David
3/29/09
HIST 112
Yellow Journalism and the Spanish American War
Into the early 1890s, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippine islands, Guam, and other islands were all small colonies of Spain. Spain was infamous for its mistreatment of its colonial denizens, mistreated that sparked rebellions nearing the turn of the century. The United States of America had always kept an eye on Cuba, but up until recently the public had not been interested in the going-ons there.
However, in early 1895, a revolution arose in Cuba that garnered media attention in the United States. The United State’s relationship with Spain at that time was sore, mostly because the U.S. government felt threatened to have an imperialistic nation at their doorstep. When the revolution came into being, a myriad of newspaper agencies sent down their reporters and correspondents to Cuba. Most of these reporters did not come close to the fighting, choosing to report from comfortable Havana, or even southern Florida. From these isolated points, they reported their news.
Many of these reporters came from what are called “yellow journals.” These newspapers were the 19th century equivalent of The Daily Star, The Enquirer, or The Daily Mirror, the tabloids that ran fantasy-filled scandal stories stuffed to the brim with sex, lies, and mayhem.
Yellow journalism didn’t start in the advent of the Cuban revolution. The idea of such a lewd newspaper appears after the Civil War. The paragon of yellow journalism in those days was Joseph Pulitzer’s World, published out of New York. Bought by Pulitzer from Jay Gould, the World was, at the time, in a circulation fight with another newspaper, the Journal, owned by an ex-reporter for the World, William Randolph Hearst. Pulitzer ran a comic in his paper featuring a wisecracking urchin in a yellow smock, the Yellow Kid. Hearst later hired the artist for the original Yellow Kid from Pulitzer, and so Pulitzer hired another artist to keep drawing the comic, therefore creating two versions of Yellow Kid. This lead the more conservative New York Press to write an article laughing at Hearst and Pulitzer's “Yellow Journalism.”
When the hordes of yellow journalists descended upon the Cuban revolution, most settled down, far from any action. Still, some tried to dig deeper, going amongst the denizens of Cuba and the insurgencies, taking any second- or third-hand account they can find of fighting. The reporters even went so far as to use material from European visitors to Cuba and publish it in their own papers. Whatever was the case, the end result was the same: elaborately spun tales of battles that might or might not have been fought, Cuban victories which never occurred, or exaggerated stories of Spanish brutality. Every day, the readers were treated to hyped-up, falsified tales of pro-revolution news.
By the end of 1897, more than 300,000 Cubans had been relocated into concentration camps. The yellow journalism’s attack on the Spanish had not relented, as they covered the relocation of the Cubans, and the horrid conditions on the relocation camps.
On January 1st, 1898, Spain instituted limited political autonomy in Cuba. This did not sit well with many conservative Spaniards in Cuba, as on January 12th, they demonstrate against autonomy-supporting newspaper offices. This lead to Major General Fitzhugh Lee, the consul-general of the United States to Havana, Cuba, to ask for American assistance, calling for a naval ship to be sent down to Havana. On January 25th, the battleship USS Maine arrives in the Havana harbor. Spain, in response, announced the armored cruiser Vizcaya would call at New York. The local papers wasted no time tearing apart the Spanish motives for this action. However, the Vizcaya would not arrive until mid-February.
On the evening of February 15th, the USS Havana exploded in the harbor, killing 266 crewmen. In the confusion following the explosion, Captain Charles Sigsbee, the captain of the Maine, stated “public opinion should be suspended until further report.” He was unsure whom or what had caused the explosion, but the newspapers had different ideas.
Upon learning of the explosion, Hearst called the editor of the Journal. He told the editor that there was no other big news, that he wanted the editor to make the Maine’s explosion front page news. He said, “This means war!” Over the coming days, the various newspapers concluded that Spanish officials in Cuba planted a mine on or near the ship, and they widely publicized their theories as fact. Their stories were mixed in with general stories of the Spanish “atrocities” still happening around Cuba. Indeed, the February 17th headline of The Evening Journal stated: “WAR? SURE!”
These sensationalist headlines continued as the Naval Board of Inquiry into the loss of the battleship Maine was created, and the inquiry into the explosionstarted on February 21st. The yellow journalism pressured the Board and created much distress among the American citizens, spreading and fueling the anti-Spanish sentiment that was already apparent in the U.S. The popular support for the war grew and grew, and the cry of the times in the U.S. was “Remember the Maine, To Hell with Spain!”
President McKinley, however, opposed such a war, and opposed the growing public demand for the war. However, with a large part of America pushing the President for war, President Mckinley receives the Board of Inquiry report on March 25th. Try as he might, the turmoil in Cuba grew as Spain declines Cuda’s independence. The journalists had a field day, tearing up Spain and once again fueling the populous to war. On April 11th, 1898, McKinley asked Congress for war. On April 25th, Congress declared that a state of war between the United States and Spain had existed since April 20th, later to be changed to April 21st.
McKinley never wanted to go to war. Only 30 years after the U.S.’s Civil War, the people in the U.S. originally were very hesitant about going to war. However, with the advent of the sensationalist yellow journalism, the newspapers manage to twist public opinion and start a war. The rare, and even somewhat vile, happening of newspaper fueling a country to war should never be forgot. However, similar things have happened in recent times, the most prominent example being former President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Even though next to no link existed between Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush and the media managed to spin the country’s opinion into believing an invasion of Iraq was inevitable, or at least the next logical step. As has come to light in recent years, Iraq was very much a bogus war, and Bush’s invasion of Iraq was short of a lie-filled brainwash of the American people.
Sources:
http://www.spanamwar.com/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-American_War
http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/spanam/eve-pge.htm