Hearst vs Pulitzer - Days of Atonement | 6
Business Wars
Audible
4.6 • 13.5K Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2018
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
By 1900, the days of yellow journalism were already fading, and both William Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were searching for a new direction even as their newspapers diverged.
Hearst tries for a political career, but finds himself defeated and dragging back to a lagging paper by the end of the decade.
Pulitzer doubled down on news, and in 1909 caught the biggest scoop of his career. While the paper is going as strong as ever, Pulitzer’s health is suffering.
Both men created legacies and changed the face of American journalism forever.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon music. Download the app today. |
| 0:11.1 | It is a cold evening in early December 1901. |
| 0:15.6 | Joseph Pulitzer is left his townhouse on E 73rd Street this evening for his annual outing to a Christmas tree lighting in Central Park. |
| 0:23.3 | The tree is near a large pond used as a skating rink across 59th Street from the opulent new Plaza Hotel. |
| 0:31.6 | Joseph Pulitzer is now older, tired, and in firm. To add to his physical ailments, Pulitzer's mood is melancholy. |
| 0:42.8 | He still feels pangs of guilt over the world's role in starting the Spanish-American war three years earlier. |
| 0:49.8 | He's tired of profiting from countless other exaggerated and salacious stories. He doesn't want yellow journalism to be his legacy. |
| 1:06.3 | Standing near the tree with the crowd bathed in candlelight Pulitzer thinks he spots someone in the crowd. |
| 1:13.2 | He tells his wife, Catherine, and his medical aid that he wants to go get a closer look and sure enough, standing there on the other side of the tree, is William Randolph Hurst. |
| 1:27.7 | Pulitzer makes his way over. |
| 1:31.7 | Mr. Hurst. Mr. Pulitzer. |
| 1:35.7 | I never thought I'd see another hard-bitten journalist in this kind of setting. |
| 1:40.4 | Well, I do occasionally fall off the beam. |
| 1:45.2 | You may have heard. I am exploring a run for Congress. |
| 1:49.3 | Elected office, huh? |
| 1:51.3 | I was a Missouri legislator once. Can't exactly recommend it. |
| 1:56.0 | No where near as fun as newspapers. |
| 1:59.0 | The mere mention of Hurst's name used to make Pulitzer furious. |
| 2:03.2 | Now, seeing his enemy makes him more nostalgic than anything else. |
| 2:10.0 | You think it was all worth it? All that frenzy for scoops? |
| 2:15.1 | Hurst shrugs. |
| 2:17.2 | Well, he's been a hell of an adventure hadn't it? |
... |
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