Jeffrey Heo and Justin Chang

116 years ago on an eerie night on the 16th of February when tensions between Spain
and the US were at its peak, the USS Maine was sunk off the coast of Havanna, Cuba.
The press went wild and published multiple factually incorrect and biased stories that
incriminated the Spanish for the sinking. Such stories had overly exaggerated
headlines like,
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Destruction of the War Ship Maine was the work of an enemy. The public went into
an uproar and demanded for war.
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By April 25, 1898, the US and Spain were at war.
The publishing of such biased and outrageous stories goes against current journalistic
ethics, but just a hundred years ago, this form of news reporting was called
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Yellow Journalism. Made famous by William Randolph Hearst, it fully relied on the
use of exaggerated headlines and sensational text to rapidly sell news. Active mostly
during the late 19th century and early 20th century, Yellow Journalism has been out
favored by the truthful reporting methods of todays society but it is still remembered
as influential in the development of modern journalism.
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William Randolph Hearst was born to George Hearst and Phoebe Apperson Hearst in
San Francisco, California on April 29, 1863. Opportuned with the wealth and riches of
his parents, Hearst was able to receive education from private schools and later
attended Harvard University.
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Inspired by the works of then New York Worlds leading publisher, Joseph Pulitzer,
Hearst decided to start a journalistic career. In 1887 after dropping out college, Hearst
took control of the failing
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San Francisco Examiner that his father had acquired previously. Investing heavily in
the newspaper, Hearst upgraded the equipment and hired multiple top-notch writers of
the time including
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Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, and the famous Mark Twain. As an editor, Hearst
adopted Yellow Journalism, which appealed to the public with its sensationalized
content and increased the circulation of the Examiner.
These early successes kindled Hearsts greed for more money and motivated him to
go after his former role model, Joseph Pulitzer.
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Purchasing the New York Journal, Hearst entered the circulation war of New York.
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Competition was fierce, with Hearst cutting down the price of his newspapers to 1
cent, making his newspaper readily available for the mass; Pulitzer then retaliating by
matching the price, and then Hearst sabotaging the Worlds staff by hiring them for the
Journal. Topping Pulitzers World in 1897, Hearst emerged as a publishing tycoon
with his newspapers having a circulation of around
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1.5 million.
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In between fighting the circulation war, Hearst started his short-lived career as a
politician. Although he was elected into the
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House of Representatives in 1902 and 1904, his 1906 election for the New York
governance was an utter failure as his attempts to run both his media empire and his
political career proved to be too burdensome for him. Following advice from angered
voters, Hearst went back to solely devoting his time to his newspapers.
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By the 1920s, Hearsts media empire grew so large that one out of every four
americans read a Hearst controlled newspaper. His corporation encompassed 20 daily
and 11 sunday newspapers in 13 cities, King Features Syndicate and the International
News Service, as well as six magazines including the Cosmopolitan. At its peak,
Hearsts empire had made news readily available to many throughout the country.
His later years were full of decline and loss as the Great Depression brought Hearst to
his knees. On August 14, 1951, at the age of 88, William Randolph Hearst died in
Beverly Hills, California, leaving behind a legacy that would be well remembered by
many.
Hearst, throughout his long and fruitful life revolutionized journalism in ways nobody
before had even thought to be possible. The concept of Yellow Journalism, although
considered unethical by modern journalistic ethics, was nevertheless able to establish
that the press held immense power in influencing the public, as in the case of the
Spanish American War. With the precedent set by Hearst, the media is used even in
modern times to indirectly sway the public from one side of an issue to the other.
Although William Randolph Hearst was a man motivated by the greed of profit more
so than informing the public, he is nevertheless a well-respected revolutionary of
journalism.
Ann Coulter said The Democratic Party supports criminals and Islamic terrorists but
has no sympathy for taxpayers. Ann Coulter is a famous, influential and often a
controversial figure in American journalism, given the controversial manner of speech

she is capable of. As a devout non-denominational Christian as well as a devout

republican, Ann is known for her unbelievable consistency of her stance on issues.
Now, we would like to introduce you to a phenomenal journalist, as some republicans
in this room may say, Ann Coulter. Although she is regarded as having a harsh acid
tongue, if you dig deeper to her established arguments in her columns, or tirades, she
does have some legitimate, logical and sound points.
But to begin with, Ann Coulter was born in December 8th 1961 to a faithful family.
Coulters father was a devout Catholic, and her mother, who came from Puritan
ancestry, was a Protestant. With this condition, it may have been inevitable for her to
embrace Christianity. Coulter and her two older brothers were born and raised in New
Canaan, Connecticut. Coulter received prestigious education. Coulter graduated
Cornell University in 1984 with numerous honors and advanced further to the
University of Michigan Law School, where she received her law degree. She gained
interest in journalism at this school where she was an editor of The Michigan Law
Review.
Coulters career has been marked with frequent occupation shifts prior to her
controversial acts. As a journalist, Coulter was hired to write syndicated columns for
the Universal Press Syndicate starting from the late 1990s. From this point to the
present, her columns have made it to several publications. But Coulter is not just a
normal journalist. She is officially a Radio Personality, Lawyer, Television Personality
and Journalist, specifically referred to as a syndicated columnist. This basically
translates to a freelance journalist who works for more than one certain company.
So now, lets talk about her lifeline in terms of her other careers. In 1994, Coulter was
appointed as a member of the U.S Senate Judiciary Committee. Surprisingly though,
her law career was marked with an incessant cycle of being fired and hired, and
eventually fired. She was made the legal correspondent of the network MSNBC in
1996 but was fired pretty quickly in 1997 after producing harshly critical libels about
the late Pamela Harrison during her memorial service. Well, she was rehired by
MSNBC and fired again after eight months. This time, she had a verbal spat with a
disabled Vietnam veteran.
Interestingly, Coulters ideologies and political viewpoints are directly correlated to
her everlasting media spotlight, and her lack of fear in always expressing her extreme
ideas gives her an exceptional reputation. As stated previously, Coulter is a devout
republican, as you could see in her quotes such as I think there should be a literacy
test and a poll tax for people to vote. In some of her most scathing assaults, she
whipped the democrats face by insulting the democrats directly. She once said, I
might be in favor of national healthcare if it required all Democrats to get their heads
examined. Not to mention her quote using repetition. When we were at peace,
Democrats wanted to raise taxes. Now there's a war, so Democrats want to raise taxes.
When there was a surplus, Democrats wanted to raise taxes. Now that there is a mild
recession, Democrats want to raise taxes. Most importantly, her most widely
recognized tirade comes in the format of a book named Godless, the church of
liberalism.
Its possible to deem Coulter as a Republican in at least two senses; first, she hates on
democrats if she has the chance to do so, and second, she has a conservative opinion
on most, if not, all issues that are widely debated in the status quo. Starting off,

Coulter is opposed to abortion, she is pro-torture, she supported striking Iraq on the
War on Terror partially because of the countrys oil resources, she is pro-death
penalty, and she opposes gay marriage.
Ann Coulter is widely recognized for her sharp tongue and ruthlessness towards those
who support a different political ideology than ideologies described above. But let us
not misunderstand the implication to these facts. Although she may be a harsh
commentator and a columnist, but she is a significantly influential figure in American
journalism. Coulter has been, and is still, an influential journalist in the sense that she
was a major figure that encouraged freedom of speech and of the press, and openly
voicing your opinion and beliefs. She openly bolstered republican ideas while she
criticized the democrats and their ideas, and through this, she encouraged columnists
to be free with their opinions by voicing it. Additionally, she utilized her right as an
American; she fully took advantage of her freedom to speech about merely anything.
Although people may point out the lack of tangible evidence, as of now, of her
positive contributions to journalism, however, she definitely did potentially cause
American journalism to open up towards more diversity, for she prompted the voicing
of opinions, thereby promoting individuality. She also potentially gave route to the
birth of new ideas by setting a precedent of writing and publishing unprecedented
ideas.
And of course, she always provided other journalists something to write about every
time she said something in the national television.
Ann Coulter will be remembered for her boldness and her tendency to freely voice her
opinion, and her vigor and passion for her viewpoints will also be remembered. Her
contributions, as mentioned above, could potentially serve to give more freedom and
encouragement to the press. Lastly, her free nature is truly venerable and essential for
any journalist to possess.
Citation:
"William Randolph Hearst." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web.
30 Sep. 2014.
"U.S. Diplomacy and Yellow Journalism, 18951898 - 18661898 - Milestones Office of the Historian." U.S. Diplomacy and Yellow Journalism, 18951898 - 1866
1898 - Milestones - Office of the Historian. US Department of State, n.d. Web. 27
Sept. 2014.
"William Randolph Hearst Biography and Profile." Hearst Castle. Hearst Castle, n.d.
Web. 26 Sept. 2014.
"Ann Coulter." BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2014. 29 September 2014.
"Ann Hart Coulter." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 29 Sep. 2014.
"Ann Coulter's Articles | Human Events." Human Events. Human Events Group, n.d.
Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
"Ann Coulter." 2014. The Famous People website. Sep 29 2014, 12:55