“Yellow Journalism” Leads to War with Spain

February 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba. Following the explosion, The New York Journal immediately blames Spain and give the U.S. the final push to go into war with Spain.

Although historians now believe a fire in the coal bunkers to be the true cause of the explosion, the fact that it was published by the New York Journal made enough of an impact to alter history. The more important aspect of this story to me is not that the facts were wrong, but rather that this is the modern birth of journalism in politics. W

here there had been journalism in politics before, this made an immediate impact on the morale of the country and influenced the government to take action for something that had not been proven.

I find this timely in that the “fake news” guy is claiming credit for helping in Trump’s winning of the election. He claims the reports and accusations he made gave fuel to his campaign and influenced the people in voting for him.

Even though this was not his intention, he claimed that voters for Trump were so clueless they just believed whatever they read. Like this, the people reading the New York Journal at the time read what was printed, and it had a significant impact on what was about to happen. The difference being that this made a real impact while it’s arguable as to whether the fake news writer did or not, but it still began with a publication of an accusation influencing politics.

Historians will say that this is a prime example of “yellow journalism” and that there is no place in the field for this type of sensationalism. I see it the same way, but not everybody in the industry does, and I credit this for being the first landmark example of such wrongdoing. Just as we read everyday, there are always examples of misusing journalism for an agenda, but more than ever I feel we see this when it comes to politics.

This election more so than ever before used the media to bash and lower each candidate to an extent unseen before. The Democratic party used it to give one candidate an unfair advantage and be nominated, and both parties seemingly used it to attack the opposition.

Time and time again we will see yellow journalism in an effort to push an agenda forward, and the New York Journal set the standard when it comes to merging journalism and politics.