Joseph Pulitzer: The Birth of Yellow Journalism

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Now, today’s video: three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Arthur Crock described Joseph Pulitzer as having a shining personal character, humility in possession of power, and compassion for the unfortunate. He hated cant, sham, injustice, and corruption and was incapable of any of these. Other people describe Joseph Pulitzer as the greatest journalist on earth or the most interesting man on the planet. His life was said to resemble a story out of books of giants, goblins, and fairies. For many contemporaries, Joseph Pulitzer was the perfect example of the American dream. He was an immigrant who came to America alone, with no money and without even speaking the language. But he worked hard every day and made something of himself, becoming one of the most influential voices in the country.

His story was a refreshing change of pace from most other businessmen of his era, who inherited fortunes and enlarged them through dishonest means. However, Pulitzer himself was hardly innocent in his pursuit of success. His newspapers chased sensationalism, sex scandals, murder, and fear-mongering, while qualities such as fairness, accuracy, and accountability were often left by the wayside. This approach, known as yellow journalism, has infected almost every facet of the fourth estate and is still prevalent today.

Joseph Pulitzer was born on April 10, 1847, in the town of Maiko in southeastern Hungary, the second of four children to Philip Pulitzer, a successful Magyar Jewish grain dealer, and Louise Berger, a Catholic Austro-German. By 1853, Philip Pulitzer had made enough money from the grain business to retire and move his family to Budapest. He later died of heart disease when Joseph was 11 years old. A few years later, Joseph’s mother remarried to a businessman named Max Blau, who developed a hostile relationship with his stepchildren. We don’t know specifics about what happened, but Pulitzer hated Blau and couldn’t wait to leave home.

When Joseph reached puberty, he shot up like a beanpole; as a teenager, he was about 6 foot 3 inches tall but very skinny, to the point where he always looked ill. This proved to be a problem when the 17-year-old Pulitzer tried to enlist in the Austrian army, hoping to follow in the footsteps of two uncles who were both officers. Unfortunately, he was told that he was too gaunt, too young, and his eyesight was too poor, so he was rejected. Undeterred, Pulitzer traveled to Paris looking to join the French Foreign Legion, but they too gave him the same answer.

He then went to London, hoping to get sent to India, but was rejected again. After that, he went to Hamburg, where he tried his luck as a sailor but still had no success. For a while, it looked like no one was desperate enough to accept this near-sighted skinny Hungarian kid. Fortunately, while in Hamburg, he ran into recruiting agents for the American Union Army. These agents received bounties for every soldier they signed, so they were ready to take anyone willing to enlist. In 1864, Joseph Pulitzer packed up his things and boarded a ship that crossed the Atlantic, crammed with immigrants looking to make it big in America.

Upon arriving in Boston Harbor, Pulitzer jumped overboard, swam ashore, and traveled to New York alone by train. He did all of this to collect the $300 enlistment bounty himself. On November 12, 1864, Pulitzer made it to Remount Camp in Maryland, where he joined Company L of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry. Although he only took part in a few minor skirmishes, he quickly disabused himself of any glamorous notions of military life. His captain took an instant dislike to him due to his weak, scarecrow-like constitution and heavily accented broken English. The other soldiers followed their captain’s cue and mocked the new recruit.

Once the war was over, what was next for young Joseph? Definitely not a military career. He was broke, sleeping on the streets of New York. The city saw a large influx of veterans, making it difficult to find any kind of job. Pulitzer spoke almost no English but was fluent in French and German, so he thought he would move to a place with a large German population. He sold his last worldly possession, a white silk handkerchief, and used the money to buy food and a ticket to St. Louis.

In October 1865, Pulitzer arrived at his new home. At first, he was desperate for any kind of work he could get. He served as a coal shoveler, a mule caretaker, a stevedore, a laborer, a deckhand, and a waiter—dead-end jobs that paid very little. Pulitzer had to work two jobs at a time, 16 hours a day, just to barely make ends meet, plus another four hours spent at the library learning English. The librarian there, Udo Bach Vogel, became his first friend in America and helped Pulitzer learn the language.

One day, Pulitzer and 40 other people got scammed by a con artist who promised them great jobs on a plantation in Louisiana. The marks paid him five dollars and then boarded a steamboat that dumped them in a remote area about 40 miles from the city. It took them three days without food or water to make it back to St. Louis. It was an awful ordeal, but for Joseph Pulitzer, it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. A local reporter heard the story, tracked down Pulitzer, and convinced him to write an account of the experience for a German-language newspaper, the Wesley Post. He did well enough that the editor asked him to keep writing.

Pulitzer discovered that he had a knack for journalism, but the sparse assignments weren’t enough to pay rent. Fortunately, at the newspaper building, he made the acquaintance of two lawyers who got him a record-keeping job with the Atlanta and Pacific Railroad. As it turned out, Pulitzer had a knack for that as well. The attorneys encouraged him to enter law school and even gave him free access to the library so he could study at his leisure.

A few noteworthy things happened in the years that followed. Joseph became an American citizen, his younger brother Albert joined him in St. Louis and became a German teacher, and Pulitzer was admitted to the bar and became a notary public. However, his new career wasn’t a hit. Joseph still struggled with English, didn’t have money for nice clothes, and his scruffy appearance didn’t attract many customers, so he gave up the life of a notary public.

The timing worked out because the Westlick Post was looking for a new full-time reporter, and he got the job. Pulitzer was a complete workaholic, routinely working 16 hours a day, chasing down every lead and questioning every person with unbridled enthusiasm. His editors loved him, but his fellow journalists resented him for making them look bad. More than once, Pulitzer was sent out on a wild goose chase, but this never dampened his spirit.

His entry into the world of politics was just as serendipitous. Pulitzer joined the Republican Party like many of his newspaper colleagues. On December 14, 1869, he attended a Republican meeting as a reporter. They needed to put forward a candidate for the Missouri State Legislature because everyone thought the Democrats had the election in the bag. Someone nominated Pulitzer as a joke, and the rest of the crowd laughed and unanimously selected him as their candidate. Guess what? He won.

Pulitzer put the same amount of effort into his election race as he did into his reporting. He campaigned in the streets, visited people at home, and displayed a genuine enthusiasm that struck a chord with the voters. Technically, the moment Pulitzer took his seat, he was breaking the law because he was three years too young to serve in the legislature. If anyone realized this, they kept it quiet, and Pulitzer served out his term illegally. His most notable contribution was voting to support the 15th Amendment, which gave Black men the right to vote.

Pulitzer’s time as a state legislator generated a lot more headlines, though. It involved a rivalry with a Democratic opponent named Captain Edward Augustine, which culminated in a fight inside the lobby of Schmidt’s Hotel in Jefferson City, where Pulitzer pulled a gun and shot Augustine twice. What exactly happened has never been made clear since newspapers told different versions based on whom they supported. They all agreed that Augustine taunted and insulted Pulitzer several times, but the pro-Pulitzer papers said that Augustine was armed and charging at Pulitzer when he shot him in self-defense, while the pro-Augustine camp claimed that Pulitzer shot an unarmed man. Ultimately, Pulitzer was charged with assault with intent to kill. He was even found guilty but let go with only a $405 fine.

After his term was done, Pulitzer remained involved in politics but grew increasingly disillusioned with the Republican Party. Pulitzer was the kind of man who would never put party over principles, so when he perceived that the Republicans were showing signs of corruption or incompetence, he distanced himself from them. For a while, Pulitzer joined the short-lived Liberal Republican Party, which opposed Ulysses S. Grant’s presidential nomination and instead campaigned for New York Tribune founder Horace Greeley.

The last straw came when the Republican Party backed Rutherford B. Hayes for president during the 1876 election. He switched to the Democrats and began campaigning for New York Governor Samuel Jones Tilden. Pulitzer was so fiery and passionate whenever he spoke in public that during one speech at the Cooper Union in New York, he burst a blood vessel and started coughing up blood halfway through, but he still finished his talk in front of a standing-room-only audience.

Pulitzer had another close call on his 30th birthday when the hotel he was staying in caught fire. The alarm wasn’t working, so many residents were only made aware of the fire by the frantic screaming and chaos outside. Seventeen people perished in the blaze, and Pulitzer himself was almost among them before being rescued.

Soon after the fire, Pulitzer moved to Washington, D.C., where he fell in love with 23-year-old Kate Davis. The two got married on June 19, 1878, and went on to have seven children together. All the while he was involved in politics, Pulitzer never abandoned journalism. His dream was to have his own newspaper, but he wasn’t exactly rolling in money yet. In late 1878, he learned that the St. Louis Dispatch was up for sale after going bankrupt. Pulitzer only had around $5,000 to spend, so to prevent any outside interest, he sent a covert emissary to bid on his behalf and managed to buy it for half of his budget.

More good news followed because the publisher of one of the newspaper’s main rivals, the St. Louis Post, called up to offer a merger because he didn’t want to compete. Thus, at 31 years old, Joseph Pulitzer owned his first newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The paper’s circulation steadily rose under Pulitzer’s leadership and became one of St. Louis’s main political voices, usually staying true to Pulitzer’s pledge that the Post-Dispatch would serve no party but the people.

Immediately, he started a fight with the bigger, more established Missouri Republican, which, despite its misleading name, was published by Democrat William Hyde. Another one of Pulitzer’s competitors was the Globe Democrat, which was actually a Republican newspaper. Pulitzer’s aggressive tactics of picking fights with virtually every other print publication in the city brought new readers to the Post-Dispatch. Besides politicians, Pulitzer also crusaded against a lottery racket, a horse car monopoly, and the gas company, and this was just in the first few months.

In a short time, Pulitzer had made quite a few enemies, so he got into the habit of walking around with a pistol. So did his editor, John Cockerell, who actually had a chance to use it. In 1882, there was an election to fill the seat of deceased Congressman Thomas Allen. The Democrats backed a lawyer named James Broadhead, but Pulitzer strongly opposed him. Consequently, Broadhead became the Post-Dispatch’s new prime target. Broadhead himself didn’t respond to the attacks, but his friend and law partner, Alonso Slayback, did.

On October 13th, Slayback charged into the offices of the Post-Dispatch and launched a virulent and threatening tirade at Cockerell. In return, the editor opened his desk drawer, pulled out his gun, and fired, killing Slayback almost instantly. The story became a big sensation. Newspaper employees testified that Slayback had a gun in his hand and was aiming it when Cockerell opened fire. Other papers, however, were eager to take down the Post-Dispatch and portrayed Slayback as an innocent unarmed man who was murdered in cold blood. At one point, the Missouri Republican whipped up its readers into such a frenzy that a mob formed outside the offices of the Post-Dispatch, looking to burn the place down.

Ultimately, Cockerell was exonerated during his trial, but public opinion wasn’t as merciful. The circulation of the Post-Dispatch plummeted, advertisers left in droves, Pulitzer’s personal reputation took a big hit, and his family became socially ostracized. He felt like it was time for a change.

The aftermath of Slayback’s death took its toll not only on Pulitzer’s business but also on his health. In the spring of 1883, Joseph and his wife traveled to New York, intending to go on a long European vacation to rest. However, while in New York, Pulitzer heard that infamous robber baron Jay Gould was looking to sell his newspaper, the New York World. For years, Pulitzer had dreamed of running a publication in New York City, so he entered negotiations with Gould. On May 10, 1883, Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World for $346,000.

Just like the Post-Dispatch, Pulitzer announced in the first issue under his ownership that the New York World would be dedicated to the cause of the people rather than the purse of the potentates. It would expose all fraud and sham, fight all public evils and abuses, and serve and battle for the people with earnest sincerity. Basically, Pulitzer wanted his newspaper to be aimed at immigrants and the working class. He knew this was the strategy that brought them to the dance and had no reason to switch it up now.

Most of New York’s politicians and businessmen became equal-opportunity targets, including the World’s former owner, Jay Gould. There was a rumor that Gould remained a secret partner in the newspaper, and Pulitzer feared this would ruin his champion of the underdog credentials, so he made sure that Gould bore the brunt of his literary attacks just to show that the two were not on the same side.

As a consequence of focusing on the common man, the newspaper began covering many more human interest stories. At first, these were only present in the Sunday edition, which Pulitzer used as a testing ground for his new ideas. It featured stories about cannibalism at sea, crazy religious sects, human sacrifice in the United States, and, of course, murder after gruesome murder. One particularly infamous headline read, “French Socialist and Explorer Discovers a Race of Savages with Well-Developed Tails.”

It didn’t take Pulitzer long to realize that the more lurid, scandalous, or violent the story was, the more copies it sold. Soon enough, such accounts made their way from the Sunday edition into the weekday papers. The New York World became the progenitor of the tabloids of today, where sensationalism, scandal, and fear-mongering triumphed over fairness, accuracy, and integrity.

But it wasn’t all bad; to be fair, the World had its moments. It exposed many tales of fraud and corruption in both the public and private sectors, recruited intrepid journalists who conducted genuine investigations, the most famous being Nellie Bly, and organized stunts and promotions that ultimately benefited society. Even though their main goal was to sell newspaper subscriptions, one memorable initiative involved raising funds to build a gigantic pedestal in New York Harbor for the Statue of Liberty. Neither Congress nor New York Governor Grover Cleveland wanted to fund it, so it’s entirely possible that without Pulitzer’s help, the Statue of Liberty might have been shipped back to France.

Pulitzer’s hard work, aggression, and sensationalism turned the New York World into the best-selling newspaper in America and him into a rich man. But the effort took its toll on his body. Remember that he was never really the picture of health. Plus, he worked himself ragged, 12 to 16-hour days for most of his adult life. Add to that the stress of his job, and Joseph Pulitzer had become a frail and sickly man. Even though he was only in his early 40s, his asthma was getting worse, his eyesight was almost gone, his nerves were shattered, and he developed an extreme sensitivity to noise, so much so that he had to soundproof the rooms where he spent most of his time.

Pulitzer spent several years traveling abroad, meeting with numerous medical experts, but he ended up ignoring their advice since they all told him the same thing: he needed to retire. All the experts thought that the job was killing Pulitzer; however, that was the one thing he’d never give up since he thought that his work was keeping him alive. Pulitzer did admit that he could no longer function as before, so begrudgingly, in 1890, he retired from the editorship of the World, although he still managed it from home.

Even though Pulitzer was supposed to take it easy, his biggest challenge was yet to come. It arrived in the form of publisher William Randolph Hearst, who purchased the New York Journal in 1895, a newspaper originally founded by Pulitzer’s younger brother Albert. Hearst went after