Yellow Journalism Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies

This offers a detailed and long-awaited reassessment of one of the most maligned periods in American journalism--the era of the yellow press. The study challenges and dismantles several prominent myths about the genre, finding that the yellow press did not foment--could not have fomented--the Spanish-American War in 1898, contrary to the arguments of many media historians. The study presents extensive evidence showing that the famous exchange of telegrams between the artist Frederic Remington and newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst--in which Hearst is said to have vowed to "furnish the war" with Spain--almost certainly never took place. The study also presents the results of a systematic content analysis of seven leading U. S. newspapers at 10 year intervals throughout the 20th century and finds that some distinguishing features of the yellow press live on in American journalism.