PROFESSOR W. JOSEPH CAMPBELL busts the Salt Lake Tribune for fake news about fake news.
Media myths can be appealing like that: Too good to resist. Too good for media outlets not to revive when they think the occasion is fitting.
So it was the other day when the Salt Lake Tribune editorially condemned President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to add miles of barriers along the country’s southern border.
In its editorial, the Tribune resurrected William Randolph Hearst’s debunked vow to “furnish the war” with Spain in the late 19th century.
“You want fake news?” the Tribune‘s editorial began. “Here’s some fake news about fake news.”
In other words, we’re turning to Hearst’s debunked “furnish the war” vow as seemingly a clever editorial device to impugn Trump’s claims about illegal cross-border immigration.
The Tribune went on, introducing Hearst and “yellow journalism“:
“William Randolph Hearst, impresario of yellow journalism around the end of the 19th century, was described as such a powerful press baron that, it was said, he basically started the Spanish-American War as a stunt to boost newspaper sales.”
Hearst “basically started the Spanish-American War as a stunt to boost newspaper sales”?
Hardly. . . .
The Remington-Hearst exchange supposedly was by cable, but the telegrams presumed to contain their words have never turned up. Had such messages been sent, Spanish authorities surely would have intercepted and denounced them as a clear case of Yankee meddling.
What’s more, the “furnish the war” anecdote is illogical because war — the Cuban rebellion against Spanish colonial rule — was the reason Hearst sent Remington to Cuba in early 1897. Given that context, it would have made no sense for Hearst to vow to “furnish the war.”
The Tribune acknowledges the Remington-Hearst tale is dubious but justifies its use as “too good” not to invoke when “appropriate.”
I guess “when appropriate” means “when it advances the Democrats’ narrative.”
I think the folks at the Salt Lake Tribune should learn to code.