Yellow JournalismOr, Where Was All the White Paper?

John Hartman, Amelia Gephart, Erika Ashe, and Sophia Ortiz (Group 2)

What is Yellow Journalism?It sure ain’t mellow journalism

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, yellow journalism is “the use of lurid features

and sensationalized news in newspaper publishing to attract readers and increase circulation.

The phrase was coined in the 1890s to describe the tactics employed in the furious competition

between two New York City newspapers, the World and the Journal.”

Yellow Journalism and the US involvement in Cuba

● The press got behind the war with yellow journalism.

● Hearst and Pulitzer competed with each other in

increasingly blown-up headlines to profit from business○ Also an issue of national popularity- both saw the chance to

make money and names for themselves in the minor conflicts in Cuba around the mid-1890s

U.S. Involvement in Cuba

● The Hearst newspapers unequivocally blamed the

Spanish, and soon the U.S. public opinion

demanded intervention.

● Without sensational headlines and stories about

Cuban affairs, the mood for Cuban intervention

may have been very different.

ECONOMIC CONCERNS: $50 million invested in Cuban economy $100 million+ in business yearly with Cuba Sugar plantation and mining investments were in dangerPRINCIPLES: Democracy and LibertyBoth principles, Americans had fought for.

Reconcentration Camps in Cuba

● Spanish General Weyler instituted a

“Reconcentration Policy” similar to

that of the Nazi’s in World War II in

1896

● Relocated to towns with unbearable

living conditions○ Starvation & disease rampant

● 1898- one-third of Cuba’s population

sent into concentration camps○ 400,000+ Cubans died○ Further used by big publishers, like

Hearst and Pulitzer, to incite American involvement in a largely blown-up conflict

Exaggeration of Spanish Atrocities

The atrocities in Cuba were exaggerated to

create a sensational impact to sell more

papers..

● Hearst sent artists to Cuba to depict

what was going on in Cuba.

● The reports of spanish atrocities were

told to Hearst that they were

exaggerated

● "You furnish the pictures and I'll

furnish the war."

These reports were nonetheless based on some truth. (left)

The USS MaineAn explosion 18 years in the making

● The USS Maine was an armored cruiser

launched in November 1889

● The Maine was docked in Havana

Harbor during the Cuban War of

Independence

● On February 15, 1898, the Maine

exploded while docked, killing

three-fourths of the crew.

● Several American newspapers

(notably Pulitzer and Hearst) jumped

on the story, promptly claiming that

Spain blew up the ship○ (They totally didn’t)

“Remember the Maine, to h*ck with Spain!”

● An internal report conducted in 1898

found that an external naval mine was

the cause of the explosion○ Several officers disagreed, instead

pointing to an explosion in the munitions caused by a fire in coal storage

■ The coal was known to emit something called firedamp which seems like a big red flag but I guess that’s none of my business

● The newspapers realized that a war would sell more papers, and published inflammatory material

○ Blatant falsehoods and exaggerations were published (see what was just talked about)

● Eventually, the US intervened in the Cuban War of independence, and following a whole bunch of stuff, someone declared war on someone else

○ There was this whole “Oh it's been de facto war” thing, and stuff got backdated