ABSTRACT
Beginning in 1878, Pulitzer pioneered a new style of newspapering that targeted the masses of Americans who'd previously been ignored by the staid sheets of the old order. Yellow journalism took on a life of its own after Hearst began championing, mainly to boost circulation, the cause of Cuban rebels seeking to break the Spanish shackles that bound them to colonial status. The New York Evening Post was among the papers that, on the eve of the Spanish-American War, denounced the yellow journals as "public evils" and "a national disgrace." Davis wrote that Spanish officers had boarded an American ship anchored off the Cuban coast and forced pretty young Cuban women to submit to strip searches. The Spanish-American War probably could have been avoided, as the Spanish gave clear signals they were eager to negotiate. But the decision to go to war wasn't made entirely by politicians.
