As the Leveson Inquiry gets to grips with a British tabloid culture out of control, it's worth remembering there's nothing new in the world. Chicagomag.com remembers the days of sensational Yellow journalism at the start of the 20th Century:
Arthur Brisbane was William Randolph Hearst's go-to editor, whom he recruited from the grip of Joseph Pulitzer. Brisbane headed up the Evening Journal, the Mirror, and Chicago's own Herald and Examiner under Hearst, during the scrappy period that inspired Ben Hecht's The Front Page:
In Carson's desk, at Hearst's Chicago Herald & Examiner, was an arsenal of blank search warrants, summonses, writs, a full repertory of badges for police, detectives, sheriffs, coroners, Federal agents. When a story broke Carson simply faked an appropriate document. A tough, impersonating reporter or Carson himself did the rest. The evidence was usually photostated in the office, quietly returned, the forged "writ" destroyed. A dozen sets of wiretapping apparatus supplemented his arsenal.
He was arguably the newspaper editor of his time... and, ironically enough, was a pioneer of the yellow journalism of the period made famous by Hearst's papers.
How did Brisbane become the most powerful newspaper editor in America? I'm glad you asked:
He had cut his teeth in [Charles] Dana's London bureau, where he had the good fortune, for a journalist at least, of being present when Jack the Ripper was terrorizing Whitechapel. Brisbane devoted himself to the Ripper tale, often sending back reports so exaggerated and colorful that his New York editors found them to be stomach-turning. As Brisbane himself once noted, he knew that "murder, mayhem, and mystery" sold newspapers. When Pulitzer, his second major employer, complained that his precious journal was turning into a Victorian scandal sheet, Brisbane retaliated by trotting out the circulation figures and the increased advertising revenues.
Sensation sells and always will.
