Historians disagree as to the extent that United States officials were motivated to intervene for humanitarian reasons but agree that yellow journalism exaggerated atrocities attributed to Spanish forces against Cuban civilians.
Para sejarawan tak sepakat bahwa para pejabat Amerika Serikat bermotivasi untuk berintervensi atas alasan kemanusiaan namun sepakat bahwa jurnalisme kuning menyematkan kearoganan kepada pasukan Spanyol terhadap warga sipil Kuba.