Yellow Journalism Did Not Cause the Spanish-American War (Role of Sensationalized Headlines Often Exaggerated)
While many newspapers in the late 19th century shifted to more of a tabloid style, the notion that their headlines played a major part in starting the war is often overblown.
Joseph Campbell: “No serious historian of the Spanish-American War period embraces the notion that the yellow press of [William Randolph] Hearst and [Joseph] Pulitzer fomented or brought on the war with Spain in 1898…. Newspapers, after all, did not create the real policy differences between the United States and Spain over Spain’s harsh colonial rule of Cuba.”
“Newspapers did not cause the Cuban rebellion that began in 1895 and was a precursor to the Spanish-American War,” says Campbell. “And there is no evidence that the administration of President William McKinley turned to the yellow press for foreign policy guidance.” “But this notion lives on because, like most media myths, it makes for a delicious tale, one readily retold,” Campbell says. “It also strips away complexity and offers an easy-to-grasp, if badly misleading, explanation about why the country went to war in 1898.”
The myth also survives, Campbell says, because it purports the power of the news media at its most malignant. “That is, the media at their worst can lead the country into a war it otherwise would not have fought,” he says. —History.com
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Post was last modified on 8 May 2023 2:42 pm
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The press captures in a sensational way a multitude of concepts, which are not separate, but when you join them in a story, they create a larger story than the real thing. That is why the press and only for the speaker it has, is responsible for a part of any world event.