Reply #2: Not odd at all. Murdoch is practically on the payroll..or perhaps it is the other way around. [View All]

[BrklynLiberal]

After all, war sells papers...as well as other media time.

Look at the example of Hearst and the Spanish-American War. There probably would never have been a war if it had not been for Hearst and his papers.

"You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war." Hearst

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111500/spanamer/app.htm
While the truth about what happened the U.S.S. Maine is still unknown (theories range from completely accidental internal explosions to Spanish torpedo fire to a mine set by agents of the "yellow press"), one can be relatively sure that this war may very well have not happened without the encouragement of the propaganda put out by newspapers all over America. To make this point more blatant, imagine what would have happened if the "yellow kids" (Hearst and Pulitzer) had strongly disapproved of the war, for whatever reason. Spanish brutality would be toned down, seen as a non-issue, and the destruction of the Maine would have been promoted as an accident. Basically, due to the public opinion that they had such thorough control over, propaganda was the decisive factor in starting this war. So, overall, this becomes one of the most significant and representative events in the history of modern propaganda.