| MUCKRAKERS AND YELLOW JOURNALISM And the day's daily dose of what wit you might learn Came hot off the presses at the new century's turn. Papers sprouted and spread with newsboys to shout it: "Extrie! Extrie!" and "You can read all about it!" And Joe Pulitzer's World would near scream with headlines Of violence and crooks and of nefarious crimes. With such razor-sharp pens who made it their mission To report on the slums and mean working-conditions. Yes, the muck-rakers, so named, exposed all the dirt -- Like rats in the kitchens, fat bribes in the shirt. So reforms did follow and keener eyes kept watch On landlords and bosses and on mayors and such. Ah, but power as well made a home in the press With tales to be spun in their profit's interest. For to shock and to stir and to whip up the nation Became the goalpost -- not truth but sensation! And purveying such trash, one rag was the worst. The newspaper run by William Randolph Hearst. And with scandals and gossip and muck-raking conjoined The term yellow journalism was angrily coined. And when news of revolt and of brutal death-dealing Was heard out of Cuba, Hearst played on the feeling. And for pictures and scenes, he sent his scouts down, Alas, just to hear: "All is calm. No fighting around." Yet Hearst was so shrewd and opportunity saw: "Now, you supply the pictures and I'll supply the war." So with stories and tales, some false and some true, He had the nation convinced of great dastardly-do. Thus when the battleship Maine strangely exploded Writers knew who to blame and thus easily goaded The country to arms and to shout loud the refrain: Remember the Maine! And to heck with Spain!... |
| Worksheet # 89 |
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