty. Now it goes on like this for a few years, and to make matters worse, most of Joseph's brothers and sisters start dying one by one from tuberculosis or consumption.

Anyways, tuberculosis was just super normal in the 1800s, you know? So sad, but...

Bye. Yeah, yeah. Joseph got a glimpse into his future and he did not like what he was seeing. You see, when Joseph turned 17 years old, he decides it's time to start making something of himself by joining the military. And Joseph finds out about this program where the United States recruits soldiers from overseas to fight in the Civil War. When you signed up, you would get a huge recruitment bonus as well as a free boat ride to the United States. Sign me up.

This was just the thing Joseph wanted or needed to reinvent himself.

So, even though he didn't know how to speak English, he immediately signed up and got on a boat headed straight to the United States. Joseph was only in the military for about a year. But while he was stationed in New York, he met a lot of other European immigrants. They told him all these cool stories about the city of St. Louis, which was apparently the place to be for immigrants in the 1800s. So when the Civil War ends, Joseph heads.

hitches a ride on the freight train and starts his new life in St. Louis. Once he arrives in St. Louis, Joseph works a lot of odd jobs and just trying to make an honest living, but it's really hard for him to find work as an immigrant, especially since he doesn't speak English very well. So to get better at English, he decides to go find people playing chess outside of a library in St. Louis, and he would do this whole play-by-play commentary thing for the entire match.

So in 1868, he's doing his whole chess commentator act, and one of the men is actually really amused by it. He tells Joseph that he really likes his attention to detail and wants to offer him a job. You want a job, man? It turns out this man was none other than Carl Schurz.

I know, crickets. Who's Carl Schurz? I don't know. The editor of the Westlich Post, which was the biggest German newspaper in St. Louis. I know, random. St. Louis, German newspaper. Oh, because there's a lot of immigrants there. It makes sense at the time, but looking back now, it's like, what the fuck?

Joseph is only 21 years old and doesn't really know anything about journalism, but he's thrilled for the opportunity to make something of himself. So he accepts the job offer from Carl, and it turns out Joseph's a real natural when it comes to the press, because his journalism career just skyrockets.

For four years, Joseph works for the Veselich Post and eventually becomes the managing editor. And it doesn't take much longer for him to work his way up to owner. In 1878, isn't that funny? Like back in the day, you could literally be like, I don't speak any English. And then next thing you know, boom, you're owner. Wow.

Cool. In 1876, Joseph is now 29 years old and he decides to sell his stake in the Vestliche Press. He wanted to break into more mainstream journalism. Now, over the next few years, Joseph gets involved with another paper and that paper becomes so successful, he decides to buy another newspaper called

To make a long story short, he merges them both together. I mean, he's hopping around making a name for himself just everywhere he goes. And it's during this time that Joseph becomes known as one of the titans of journalism.

This level of success makes Joseph so rich that he decides to buy his own newspaper in 1883. Now, this paper would eventually have a lot of influence, enough influence to start a war. And this newspaper's name, well, it was called the New York World. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.

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Well, the biggest thing that set old Joseph apart was that he wanted his paper to be more accessible to the working class. Under Joseph Plitzer, the mandate was to focus almost exclusively on stories about crime, corrupt governments, and most of all, murder. Joseph and his team would report on every single murder story they could find in the city, providing firsthand accounts of crime scenes and emotional testimony about the victims of these crimes.

Not only was his focus on the working class a new thing, Joseph had this revolutionary idea to make sure that all of these stories would be told from the perspective of the reporter. Now this filled the stories not just with facts and figures, but with feelings as well. Feelings were so new.

When there was a story about a labor protest downtown, Joseph wanted readers to know what the air smelled like. Very important, you know, painting the picture. If there was a story about a corrupt politician, he would write about the type of suit the man was wearing. Again, just very new, very new.

So, in a way, Joseph invented the concept of sensationalizing the news. But Joseph didn't see it that way. He always considered what he did a public service. And in the early days, he would go out of his way to say his work as a journalist was never about money. And to prove it wasn't about money, Joseph's papers only cost about two cents. He wanted to make sure that everybody could afford the news.

Now, this was a big deal because most papers back then, they cost four or five cents a piece. Ripping people off. So he was charging half what the other guys charged. He single-handedly changed the way news is written even today. And it would end up becoming his journalistic crusade.

One of the best examples of Joseph's crusade at work can be seen with an 18-year-old woman named Nellie Bly. Nellie Bly was born May 5th, 1864 in a place called Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania. Now Nellie would go on to be one of Joseph's best reporters. Her name was actually Elizabeth Cochran, but at the time all women were required by newspapers to write under pen names.

So an editor picked the name Nellie Bly for her, and it just stuck. Nellie Bly is a bit of a badass, and you should definitely look into her, okay? But the most important thing you need to know is that for as long as she was a writer, she pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable by society for a woman.

I guess Nellie is kind of like a, it could be a boy or a girl, you know? And like a lot of people back then didn't want like to read something that a woman wrote. Us women, we're so emotional.

We don't know what we're talking about. In 1887, Nelly was working for a local Pennsylvania paper. Now she had been living in Mexico for half a year reporting on corruption within the Mexican government. One day she wrote a report about another journalist down there who had been arrested for writing a report that was critical of the Mexican president.

And she wrote about how the people of Mexico needed to rise up to end the dictatorship they were living under. As you might expect, it didn't go so well. The Mexican government was not happy about it, okay? And they began to threaten Nelly's life in a series of letters.

So she's like, well, I gotta get the fuck out of here. And she leaves Mexico. And when she got home, her paper wasn't happy that she had burned the bridge with the Mexican government. So she was fired. But now she's a free agent. Nellie had heard about the New York world and she had a deep respect for Joseph as a journalist. And honestly, Nellie thought she would be a great fit for his team. The legend that lives on today says that Nellie stormed into the offices of the New York world

kicked Joseph Pulitzer's door open, marched up to his desk, sat in a chair and was like, give me a job right now. But I'm sure, you know, I'm sure that's not how it went, but okay, we can pretend.

Sure. Our guy Joseph is pretty impressed by Miss Nellie. And he thinks Nellie, again, is a badass. And I mean, same Z. He said, look, on one condition, you can have this job. There's this woman's mental health asylum he's heard some really shitty things about. And he wants her to go undercover and get him a story.

So that's exactly what Nellie does. She goes to the local hospital. She pretends she has schizophrenia. And she gets committed to the asylum for 10 days before the doctors realize, hey, she's full of shit.

Nellie wrote a six-part story about the life inside the facility that detailed how bad these asylums were. The story was such a wake-up call for the city of New York that support and funding was quickly approved for healthcare workers in asylums and regulations were passed to stop overcrowding in medical facilities. I mean, that's great. I mean, that's what journalism is supposed to be like, right? I think.

Yeah. And this was the kind of journalism the New York world became known for. Hard-hitting, honest, and personal storytelling. And I mean, none of this really sounds all that bad, right? Correct? It always starts off good, you know? So how did Joseph end up becoming known today as one of the people who led the United States into starting a whole ass war and shifting the art of journalism as we know it? Well, that, my friends, is a very complicated story that involves a man who

who loved Joseph's storytelling style, but ended up taking it and adding one key little ingredient to the mix, lies. And that man, his name is William Randolph Hearst. Oh my God, have you guys been to Hearst Castle? It's super great. Hearst isn't that great, but the castle,

Have you been there? It's beautiful. I was ready to move in. And yes, this is the same guy that Citizen Kane is based off of. That movie, that's a movie, right? It's so old. I mean, no one's seen that. Do you guys know what Citizen Kane is?

Okay. All right, you guys, homework. Just watch that. What you might not know is part of the reason he's so rich is because he made a literal fortune off of an actual war he started. So let's go to the beginning. William Randolph Hearst.

He was born in 1863 and he was the son of a gold miner named George who owned mining operations all over the West Coast in Nevada, Utah, and California.

So unlike Joseph, William came from money and had a rather privileged upbringing. Now George Hearst used his money to get into real estate, politics, and good old fashioned gambling. George was apparently such a good gambler that in 1880, he actually won the newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, in a game of poker. Dude, America was wild. Yeah, she was wild. Wild and crazy kids.

America version. Now at this time, William, he was 17, rich, and he was bored as hell. He's already traveled all over Europe and he graduated from one of like the most expensive private schools money could buy. William wants to make something of himself like Joseph did back when he was 17.

So he gets accepted into Harvard and starts working at the Harvard Lampoon, which is a satire newspaper that still exists today. Basically, the point of the Harvard Lampoon is to make parodies of news stories that sound just silly enough for you to know that they're fake, but they're also serious enough to read like actual news. Kind of like The Onion, huh?

Yeah. By all accounts, William is pretty good at writing these parodies, but it doesn't last because he ends up getting expelled from Harvard. We don't know the full story there, but rumor has it William was quite fond of drinking and skipped class one too many times to party with showgirls in New York and California. His biography calls him a California maverick, but it honestly just sounds like he was like a little trust fund, um,

What she was, I guess. I don't know. Allegedly, I wasn't there. He seems like it. But the most important thing that happens during William's party boy years is he discovers a newspaper called the New York World. This newspaper, and especially Joseph Pulitzer's writing, rocked William's world. All these easy to read stories. And it was like the most successful paper in New York City. Love it even more.

Joseph Pulitzer became William's hero and this got William thinking. Up until this point, he had never even thought that journalism could make you money and be fun. He's like, what? I love fun. And money? Both? So William, he's like seeing dollar signs all over the place, just raining dollar signs in his mind. And he starts sending letters to his daddy. He's like, daddy, dodgy.

Can I please have a piece of the examiner auction? I'm just kidding, but not really. He doesn't have an accent. Anyways, the letters were saying things about how he had a strange fondness for our little paper. George doesn't really want William working at the paper though and tells him, I think it's great you have such interest in the examiner, but I have these mines down in Utah that need some attending to you. So, you know, we could do that.

So William's a little pissed off and his letters start demanding that his dad hand over ownership of the paper. And surprisingly, it works.

In 1887, William becomes the owner of the San Francisco Examiner. And because of his love for the New York world, William decides to run the Examiner the exact same way. You see, William was only 24 when he took over the Examiner. So since it was one of the worst performing newspapers, maybe George was like, yeah, you could fucking have it. It's fine.

Failing anyways, you know. But from day one, William promised the entire staff that he was going to single-handedly turn the paper around in both circulation and reputation. And to be honest, he really did achieve that. Under William, the paper's sales tripled in just three years. Now, he did this by emulating Joseph's game plan, personal stories, emotions, investigative work. I mean, all of the above.

He even had his own version of Nellie Bly, a reporter by the name of Winifred Black, who went undercover to expose the terrible conditions in San Francisco's hospitals. At this point, William's feeling like he's on top of the goddamn world, okay? So where does he go from here? Well, the only thing William wanted more than to be like his hero was to be better than his hero.

And in 1895, he hears about a failing newspaper called the New York Journal, which he decides to buy for just $150,000, which today would be around $5 million. So William is pretty serious about this. The first thing William does as a new owner of the journal is reduce the cost to just one penny to undermine Joseph.

Even if there was the potential to lose money on this newspaper, the strategy would ultimately attract customers that would have otherwise read Joseph's paper. Plus, William would be okay because he had a whole lot of money to fall back on. The second thing William does is set off a series of events that led to this entire period in time being referred to as yellow journalism. You know, like when you're watching a movie and like the title of the movie comes up in the movie and you're like, oh my God, that's how they got the title.

It's happening right now. Yellow journalism. Okay. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

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Your cash back really adds up. Anyway, so you're probably wondering why the heck is this called yellow journalism? Question mark. The term comes from a comic strip character named The Yellow Kid. The Yellow Kid was a character in Joseph's New York world who was created by a man named Richard something. Outcow. What a last name. Outcow. Now, the comic strip ran every Sunday and people really loved this weird little guy. The character. Not the...

Now the yellow kid was known for his long yellow tunic and a bald head that made him look like a baby. It was a really popular drawing that Ritchie used to make political cartoons out of.

So, for example, if there was a popular story about a corrupt businessman, the yellow kid would have a weird little joke written out, written on his tunic about it. Or if there was like a labor protest happening somewhere in the country, the yellow kid would share his take on how the workers needed to stop protesting and get back to work. It sounds kind of lame, but at the time it was like, oh my God, wow.

People are ranting and raving about it. But one day, Richie quits Joseph's New York world and starts drawing Yellow Kid comics at Williams' New York Journal. Joseph's like, what the fuck, man?

right it turns out william offered richie double his salary to join his team at the new york world now joseph obviously pissed but hey again money it always comes down to money right the yellow kid was one of the most popular things about his paper and also he's thinking who the fuck is william randolph hearst did you have a castle yet i don't know but he should go to that castle it's fucking incredible have you seen it

He wins. So Joseph sends Richie another offer. I'll double whatever this guy William's paying you if you come back to me.

So he does. And Richie starts working for Joseph again. And then William Hurst and the New York Journal offers Richie even more money to do the yellow kid. And it just keeps going back and forth like this for way longer than it should. But this one guy, this yellow kid, he's got bills to pay. So he's, of course, he's going after the money, right? He's not loyal to any of them. He's like, who's going to pay me more? You? Okay, I'm gonna go to you. Oh, you? Yeah. Okay. You know?

You get it. You do the same. Eventually, Joseph's sick of trying to keep Richie on board. So he hires a new guy to come in and do his own yellow kid comic. Oh shit, it's getting real. This became so confusing to the public that eventually the public started calling all New York journalism yellow journalism. All because of a little bald boy in a yellow tunic. Wild. But this is just the way it went with...

Joseph and William. William would steal Joseph's shit. Joseph would try to buy it back. And it all gets so much worse when William starts offering everybody at Joseph's New York World jobs at his paper for a much higher salary. Shots fired. Bang, bang. Shots fired.

They're just plain dirty. The message was clear to Joseph. William was coming for him. He's plain dirty. He's got the money. YOLO. And at this point, Joseph is getting a little worried, okay? It's 1895 and his only real competition before this were papers with an older, wealthier, more conservative readership. So he like never had to worry about any kind of direct competition before. But with William basically dropping into New York overnight, this was like a huge wake-up call. And

and Joseph needed to up his game fast. Every time he thought he'd recovered from losing all of his employees, William would offer Joseph's replacement reporters even more money to come work for him. It's just not very nice.

Over time, Joseph was spending way more money on reporters' salaries than the paperwork was actually making. And by 1897, William's New York Journal not only passed Joseph's New York world in popularity, it started making way more money too. Okay, so when are we going to get to this war that I keep hinting at? Because I've said it like 18 times. Well, we're going to get to it right now. Thank you. So William and the New York Journal get tipped off in 1895 about a huge war.

fight brewing down in Cuba. At the time, Cuba was occupied by Spain and battling for its independence. Cuban unrest had been brewing since the mid-1800s when multiple revolutions against the Spanish started but failed. In 1895, a journalist named Jose Marti managed to flee Cuba and headed straight to New York.

While he was there, he wrote article after article for any newspaper that would publish him, pleading for a renewed focus on taking Cuba back from Spain. He hoped to not only inspire Cuban resistance, but to get the United States public on their side. But it really wasn't working out for him.

So he was going to need a little bit of help. And there was one man who was eager to exploit. William Randolph Hearst. The one with the castle. I know. Have you been to the castle? It's incredible. So William sends a reporter down to see if there's a story worth telling. What William was hoping for was drama, drama, drama. He was hoping to see like a country full of suffering people, dead soldiers, pure and utter mayhem.

But the reporter was like, actually, none of that's happening. Sorry. And sends William a telegram saying, everything quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. Wish to return. That's what this telegram said. They don't use complete sentences. It costs too much. When William gets this telegram, something in him snaps. He has papers to sell, goddammit. He needs a war, okay? Okay.

Now, rumor has it that William immediately starts typing out the telegram for the reporter that says, quote, please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war. Now, most historians aren't really all that sure if William actually wrote the, quote, furnish the war telegram.

But whether he did or not, the whole next part of the story shows us that this is definitely how William's mind was working at the time. William had things in motion to break this huge story, but he felt the story wasn't interesting enough to garner the support of the United States public.

He felt like it needed some, it needed some garnishing. It needed some flavor. It needed to be a little bit more provocative. Something that would pull in sympathy of the average American newsreader. There was this woman that he called the Cuban princess of the resistance. Her name was Evangelina and she was 18 years old and she had been a rebel fighter her entire life because her dad was one of the leaders of the Cuban revolution.

Now she was already famous in the United States because William and the New York Journal ran a series of articles about her framing the story as a teenage girl fighting for her life and her country. Patriotic American values super relatable to the United States. Love that. But early on in the revolution, she was captured by a Spanish general. This dude was sick. He was a murderer. When you think about it, the story practically writes itself and William knew this was going to be the hottest story in town.

Suddenly, William's New York world was full of graphic stories describing what Evangelina's strip search looked like, or her struggles fighting for Cuban independence, or vivid reports of her awful mistreatment at the hands of this psychopath, the General. I would say his name, but I'm really struggling. There was just one tiny little problem with these stories. None of it was actually true.

You see, writers for the journal were given the mandate by William that the story mattered more than the truth. And so editorials would be written that made all of this shit up. But there wasn't really a standard at the time for labeling these kinds of stories as opinion pieces. Everything in the paper was taken very seriously and as a fact. So the United States public starts believing everything that they're reading about Evangelina's horrible mistreatment.

And as the stories become more and more sensational, more and more people buy William's paper. You know, it's like freaking you want to know what's going to happen. William was officially in the Cuban war business and baby business was a booming. Business was so good, in fact, that William decides to up his game and actually use the journal to fund a rescue mission for Evangelina.

He saw this as an opportunity to basically create the victory to end all victories against Joseph Pulitzer and the New York world. Not only was he going to insert himself into the story, he was going to make sure that when anybody thought of the name Evangelina,

They thought about how William Randolph Hearst and his paper had rescued her. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

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First, William would send a reporter named Carl Decker down to Cuba with the instructions to meet up with a few double agents he also had working for the general. These spies would then give Carl the layout of the jail Evangelina was being held in. Now these plans showed that Evangelina's cell didn't actually have a roof, it had just metal bars. So Carl could sneak onto the roof of the jail

had accessed the cell by removing the bars and putting down a small ladder for Evangelina. Bada bing, bada boom, it was a perfect plan. Except the fact that there were 11 other prisoners in the same cell. And William did not want any witnesses. But Carl had a plan for that too. Carl, Carl, Carl.

Carl sends a local to go visit Evangelina and give her a bag of candy that was laced with drugs. Oh, yes. This sounds fake, but it's not fake. So the plan is for Evangelina to share all of her candy with the cellmates. So the cellmates are going to do some drugs, and then they're going to go Mimi's, a.k.a.

Meanwhile, Carl's on the roof this whole time, just waiting for Evangelina to give him the signal. He can see all the guards down the hall, standing, watch, but none of them are focused on Evangelina's cell. Now this is the really crazy part.

For many reasons, Carl takes out a hacksaw and starts sawing through the metal bars. He had originally planned to use acid on the bars, which makes way more sense. Does it? I don't know. But for reasons that really aren't all that clear, Carl's up here with the fucking hacksaw. Great.

Now to nobody's surprise, cutting through metal bars takes a long time. And eventually, the guards arrive. So Carl has to stop and heads back to the hotel. So the next night, Carl goes back and he does it all over again and actually saws through the metal bars this time. He lowers the ladder to Evangeline and they successfully escape.

Then he gives her some fake citizenship papers and they both hightail it to New York. And the day Evangelina arrives in New York, surprise, surprise, the journal is ready to publish its new front page story with the headline, Evangelina Rescued by the Journal. An American newspaper accomplishes at single stroke what the red tape of diplomacy failed utterly to bring about in many months.

That's quite the title. So William literally starts parading Evangeline up and down New York City. Publicity appearances, fancy dinners. And he's like, look, I saved her. You know, he even sets up a ball in her honor that she ends up meeting the president. Yeah. Now this was William's victory lap. And he was going to milk every freaking moment of it. Because believe it or not, our little trust fund baby, he may have saved a life.

Meanwhile, Joseph Pulitzer, this man over here, he's heartbroken. He is broken. He had been sick for a long time. He's nearly blind and he's suffering from something called acute noise sensitivity. What is that? I don't know. These were things he'd been dealing with since he was a kid, but his condition was so bad, Joseph couldn't even go to his office at the New York World anymore. And he started doing all of his editorial work from home.

And then Joseph gets diagnosed with clinical depression. Plus, Joseph and his paper are bleeding cash. I mean, let's face it, our guy, he's just at a rock bottom, okay? It's over, baby. It's fucking over. So, he decides to give William and the New York Journal a taste of their own medicine. Oh, he's ready to play dirty, bitch.

Two can play this game. So while the entire Evangelina story is happening, editorials are being written in the world directly disputing any story about Evangelina published by the journal. So if the journal wrote that Evangelina's cell was dirty, the world would publish that, oh nay nay, it was actually quite clean. When the journal referred to Evangelina as a brave rebel, the New York world would describe her as a scared little girl.

Other stories called her a temptress who deserved whatever the general did to her. It's not fully clear when old Joseph Pulitzer gave up any sense of journalistic integrity, but by the time this pissing match was at full steam, all of that had gone out the door. Well, his feelings are hurt. When a man's ego is damaged, let me tell you, it's not a good thing, babe. Nothing good comes from that.

Exhibit A. But let's not forget about Cuba. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. At this time, the revolution has heated up big time and it's about to reach a breaking point.

Public support for the United States to go to war with Spain is incredibly high, and this leads to a boost in support from the United States Congress, too. The press, especially the New York World, reports all of this in an attempt to drum up even more anti-Spanish sentiment. But the president's not sure he wants to go to war.

It's 1898 and he's got his focus on other things. So at first he ignores the non-stop media coverage, but then on February 15th, 1898, shit really hits the fan. It's a quiet evening on February 15th, 1898. Have you ever wondered why February has that random ass R? Feb-wuh-lary. Anyone? Anyways. Just me? Okay, fine, Joan. Shit.

Come on. It's a dark story. Can't I wonder about a damn R? Jesus. Anyway, so February 15th, 1898, a ship called the USS Maine has been sent to Cuba to retrieve United States citizens due to the growing possibility of war. Now at this time, the ship has about 355 soldiers on it and is docked in Havana right along the Cuban Harbor.

Most of the soldiers are sound asleep, ready to wake up bright and early to go save some American lives. And then at 9.40 p.m., the United States of Maine explodes. Bitch. Drama. Instantly killing 261 men before the ship begins sinking into the harbor. Now get this. To this day, nobody knows why the USS Maine exploded. What?!

How? I don't know. They didn't want to solve that mystery, did they? Many believe it was because the ship collided with an old mine or that it was like the result of an unrelated fire in the coal storage deck. Either way, it seems like it might have been planted for a story, but what do I know? It's very clear that this was not a motivated attack by Spain. And upon discovering that the main had exploded, the president of the United States thought the same thing.

So he immediately addresses the nation, telling them not to jump to any wild conclusions, because right now there's no evidence that this was an attack on United States citizens by Spain. But that didn't stop Joseph Pulitzer or William Hearst. And later that day, the headline in William's New York Journal said, Crisis is at hand, like all caps yelling. Cabinet in session, growing belief in Spanish treachery. Does

Does anyone even know what that means? No. And in response, Joseph's New York World headline says, "MAIN EXPLOSION CAUSED BY BOMB OR TORPEDO?" Like that kind of makes more sense. All caps yelling at people. Oh my god, what? So even though the President of the United States said there was no evidence this was Spain, these two papers were like, "SPAIN DID IT! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

And these were two of the biggest and most trusted newspapers at the time. So people are just eating it up, believing it to be true, right? Why wouldn't they? They've been credible this whole time. Why wouldn't they? So in the middle of all these dumb games, Joseph and William are playing with each other. America is still trying to figure out if we're going to war with Spain. The people are starving for information and updates and William is all too happy to provide.

He starts publishing article after article bashing Spain, offering a $50,000 reward for any information about the destruction of the USS Maine. And this coverage began with an article that would serve as a rallying cry for the war efforts.

This headline read simply, again, all caps, REMEMBER THE MAIN, TO HELL WITH SPAIN. Oh, catchy. Yeah, I mean, it was like a huge hit, this phrase. Yeah, it caught on all over the country. People love a rhyme. They love that shit. Basically, it was going viral before that was even a thing, you know? The warmongering gets to a point where the president can't ignore it anymore.

Most of the United States' allies in Europe warn the president, do not intervene. Spain is an ally, but the public and congressional support is too loud for the president to avoid.

Plus, he wanted to get reelected. So he issues a statement demanding Spain pull out of Cuba. But Spain, no response-y. Not available. So the president declares war against Spain on April 20th, 1898. Oh, 420. William Randolph Hearst had wanted a war and now he had straight up invented a motherfucking war. He didn't invent, he manifested. He manifested that war.

William had been fighting two wars in the age of yellow journalism. The first was the Spanish-American War, but the other one was the War of Information, which he waged against old Joseph Pulitzer. And in a way, he won the first war, but the second one was a bit of a tie. Because even though William ended up getting exactly what he wanted, Joseph started to realize he'd done bad and had to make it right with the world.

So the Spanish-American War ends. Sales are plummeting for both the New York World and the New York Journal. Without a war to hype up, nobody really gives a shit about their papers.

So Joseph decided to bring his reporting back to its roots and starts publishing stories about government corruption and murder in a way to appeal to the working class again. After selling off the world a few years later, he establishes a fund that eventually leads to the creation of two of journalism's most famous institutions.

the Pulitzer Prize, and the Columbia School of Journalism. In 1911, shortly after Joseph established the Fund, he died at the age of 64. So after all this, you would assume that William hated Joseph. But believe it or not, Joseph...

Pulitzer was still William's hero. After he died, William actually wrote a eulogy in the New York Times for Joseph that said, quote, "In his death, journalism has lost a leader. The people have lost a champion and the nation has lost a valuable citizen."

After Joseph's death, William keeps plugging away for another 40 years. He started investing in newspapers and publishing houses across the entire planet. And his brand of sensationalized journalism quickly spread all over the place. And even though his feud with Joseph was over, his whole plot to control all the messaging in the media was just getting started.

By the time he died in 1951, William had a vast corporation called Hearst Communications that owned radio stations, movie studios, and countless other media outlets. He even had a freaking castle. Did you know about the castle? Have I mentioned the castle? You gotta go there, it's stunning. At one point, he owned Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, The Washington Times, and he even invested in a few movie studios.

For those studios, he produced newsreels that would play before movies in the 1940s, which means that William also had his hands in wartime propaganda. And I mean, when you think about it, Hearst Communications provided the blueprint for what we see today in companies like News Corp, Turner Broadcasting, or Disney. There are striking similarities to the way news is consumed today with the frequency at which both the New York world and the New York press

were being updated. I mean, there were the morning editions, the afternoon and the evening editions, even a late edition for like special breaking stories. A direct line can be drawn from this story to the rise of 24 seven news channels becoming impossible to ignore.

And since we can't ignore the news, we all really start to have like overly emotional responses. Now, these overly emotional responses usually come from one of two places. Misinformation, which is the accidental spread of false information, or

Or disinformation, which is spreading lies on purpose. When yellow journalism came to the scene, we saw both come into play. And this is still a really big deal today. It all started with an honest attempt to tell the stories upper class society didn't want people to hear. Stories of corruption, stories of murder.

murder, stories that affect your everyday woman or man. But because of the people like William Hearst, it led to sensationalizing stories that didn't even need to be sensationalized just to create a narrative that would sell newspapers. It's all about money, money, money, money, money, money, money. And later on, even more people with dollar signs in their eyes would see an opportunity in that kind of storytelling, aka clickbait.

Anyways, that was a journey. Have you been to Hearst Castle? Let me know down below. Thoughts? Joan, tell me about it. What are you thinking right now? Are you overwhelmed? Same C. Moral of the story is nothing's safe. Everything sucks. Okay? Am I right? High five. Okay. Thank you everyone for sitting down with me and learning about more awful shit. Am I right?

And remember, don't forget to be a very curious person. Ask questions. Try to, you know, get the whole story. The truth. You deserve that. We all deserve that. But not in a sensationalized way. The real truth. How do we get that?

Bitch, great question. Anyways, I'd love to hear your reactions to the story. So make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so I can follow and see what you're saying. Or you can join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And don't forget to check out my murder mystery and makeup, which drops on Mondays. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices and I'll be talking to you next week.

Bye. Dark History is an Audioboom original. Okay. This podcast is executive produced by me, Bailey Sarian, Kim Jacobs, Dunya McNeely from 3Arts, Justin Cummins, and Claire Turner from Wheelhouse DNA. Produced by Lexi Kiven. Research provided by Ramona Kivitt. Writers, Jed Bookout, Joey Scavuzzo, Kim Yageed, and me, Bailey Sarian. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian.

Can I get like a free trip to Hearst Castle? I like promote them nonstop throughout this episode. I just feel like I should get some kind of like free tour. Okay. Even though he's a bad guy. I just would like really like that. Have you been there? It's incredible. It's incredible. Goodbye.

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29: The Birth of Click Bait & Fake News: Yellow Journalism