Chapter 5 Summary

Moving our focus some 100 years after the American Revolution, we set our sights on the Spanish American War and the major journalistic events that led up to it.

Joseph Pulitzer

Much like Sam Adams and Thomas Paine and their impact on the Revolutionary War, The Spanish American War was driven mainly behind another two ambitious journalists, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. We'll start with Pulitzer, who was actually born in Hungary in 1847, and came to the United States as a mercenary who fought for the North in the Civil War. After the war, Pulitzer moved west and wrote for a German language newspaper in St. Louis. With his tremendous work ethic and ambition, Pulitzer was able to buy a bankrupt newspaper and merge it with another to create the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Pulitzer lead a new style of newspaper that targeted the masses of America, thinking that newspapers should be cheap and written clearly and concisely. Pulitzer built his newspaper into a powerhouse, leading St. Louis in reform initiatives such as exposing fraud at the polls, and cleansing the city of brothels.

In 1883, Pulitzer started the paper New York World, which targeted the huge urban working class of New York. Despite many critics, the World became the largest paper in the country. Pulitzer used dramatic headlines and his clear, concise writing to serve the people and expose fraud and fight the evils of the public. Citizens latched on to the paper and its circulation leapt from 15,000 when he bought it, to 250,000 four years later.

William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst was born in 1863, and lead a much different life than Pulitzer. Born to an extremely wealthy father, William lead a very privileged life, one in which saw his father buy his admission into Harvard. But, like any other privileged college student, he drank too much and wasted his time doing everything else but studying. Hearst was kicked out of Harvard, and moved on to work for the New York World. After working there briefly, he persuaded his father to let him edit the San Francisco Examiner, a financially failing newspaper.

Hearst had found his calling. Using his fathers vast wealth, he hired a fantastic staff around him and undertook ambitious and progressive crusades. Much like Pulitzer, Hearst appealed to the masses, and even took things a step further by creating stupefying events on days where the news was dull. After eight years, the Examiner grew in popularity and its circulation grew from 12,000 to 2000,000. In 1895, Hearst bought the New York Journal, dropped the price from two cents to one, and began competing with Pulitzer's World.

Within a year, the Journal became New York's second largest paper, trailing only the World. Hearst and Pulitzer battled for readers, and filled papers with emotion packed stories to shock and entertain the masses. By 1897, the Journal's daily circulation reached 500,000, right within shouting distance of the World's 600,000.

Fueled by Cuban rebels striking back at the Spanish economic interests in Cuba, Hearst began championing their cause and painting them as patriotic heroes. Much like Sam Adams did with his rebel cause, Hearst used sensational stories of Spanish brutality in order to gain American support for the rebels. Despite initially opposing American involvement in Cuba, Pulitzer began to "support" it in order to increase popularity in his newspaper. The World didn't come up with as sensational stories as the Journal, but both newspapers used made up events and stories to increase their respective popularity.

On February 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, killing 260 U.S. sailors. Immediately, the Journal threw the blame on the Spanish, with no facts to back it up. Hearst's sensational reporting buoyed the Journal past the World in circulation to over one million. Pulitzer was reluctant to sacrifice the truth for popularity in this case, but his tune quickly changed in order to keep up with the Journal. 

The reporting of both the Journal and World whipped the citizens of the United States into a frenzy, demanding for war. President William McKinley was hesitant to take such drastic measures, understandably so, but soon caved in to the pressure and adopted a pro-war stance. The might of the 4th Estate had forced the hand of the president, and on April 19th of that year, the United States Senate passed a war resolution.

The shame here lies with the fact that the Spanish American War could have been avoided and American lives saved, considering that the Spanish were willing to negotiate. The war of the newspapers lead to an actual war of the people, with Hearst and Pulitzer having to mach each other blow for blow. It is the thought of many that without the arrival of Hearst in New York journalism, there wouldn't have been a war.

In this case, journalism didn't lead a cause with good intentions, but instead flexed its muscle and exercised its power over the people and government. 

Journalism as a Warmonger

To continue my writings about journalism and its impact on shaping our nation's history, I'll turn my attention to another example of the 4th Estate and its role as a warmonger. Rather than shift my focus entirely, I'll try to link the Revolutionary War and Spanish American War together through the impact of journalism on each. I'll also be writing a brief summary of Chapter 5: "Journalism as a Warmonger" in the Mightier than the Sword book.

Chapter 1 Summary

The push towards independence began with the writings of one Sam Adams during the 1760's. Radical to say the least, Adams began stirring the pot as a writer for the Boston Gazette. Through hundreds of essays and news articles that were reprinted throughout the colonies, the sensational voice of Adams could be heard far and wide. His dissatisfaction began with the unfair taxes that were imposed upon the colonists by British Parliament. Adams put in to question the liberty of the colonists, with the first thoughts of having a self imposed government with the power to make its own laws.

Adams started the "Journal of Occurrences" as another way to spread his anti-British ideas throughout the colonies. The motivation behind this service was the large number of British troops who were stationed in Boston at the time. The main purpose of the journal was to build up an anti-British sentiment in the colonists. Adams would make outrageous claims against the troops, saying that they raped women and beat men, even though most of the events written about were not true. The journal did its job magnificently, and within a year the troops who were stationed in Boston were withdrawn, and the colonists had new levels of resentment towards the British.

On March 5th, 1770, a few young colonists provoked a group of British soldiers who were left in Boston to act as guards. Shots were fired by the soldiers, accidentally or not, and things escalated to the point that five colonists were killed. Theses events, known as the Boston Massacre, sparked outrage in the city, and once more led by Sam Adams, the news was written about painting the British soldiers in a negative light.

Thomas Paine was the final voice needed to inspire the colonists to rise up against the British. His essay Common Sense spoke about not only the rights colonists were entitled to as British subjects, but the inalienable rights that they were entitled to as humans. Paine spoke about complete independence from British rule, something that even the most radical writers before him chose not to mention. The essay was written so that it could be understood by the masses, and as a result had a widespread effect on all the colonies, and on all social classes. Common Sense wasn't the "be all end all" behind the American Revolution, but there is no question as to the significant impact it had in the final push towards independence.

Believe it or not, Paine wasn't done after writing Common Sense. After seeing his dispirited troops fall to the might of the British army, general George Washington requested that Paine write words that would motivate his men to continue fighting under such tough circumstances. Paine responded with the Crisis essays. There were twelve essays published in total, with each seeing large circulation as a means to inspire the colonists. The first essay was read to general Washington's disheartened and suffering troops, and a week later they won a critical battle at Trenton.

Rarely does the press get the recognition for spurring on the Revolution, but as shown above the impact was truly great. From the early thoughts of unfair British rule, to the motivation of American troops, the press, lead by a few key voices, was one of the most important contributors towards our nation gaining its independence.

Sowing the Seeds of Revolution

Journalism had a major impact on the liberation of the American colonies, but is rarely given such credit. Sure, everyone knows about Thomas Paine's "Common Sense", but that is pretty much the extent of any form of journalism being mentioned as a catalyst for the American Revolution. It is for this reason that I chose to do my project about the impact of journalism on the finest moment of our country's history. Chapter one of "Mightier Than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History", by Roger Streitmatter, explores the impact of journalism on our war for independence, and I will be summarizing the chapter soon.

Join, or die

Join, or die. Truer words have never been spoken. The image above, originally published in the Pennsylvania Gazette by Benjamin Franklin during the French and Indian war, is the perfect way to portray the mindset that the colonists had to have in order to survive and thrive. The serpent is divided into eight parts, with each part representing a British American colony or region (save for Georgia and Delaware, which were colonies that were ommited completely). The political cartoon was meant to depict the importance of colonial unity, during a time when each colony mostly kept to itself and was independent. The cartoon was recycled during the time of the American Revolution, again to stress the monumental importance of unity among the colonies if they had any hope of defeating the British and obtaining freedom. This picture became a symbol of democracy and freedom during the war, and is just one of many examples of how journalism played an important part in "Sowing the Seeds of Revolution".