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- While Hearst's many critics attribute the Journal's incredible success to cheap sensationalism, as Kenneth Whyte noted in The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise Of William Randolph Hearst, "Rather than racing to the bottom, he [Hearst] drove the Journal and the penny press upmarket. The Journal was a demanding, sophisticated paper by contemporary standards. " Though yellow journalism would be much maligned, "All good yellow journalists ... sought the human in every story and edited without fear of emotion or drama. They wore their feelings on their pages, believing it was an honest and wholesome way to communicate with readers." But, as Whyte pointed out, "This appeal to feelings is not an end in itself...[they believed] our emotions tend to ignite our intellects: a story catering to a reader's feelings is more likely than a dry treatise to stimulate thought."
He was the Rupert Murdoch of his day.