ABSTRACT
This chapter considers select examples from the past, with particular consideration of the post-1950 period, in order to place the current state of media politics in meaningful context. The way political figures regard the media has changed greatly during our history. Although political circumstances helped determine the exact role the press would play, information dissemination has always been vital to electoral politics in the United States. Candidates quickly learned that control of news was a key to gaining power. National political reporting has always been intertwined with the presidency. In the early days of the republic, when newspapers were partisan organs of political parties, presidents could readily control what was printed and directly shape the public debate. Sex sells newspapers in 1999. It sold newspapers in 1899. In the 1880s, newspapers owned by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst institutionalized what became known as yellow journalism, which featured lurid details of sensational stories complete with screaming headlines and eye-catching illustrations.
