page_title: Propaganda of the Spanish–American War
section_title: Hearst and Pulitzer
hierarchical_section_title: Propaganda of the Spanish–American War / Propaganda and the media / Hearst and Pulitzer
caption_attribution_description: Editorial cartoon by Leon Barritt, 1898. Newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, full-length, dressed as the Yellow Kid (a popular cartoon character of the day), each pushing against opposite sides of a pillar of wooden blocks that spells WAR. This is a satire of the Pulitzer and Hearst newspapers' role in drumming up USA public opinion to go to war with Spain.
context_page_description: The Spanish–American War is considered to be both a turning point in the history of propaganda and the beginning of the practice of yellow journalism.
  It was the first conflict in which military action was precipitated by media involvement. The war grew out of U.S. interest in a fight for revolution between the Spanish military and citizens of their Cuban colony. American newspapers fanned the flames of interest in the war by fabricating atrocities which justified intervention in a number of Spanish colonies worldwide.
  Several forces within the United States were pushing for a war with Spain. Their tactics were wide-ranging and their goal was to engage the opinion of the American people in any way possible. Men such as William Randolph Hearst, the owner of The New York Journal was involved in a circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World and saw the conflict as a way to sell papers. Many newspapers ran articles of a sensationalist nature and sent correspondents to Cuba to cover the war. Correspondents had to evade Spanish authorities; usually they were unable to get reliable news and relied heavily on informants for their stories.
context_section_description: The two newspaper owners credited with developing the journalistic style of yellow journalism were William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. These two were fighting a circulation battle in New York City. Pulitzer owned the New York World, and Hearst the New York Journal. Through their disregard for responsible journalism, the two men are commonly credited with leading the USA into the Spanish–American War. Their stories swayed US public opinion to believe that the Cuban people were being unjustly persecuted by the Spanish, and that the only way for them to gain their independence was through American intervention. Hearst and Pulitzer made their stories credible by self-assertion and providing false names, dates, and locations of skirmishes and atrocities committed by the Spanish. Papers also claimed that their facts could be substantiated by the government.
  While Hearst and Pulitzer's influence was significant among the upper classes and government officials, there were many Midwestern newspapers who denounced their use of sensational yellow journalism. Victor Lawson, owner of both the Chicago Record and Chicago Daily News, had garnered a large middle-class readership and was concerned with reporting only the facts surrounding the growing conflict between the United States and Spain. An office was set up by Lawson in nearby Key West in order to keep a close eye on the Cuban conflict. However, the focus of midwestern newspapers on particular facts served in the end as another cause of the war. Since the events occurring in Cuba were not always credible many midwestern newspaper owners shifted their content towards domestic issues, namely the effect of Cuba on the American economy. American interests in the trade with Cuba were significant, and through the papers' coverage of these matters, much of the readership in the midwest soon came to believe that protecting these interests was necessary for economic stability. The most obvious means of preserving these interests was through war with Spain.
  Concerned that their goals were being undermined by Lawson and other midwest newspapers, Hearst and Pulitzer were looking for any story which could expand their middle class audience. Two well-timed incidents served to support these interests. The first was the Olivette Incident, where a young and innocent-looking Cuban woman named Clemencia Arango was taken into custody aboard the New York bound ship Olivette by Spanish officials, under suspicion of delivering letters to rebel leaders stationed in the city. She was taken into a private room and searched. A passenger and reporter working for Hearst named Richard Harding Davis reported the incident, but was later appalled by the sensational claims which accused Spanish officials of sexual harassment. The headlines were as follows: "Does our flag shield women?", "Indignities Practiced by Spanish Officials On Board American Vessels" and "Refined Young Women Stripped and Searched by Brutal Spaniards While Under Our Flag on the Ollivette". Initially Hearst even succeeded in garnering support among American women, but he soon found himself in trouble when Arango clarified the accounts. Although he never published an apology, he was forced to print a letter in which he explained that his article had not meant to say that male policemen had searched the women and that, in fact, the search had been conducted quite properly by a police matron with no men present.
  Fortunately for Hearst, a second incident soon followed. It involved a Cuban dentist named Ricardo Ruiz who had fled to the United States during the Cuban Ten Year War and had become a U.S. citizen. Ruiz voluntarily returned to Cuba after the conflict, married, and had children. He was soon imprisoned under suspicion of associating with rebels, and died in prison. Hearst published a headline the next day that read 'American Slain in Spanish Jail'. Ruiz' story had a significant impact on adding tension between the United States and Spain among the middle classes, who related to him even though Ruiz was a proud Cuban. Although the
caption: Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, full-length, dressed as the Yellow Kid, a satire of their role in drumming up USA public opinion to go to war with Spain.
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