Compare And Contrast Pulitzer And Joseph Hearst

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The Prime Minister of Spain once told an American, “The newspapers in your country seem to be more powerful than the government.” This statement was never more true than in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. The rulers of the New York newspaper empire, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, battled against one another in the ultimate test of journalism. With a real war on the horizon, these men fought to produce the most sensational stories Americans had ever read; and, as a result, they brought forth a new age in the American newspaper business, an age of fighting for the little guy, and beating back tyranny one paper at a time. At age 17, Joseph Pulitzer arrived penniless on the shores of America. After working many different jobs, from soldier to …show more content…

While the interest in the war had caused New York newspaper sales to reach over 1 million daily, promoting the war's popularity at the cost of losing the truth had ravaged the reputation of the press. As Pulitzer tried to make his World engrossing enough to keep up with Hearst's fantastical stories, he strayed from his long standing mandates about always being factual. As a result, his credibility was deeply damaged. Likewise, while Hearst came out on top at the end of the newspaper war, he did so with a terrible reputation. Both men reached the climax of their lives during the war and spent most of the time after the war in secluded mansions, managing their editorial empires from afar. Pulitzer and Hearst are often accused of exaggerating the news in order to sell more papers. Nevertheless, their impact on the Spanish-American War cannot be underestimated. A Cuban rebel leader once said, “Without a press, we shall get nowhere.” The Cubans were fully aware of their need for the news, and they found their salvation in the powerhouses Pulitzer and Hearst, ushering in an age where America fought not only with a military but also with the power of

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