Yellow journalism: More than an epithet for sins, shortcomings in newsgathering
Analysis
By W. Joseph Campbell
freedomforum.org
04.24.01
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"Yellow journalism" is a distinctly American idiom that has found expression in an astonishing variety of international settings.
The term — which emerged in New York City in early 1897 to denigrate what then was called the "new journalism" of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer — is widely invoked these days as a shorthand sneer for journalistic sins of all kinds.
"Yellow journalism," for example, has been associated with bribe-taking by journalists in Thailand, and with "rumor-mongering factories" in Pakistan. "Yellow journalism" has been blamed for "creating chaos, despondency, and lies" in Kenya. A large number of complaints every year to the press commission in India are about "yellow journalism."
But the closest true parallel to yellow journalism as it was practiced in urban America some 100 years ago is to be found in London and the often-outlandish, often-controversial tabloid press. The unabashed self-promotion of London tabloids, and their eagerness to inject themselves into the making of news, reflect two (but certainly not all) of the distinctive characteristics of yellow journalism.
Such parallels are more than merely curious or coincidental. Instead, they suggest a little-recognized interconnectedness in journalistic practices and styles over time. They suggest as well that the temptation to participate in the making of news can be a timeless urge.
American yellow journalism, as it emerged in the mid-to-late 1890s, was a complex and much-maligned phenomenon, a lusty sort of journalism suited well to what was an expansive, searching time in America. The recognition was widespread then that the country was on the cusp of rapid, perhaps even disruptive transformation: The country's demographic profile, for example, had begun to swing from predominantly rural to largely urban. It also was when the United States first projected its military power beyond the Western Hemisphere in a sustained manner, in the Spanish-American War of 1898.
The distinctive features of yellow journalism were many, and went beyond merely sensationalized treatment of the Spanish-American War and other news events.
The yellow press was characterized by the typographical boldness of the front page. Though they were broadsheets, the yellow journals were known to devote on occasion the entire front page to a single story and a large illustration — a technique evocative of the covers of contemporary tabloids. Prominent, multicolumn headlines also were distinguishing features of the yellow press, especially of Hearst's flagship New York Journal.
The yellow journals were, moreover, aggressive in their newsgathering and unabashed in calling attention to their reporting exploits. They likewise were eager to inject themselves into solving murder mysteries and other causes. Indeed, an activist, crusading ethos was a core value of yellow journalism.
The New York Journal touted itself as the exemplar of "the journalism that acts," that sliced through red tape and succeeded where government and other institutions failed. The "journalism that acts," the Journal claimed in 1897, was in fact "the final stage in the evolution of the modern newspaper."
Yellow journalism emerged in other cities, including Denver, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. Not surprisingly, they were often condemned for their arrogance and their outlandish conduct, much as London tabloids these days are assailed and even ridiculed by their conservative rivals. According to one especially inspired rebuke, American yellow journalism was likened to a "contest of madmen for the primacy of the sewer."
The unashamed lustiness and self-congratulatory instincts of American yellow journalism do find their closest contemporary parallel in London's highly competitive newspaper market and, notably, in the Sunday-only News of the World. Its 4 million readers make it the world's largest circulating English-language newspaper, a distinction once claimed by Hearst's Journal.
News of the World is owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose entrance into the New York City newspaper market in the 1970s invited comparisons to the seismic event of Hearst's arrival there in 1895.
Its raunchy, abrasive style and its activist tendencies qualify the News of the World as one of the world's most consistently controversial titles. (Its raunchy fare far exceeds anything published in the Journal, which, in its time, was considered irredeemably decadent.)
News of the World made news most recently with its "fake sheik" sting, a stealth interview with the unwitting Countess of Wessex, wife of Queen Elizabeth's youngest son.
The interview with the countess, the former Sophie Rhys-Jones, was secretly tape-recorded by a reporter posing as an Arab sheik. He passed himself off as a prospective client of the countess' public relations company. According to the News, the countess was "so convinced our man was a potentate that she bowed her head in deference as they shook hands."
The reporter caught Sophie making mildly indiscreet comments about her in-laws and about leading British politicians.
When the countess learned she had been victimized by a News sting, she granted the tabloid an on-the-record interview in exchange for a promise that contents of the tapes would not be disclosed. The News published the on-the-record interview April 1, in which Sophie Wessex spoke openly of her marriage to Prince Edward.
Purported excerpts of the stealth interview leaked out nonetheless, and News of the World ended up publishing the contents of that encounter on April 8, effectively having it both ways. News Managing Editor Stuart Kuttner said the decision to publish the stealth interview was motivated by the intense speculation among rival news media.
The Sophie interview was hardly the first time reporters for News of the World had posed as wealthy Arabs in duping their targets. A similar ruse two years ago enticed a British earl to buy cocaine and share the drug with News reporters under cover. A detailed account about the peer's conduct — he was depicted as drunkenly snorting cocaine with a £5 note — was splashed across News of the World. He was arrested and convicted of selling drugs.
However, the presiding judge refused to send the peer to jail, citing the subterfuge of the News of the World. If not for the journalists' sting, the judge observed, the crimes likely would not have been committed.
W. Joseph Campbell is author of Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies, which was published early this year.
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