What Is Yellow Journalism?

In 1896, William Randolph Hearst decided to run for re-election as the Democratic candidate in New York City. He was opposed by most of the city's Democrats and many advertisers pulled their ads if he did not endorse him. The journal backed his campaign because they were able to get inside information about it that other papers couldn't. This is a great example of what we call "yellow journalism," when two newspapers are running the same cartoon character on their front pages.