Essay on What´s Yellow Journalism?

The Spanish American War was caused by many occasions. America strongly supported Cuba and disputed Spain’s actions. The main causes of The Spanish American war was the yellow journalism, the blowing up of “The maine”, and the de lome letter. This essay will be discussing the causes and effects of the Spanish American War.

On February 15th, 1898, at about 9:40 in the night, the USS Maine exploded in the Havana Harbor. It killed between 260 and 268 men, and it caused a major uproar or attention in the United States. Because it was only a few days after the public found out about the De Lome letter, many Americans, and newspapers especially, put the blame onto Spain. It would soon become a minor cause of the Spanish-American War. During the war, the chant “Remember the Maine!” was used because of this tragedy.

In the mid-1800s, Spain ruled the island of Cuba. the United States, at that time, received most of Cuba's exports, and they supported the Cuban independence movement; if Cuba was independent, then the United States would benefit from the country. Soon, the big U.S. presses, such as The New York Journal and The New York World, knew that the event was in the people's feelings. They sensationalized their headlines and graphic features to attract readers, which soon was known as "yellow journalism". The press also knew a lot of the reader's interests, and they exaggerated their news. During the January of 1898, the United States sent the USS Maine, which is a battleship, to Havana, which is the capital of Cuba, in order to halt the riots between

Submarine divers were sent to Havana to find out the cause of this tragic event. The divers soon found 260 men dead from the explosion. Dynomite experts learned that the explosion was no accident. This was an intentional doing. There was some overheard conversation that there was a plot to blow up the ship. The United States naval forces discovered that there was a mine in the harbor that caused the explosion.

Yellow Journalism before and during the time of the Spanish-American War was used used to fabricate political events between the Americans and the Spanish and used as a mechanism to go to war with the Spanish. In return, the news agencies profited and capitalized on the sales by selling tons of newspapers. The journalists would write about what was going on over seas and they would exaggerate what was happening. Yellow Journalism brought upon disagreements, deception, and lies, while depicting the Spanish to be some sort of Monster that was trying to destroy America. Yellow Journalism caused havoc across the world and served as a catalysts for the war. Evidently Yellow Journalism is exaggerated reportings on what happened overseas, used as a false propaganda to rile up the Americans, and lastly motivate them to go to war.

Stories writeen about women POW’s, starving women and children, and even executions but, the story written about the battleship Maine being sunk in Havana Harbor and blamed on the Spanish without sufficient evidence, pushed the Americans to demand intervention. (http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_journalism.html , n.d.)

While public tensions before August 1898 were surely high, nothing turned the public against Spain like the tragic blowing up of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor. The lives of 260 American officers and men were lost. The yellow press and American investigators quickly blamed spanish officials in Cuba for the mysterious wreck. Although it is extremely unlikely that the spanish had anything to do with the Maine’s sinking, the War-Mad American public accepted this conclusion out of rage, overwhelmingly persuading President Mckinley to begin the war. McKinley personally did not want to fight a war against Spain, for he had seen enough bloodshed as a General in the Civil War. But the public, encouraged by the Cuban patriotic cause, yellow journalism, and the sinking of the Maine, clamored for a war. Finally, President McKinley yielded and gave the people what they wanted. He believed that the people should rule, even if they don’t know what’s best for themselves. Public pressure was the main reason we went to war with Spain, and the biggest cultivator of public unrest was the blowing up of “The Maine”.

Yellow Journalism was seen all over the newspapers in the late 19th century and was one of the causes of why McKinley chose to go to war. The San Francisco Call was one of those newspaper spreading rumors and false claims to the people. They mislead many people to support the cause in Cuba, adding to McKinley’s pressure of whether to get involved or not. They printed an article entitled “Proof of the treachery of Gen. Weyler” on April 12th, 1898. This newspaper article claimed that the sinking of the Maine, which caused great controversy over the situation in Cuba, was the work of none other than General Weyler, American’s biggest enemy at the moment. As it was clear, probably at that time and definitely now, the Maine wasn’t destroyed by the Spanish. Like this example and many others, tension rose both in the White House and with the American people because they were fed lies that people wanted to believe. Kagan believes that this “yellow journalism” didn’t really affect McKinley’s decision to intervene in Cuba as he states, “The pressure on the McKinley administration to take some action in Cuba was not manufactured by publishers looking for a war to sell newspapers. It was the product of Cuban reality and American outrage over actual human suffering.” Although he is right

While eventually it was seen as a crude technique to sell more newspapers and push for the outcome that the publishers were in favor of, the term was birthed through the constant competition between newspaper publishers. In 1896, Joseph Pulitzer (Pulitzer Prize) and William Randolph Hearst were publishers of two leading New York newspapers and both were engaged in a bidding war over a cartoonist who drew a strip known as the Yellow Kid. The cartoon strip was a satirical representation of life in the slums of New York, and it originally acquired profit for Pulitzer’s paper, New York World. Hearst, in an effort to raise the earnings of his paper, bought the cartoonist. The fighting between Hearst and Pulitzer, over the cartoon and the market, lead to the transformation of the Yellow Kid. The Yellow Kid is arguably the first negative news source desired and was only the prelude to its successor, known as Yellow

To protect the interests of the nation, the United States sent the USS Maine into Havana Harbor, but on February 15, 1898, the unthinkable happened. The battleship exploded, killing 260 members of the crew. Without a thorough investigation, the U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry stated the explosion was caused by Spain. Doubt from the public was virtually absent and the United States declared war on Spain, beginning the Spanish-American War. The war resulted in a swift American victory, leading to the addition of multiple territories. Although the explosion is now known to have been caused by an internal fire, it caused American intervention and imperialism in both Latin America and islands in the Pacific

Nationalism was another major factor in declaring war against Spain. Nationalism emerged in the United States and all of its people seemed to support the war. The “yellow press” printed multiple stories of scandals, including the explosion of the Maine in the Havana harbor. The yellow press printed that the Spanish were responsible for this action, which led to the slogan “Remember the Maine.” Nationalism and pride surged within the United States and war became imminent. The “rough riders,” who were volunteers from the United States, invaded the Santiago harbor in order to drive out Spanish ships. They paved the way for the American army and forced Spain to sign an armistice. After the war was over and the Cubans were free, The Platt Amendment was passed. It provided that Cuba had to state in its own constitution that the US might intervene with troops in Cuba in order to restore order and to provide mutual protection. It also promised to sell or lease naval stations to the US. The doctrine of Manifest Destiny also played a major part in the war. The US wanted to expand its country and spread its Anglo-Saxon culture. Imperialism was also part of this objective.

Assess the importance of TWO of the following in the US decision to declare war against Spain in 1898: yellow journalism, sinking of the Maine, US business interests, Cuban revolution

The Spanish-American War was a war focused on control over Cuba. As previously stated, Spain touted a powerful navy, victory would cause the entire world to notice and give the United States a seat at the international table. Americans took notice of Spanish brutality to Cuban uprisings attempting to gain freedom and were sympathetic to the Cuban people. Fighting for our independence was fresh on the minds of Americans who began to support Cuban freedom from Spain. Dispatching the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba proved to be a fateful strategic move made by President McKinley because just days after on February 15th 1898 the ship was destroyed, killing over 250 sailors. Although believed to be an accident, yellow journalists ran with the story of war receiving overwhelming support from the public. War was declared in April of 1898 and just after

The Spanish-American war began when an unknown ship sank the USS Maine in Havana, which was sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after the anti-Spanish riots. Yellow journalism contributed to the U.S. declaring war by using “sensational stories that tugged at readers’ heartstrings to sell papers.” These papers blamed Spain for the sinking of the ship, even though they had no evidence to prove it. Spain declared war on April 24, 1898 and the U.S. declared war the next day. These declarations of war began the Spanish-American war. It lasted only four months.

William Randolph Hearst was born April 29,1863 in SanFrancisco, California. His father was a multimillionaire geologist who