The original clickbait king

This episode of Throughline explores the origins of modern sensational journalism through the story of William Randolph Hearst and the dramatic rescue of Cuban revolutionary Evangelina Cisneros in 1897. Hearst, a young newspaper magnate, transformed American journalism by turning it into an active, participatory force—what he called 'journalism that acts.' His New York Journal used bold headlines, vivid storytelling, and even orchestrated real-life rescues to capture public attention. The most famous example was the jailbreak of Cisneros, a teenage political prisoner, which Hearst’s reporters executed with theatrical flair, framing it as a medieval romance where the newspaper itself was the hero. While celebrated at the time as a triumph of journalistic activism, the episode examines the long-term consequences: the erosion of trust in media, the blurring of fact and fiction, and the rise of partisan, emotionally charged narratives that continue to shape today’s news landscape. The story also contrasts Hearst’s interventionist model with the more detached, 'objective' approach championed by The New York Times, whose 'all the news that's fit to print' ethos emerged as a reaction to yellow journalism’s excesses.