On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life, wealth, influence, and politics of the most powerful information-peddler in the history of America, William Randolph Hearst. Hearst was born to wealth with a millionaire senator for a father. He spent time traveling through Europe as a child with his mother, and when he finally settled in at home and grew up, he attended Harvard College. That didn’t last long, however, as he was thrown out of the school for excessive parties and pranks against the faculty.

While he was there, however, he studied journalism under Joseph Pulitzer. Shortly after, he took control of the San Francisco Examiner, a newspaper his father bought in order to help him win political elections. William Randolph Hearst dove into his job as editor and came up with inventive stories and ways for the paper to spread. It succeeded, and he turned his sights to New York and went to newspaper war with Pulitzer. This may not seem like much, but Hearst and Pulitzer needed exciting stories to best each other, so they fabricated a crisis in Cuba that eventually led to the Spanish American War.

Hearst won the war for New York News and spread to own newspapers all across the country. At his height, one in four Americans read a paper owned by Hearst. During this time of expansion, he also saw his own wealth grow as he inherited his mother’s money after her death. He then started to build his famous Hearst Castle in San Simeon, and he moved his mistress Marion Davies in with him to throw massive Hollywood parties.

Through all of this, he tried to become president of the United States, influenced political policy all around the world, controlled the news media, and dominated political opinion for the entire United States. William Randolph Hearst was the father of what is now called “Yellow Journalism,” publishing sensationalism more than truth in order to sell copies of his papers. What did his wife think of his public mistress? How did Hearst treat his heirs in his will? How did Hearst get the US to go to war with Spain? Why can’t we find much information on Hearst, and is it a conspiracy? Listen, laugh, learn.

Article on Hughes: https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-12-08/long-and-tawdry-history-yellow-journalism-america