Journalism

As lawyers representing the Compressed Air Company, Elihu Root, George R. Howard, Bronson Winthrop, and Henry L. Stimson ask William Randolph Hearst for his authority of the facts published in a recent article in the New York Journal. When they spoke with James P. Keating, Commissioner of Highways of New York, they found he did not make the attributed statements.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-03-08

Public sentiment is growing fed up with “promiscuous attacks of sensational writers on men of eminence.” The editor of a well-known paper recently accused President Roosevelt of lying to newspapers, and attacked a number of well-respected publications. The author of this article is of the opinion that “the President’s little sermon on ‘The Man with the Muck-rake’ cannot be preached too widely, or be printed too often.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-21

The Graphic reproduces a sample of the first page of the Los Angeles Times, which it characterizes as “the dirtiest paper in the United States.” The second page analyzes the various articles making up the page, most of which it characterizes as being made up of “cheap gossip and vulgarity.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-10

In an article outlining issues to be discussed at the Pan-Anglican Congress, John St. Loe Strachey discusses journalism. In particular, he writes about concerns regarding yellow journalism, triviality in the press, anonymity in the press, the importance of publicity, and the importance of the news.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-31

President-Elect Taft forwards a letter from John Ripley Freeman to President Roosevelt concerning the recent trip to examine the Panama Canal. Taft is sure that reports that Alfred Noble has expressed doubts about the dam are unfounded. Joseph Pulitzer is planning to visit the Isthmus with some engineers, “for the purpose of stirring up as much mud as he can.” Taft welcomes this, as he believes that “liars will be at a disadvantage in the end.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-24

Cornelia M. Johnson writes that she cannot do without The Outlook magazine, especially as long as President Roosevelt contributes to it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-21

President Roosevelt, in his annual message to Congress, praised the work that has been done and continues to be done on the Panama Canal. Many newspapers have published sensational articles alleging problems with the Gatun Dam in Panama, but these articles are contradicted by the facts, as the dam has not been constructed yet, and the work which has been done on it has been going smoothly.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-23

Theodore Roosevelt informs Ambassador Sharp of Gouverneur Morris’s “honor and his good sense” and his desire to present the French case before the American people. Roosevelt states that all French civil and military officers who help him will be rendering a service to their country. Roosevelt also mentions Morris’s ancestry.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-06-03

President McKinley stops the hand of a man wearing buccaneer clothing and holding a large sword labeled “Yellow Journalism” and a trumpet labeled “War.” On the right is a goose wearing a medal labeled “Business Revival” and a large golden egg labeled “Prosperity 1898.” Caption: Yellow journalism is more dangerous to our peace, prosperity and national honor than all the enemies outside our gates.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-04-13

Joseph Pulitzer and a monkey, possibly meant to represent William R. Hearst, are pictured as cyclones producing trails of yellow journalism newspapers with outrageous headlines, calling for a declaration of war; while President McKinley calmly reads a paper that states “The People of the United States have full confidence in your Patriotism, Integrity, & Bravery. They know you will act justly and wisely: decent press.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-03-23

President McKinley sits at a desk, holding a large paper that shows “President McKinley’s War Policy.” A newspaper reporter, most likely Joseph Pulitzer,” leaning through an open window and carrying sheets of paper labeled “Yellow Journal War Plans,” is poking his nose into the back of McKinley’s “Plans of Campaign.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-07-06

General William R. Shafter, larger than life, is pictured in Europe standing before the rulers of France (Felix Faure), Austria (Franz Joseph I), Germany (William II), Italy (Umberto I), and Russia (Nicholas II), and with John Bull representing England. They bow, tip their hats, and salute him, acknowledging his success during the Spanish-American War. Depicted in an insert is the treatment Shafter received in the United States from the dogs of “Yellow Journalism” and hands with pointing fingers labeled “Amateur Magazine Strategist” and “Know-it-all Critic” holding a quill pen labeled “Hate,” and other hands labeled “Sensationalism” and “Impudent Newspaper Reporter” holding clubs labeled “Malice” and “Revenge,” as well as a boot labeled “Jealousy.” Caption: How our hero of the most remarkable campaign of the century is regarded abroad, and how some of us treat him at home.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-11-02

President McKinley stands at the edge of a mud-hole labeled “Slander” and “Abuse,” his right hand raised in a “stop” gesture, and holding in his left hand a mud-splattered American flag. Three diminutive figures are standing in the mud-hole in the process of throwing mud. They are William Jennings Bryan, Joseph Pulitzer labeled “N.Y. World,” and William Randolph Hearst labeled “N.Y. Journal.” The U.S. Capitol is in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-09-28

A female figure sits on a stone bench writing a list of names in a large book, including “McKinley, Dewey, Sampson, Schley, Hobson and his crew, Wainwright, Clark, Miles, Shafter, Wheeler, Roosevelt, [and] Wood.” Behind her, Puck has erected two monuments on a “Barren Island,” topped with statues of “Pulitzer” and “Hearst.” Each monument is papered with yellow sheets of paper that give credit for the success of the American forces in Spanish-American War to both Pulitzer and Hearst. Caption: He erects a monument to two celebrities that history has neglected.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1898-10-05

William Randolph Hearst, as a jester, tosses newspapers with headlines such as “Appeals to Passion, Venom, Sensationalism, Attacks on Honest Officials, Strife, Distorted News, Personal Grievance, [and] Misrepresentation” to a crowd of eager readers, among them an anarchist assassinating a politician speaking from a platform draped with American flags. On the left, men labeled “Man who buys the comic supplement for the kids, Businessman, Gullible Reformer, Advertiser, [and] Decent Citizen” carry bags of money that they dump into Hearst’s printing press. Includes note: “The time is at hand when these journalistic scoundrels have got to stop or get out, and I am ready now to do my share to that end. They are absolutely without souls. If decent people would refuse to look at such newspapers the whole thing would right itself at once. The journalism of New York City has been dragged to the lowest depths of degradation. The grossest railleries and libels, instead of honest statements and fair discussion, have gone unchecked.”– From Mayor Gaynor’s letter published in the New York Evening Post. Caption: Those who feed it and those whom it feeds.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-10-12

William Randolph Hearst, wearing a bright yellow dress, as Lucrezia Borgia, paints poison from pots labeled “Slander, Riot, Scandal, Malice, [and] Spite” on various newspapers labeled “San Francisco Examiner, New York Journal, Boston American, [and] New York American” that are scattered on the floor. A large pot labeled “Attacks on Decent Officials” stands nearby, on the floor. Includes note: “To poison the pages of a book, so that the mere handling of it might be fatal, was said to be a favorite method of the Borgias.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-09-07

Print shows Joseph F. Keppler returning to the “PUCK Office” after a vacation in Europe, laden with a string of “Frankfurt” sausages, “Paris” wine, “Neuchâtel” cheese from “Austria”, an umbrella labeled “London”, and a large tankard labeled “Munich.” Puck rushes to greet him, and other staff crowd the office. On the left is the “Artists Dep[artment]” with “Gillam Hogarth, Opper Raphael, Gräetz Apelles, [and] Zim” emerging to welcome Keppler home. There is a cabinet at center, in the background, with bust models of William H. Vanderbilt, Benjamin F. Butler, George M. Robeson, James G. Blaine, Samuel J. Tilden, Carl Schurz, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, James G. Bennett, and on a statue is a bust of Roscoe Conkling. Next to the “Editorial Department”, on the right, are books labeled “Harvey’s Meditations Among the Tombs, Congressional Record, Paley’s Natural Theology, Poetical Works of G.W. Childs, [and] London Punch”.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-10-10

J. Pierpont Morgan labeled “Flim-Flam Journalism,” John D. Rockefeller labeled “Flim-Flam Business,” and Edward Henry Harriman labeled “Flim-Flam Politics” gather around a table watching a toy of Theodore Roosevelt sitting on an egg-shaped base labeled “Personal Popularity” rocking back and forth.

Comments and Context

The Wobble, a child’s toy of amusement and not skill, was patented in 1906 and was popular when this cartoon was drawn. They were made of tin or wood or paper mache (especially its clone, the Roly Poly) and children were frustrated or amused when the figures proved impossible to fall.

Trust magnates were frustrated too with a Theodore Roosevelt wobble toy when all their best attacks against the president were fruitless. The efforts of Roosevelt’s opponents like J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Edward Henry Harriman were often conducted through surrogates. This presumably is the reason why the moguls are not identified in the cartoon by their famous empires — banking, oil, and railroads, respectively.

Laborers watch a parade of workers from the advertising and journalism trades marching under banners that state, “Short Story Carpenters Union No. 17 Red Blood Chapter,” “Pretty Girl Cover and Clothing ‘Ad’ Makers Exclusive Guild,” “Sob Sisters of the Daily Press – Winnifred Dashitall Chapter,” “Journeymen Journalists and Word Painters – Down with the Copy Reader – Accuracy Terseness Accuracy,” and “American Illustrators and Consolidated Horse Shoers – Down with the High Price of Food, Bristol Board and 290 Pens.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-08-30

President Roosevelt compliments and agrees with New York Sun publisher and editor William M. Laffan’s editorial on the “Venezuela situation,” and invites him to visit and further discuss other topics, such as the Monroe Doctrine.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1902-12-29