American Masters

(tense music) -

Narrator

Both Hearst and Pulitzer were lambasted for Yellow Journalism, defined as overheated, entertaining, and often inaccurate news reporting. Joseph Pulitzer, to his great credit, later regretted his role in that episode. -

Joseph

I do not say that the world never makes mistakes. There are not half a dozen papers in the United States which tamper with the news, which publish what they know to be false. But if I though that I had done no better than that, I would be ashamed to own a paper. It is not enough to refrain from publishing fake news. You have got to make everyone connected with the paper, your editors, your rewritemen, your proofreaders, believed that accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a woman. Hearst, on the other hand, never had any second thoughts. In fact Hearst boasted about the war, during it and afterward.