Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Popular, Influences

Historically, one of the most infamous incidents with regard to the influence that yellow journalism practices had on the Spanish-American War is a short dialogue between William Randolph Hearst and his hired illustrator/Cuban correspondent, Frederick Remington. Upon his arrival in Cuba in January of 1897, Remington noticed that none of massive reported battles were actually happening. He cabled to Hearst: "Everything is quiet. There is no trouble. There will be no war. I wish to return." Supposedly, although he denied it afterwards, he quickly wired back: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." While this story may or may not be true, it became one of the main factors that helped to propagate the myth that the war was created solely by the newspapers. While it seems very probable that propaganda, used in the form of yellow journalism, did influence the public and the American government to enter into the Spanish-American War, it is certain that it was not a war created for the sole purpose of media hype.
Regardless, Frederick Remington did eventually furnish the pictures Hearst had hoped for. In fact, he created what is often thought of as being one of the most famous illustrations of Spanish cruelty. The headlines were as follows: "Does our flag shield women?" "Indignities Practiced by Spanish Officials On Board American Vessels" "Richard Harding Davis Describes Some Startling Phases of the Cuban Situation" "Refined Young Women Stripped and Searched by Brutal Spaniards While Under Our Flag on the Ollivette". Accompanying such flash headlines was an illustration of this young Cuban woman being gauchely strip-searched by grubby looking Spanish officials. This illustration encouraged chivalry in readers, bringing yet more American outrage towards the Spanish.
However, the single most influential and newspaper-exploited event in the process of bringing the United States into a state of war was media coverage of the mysterious and unexplained explosion of the U.S.S. Maine. Immediately after, many newspapers (particularly those such as Hearst's Journal that commonly practiced certain aspects of yellow journalism) carried headlines such as "Remember the Maine!" and articles immediately accusing the Spanish for the destruction. Some even went so far as to make up detailed stories, stressing that it must have been a mine or torpedo (delivered by, of course, the Spanish) that caused the deaths of two-hundred and fifty-two American soldiers. Within days, headlines became so blunt as to say "War? Sure!" With pressure on the government from the people, the press, and eventually even on certain parts of the government itself, a state of war came into effect on April 25, 1898 (made retroactive to April 22, 1898). Armies were mobilized, emergency funds were allocated, and ports were blockaded, marking the beginning of the Spanish-American War.

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