Historians have argued that New Journalism “degenerated” into Yellow Journalism because the lofty, idealistic goals of New Journalism were quickly subsumed into sensationalistic pabulum as newspapers tried to out-do each other for advertising revenue. With so much competition between the newspapers, stories were over-dramatized and altered to correspond to ideas that publishers and editors thought would sell the most papers and stir the most interest.

Despite these obstacles, the genre of Yellow Journalism had several positive features, including: the frequent use of multi-column headlines which sometimes stretched across the entire front page; a variety of topics reported on the front page, including news of politics, war, international diplomacy, sports, and society; and most importantly, the creative use of illustrations, photographs and other graphic representations like maps.

All these features enhanced the visual aspect of news media, which are still in use today. On the negative side, Yellow Journalism was used to influence public opinion, usually for ulterior motives.

The demonization of hemp is a perfect example of the effectiveness of Yellow Journalism.

When Harry Anslinger was appointed as the first U.S. Treasury Commissioner for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930, he set off “reefer madness” hysteria with the help of media industrialist William Randolph Hearst and the power of the DuPont and Mellon families.

They created a panic with sensational, planted stories about white women having promiscuous sex with Negro jazz musicians after one toke on a marijuana cigarette. Hearst claimed that “the demon marihuana” was a violent aggressive narcotic which would make people “insane”.

Yellow journalism was also used in the same way to manipulate public opinion on other important issues like the Spanish-American war. Hearst’s publications played a major role in the American involvement with Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Hearst printed false articles describing brutality, cruelty and inadequate healthcare in order to sway public opinion regarding America’s involvement in the war.

War is very good for business, after all.

A recent contemporary example of Yellow Journalism is FOX News, which is nothing more than a propaganda outlet for the fascist corporate state masquerading as a news organization.

[Re-post from 2015]