Hearst, William Randolph

(1863-1951)

   Future news magnate William Randolph Hearst was born in San Francisco, California. After studying at Harvard University from 1882 until 1885, he began a career as a journalist and gradually built up a newspaper empire, acquiring ownership of the San Francisco Examiner, Chicago American, New York Journal-American, and Daily Mirror. Hearst also owned several magazines, including International-Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, and Good Housekeeping, and he created nationwide news syndicates. His papers became known for their sensationalism that earned the description “yellow journalism.” They were also known for their nationalism. He was reported to have said to artist Frederic Remington, who was in Cuba in 1898, “You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.”

   Hearst entered politics as a Democrat, becoming a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1903 to 1907. He failed in his bid to become mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909 and also in his attempt to become governor of New York in 1906. In 1908, he created his own Independence League in another attempt to win the gubernatorial race but failed again.

   During World War I, Hearst’s press adopted a passionately anti- British line that was abandoned once the United States entered the conflict. Hearst strongly opposed the League of Nations and U.S. participation in the Permanent Court of International Justice. He continued to be an influential voice during the 1920s, supporting Republican Calvin Coolidge. However, in 1932 the Hearst press initially backed Democrat John Nance Garner for the presidency but was persuaded to switch support to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hearst gradually turned against the New Deal because of its regulation of business and taxation policies. In 1934, he visited Nazi Germany and returned as a committed crusader against communism. In 1936, he supported the candidacy of Alf Landon, but following Roosevelt’s victory he seemed to lose interest in politics. His newspapers continued to back the Republican candidates in 1940, 1944, and 1948.

   The Hearst empire was badly hit by the Great Depression, and he was forced to surrender control in 1937. Nonetheless, the company emerged from the crisis as the biggest publishing organization in the United States. Hearst’s great wealth was evident in the huge art collection he amassed at his home in San Simeon, California, and he provided the model for the fictional character in Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941).