Facts Matter
University of Virginia students protest in front of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity Yellow journalism is a term coined in the late 19 th century to describe the battle between the Hearst and Pulitzer newspapers in New York City. They used yellow ink to exaggerate their headlines. Using trumped up stories loaded with factual inaccuracies has been around since the invention of the printing press. After all, if the goal is to sell newspapers, you have to give the public a story they want to read. With the advent of radio, and television, and now the electronic media, the American public has come to expect, and even believe, that the press is doing a good job by reporting the news that needs to be reported in an accurate and objective manner. That is misplaced trust. Today’s press is anything but. Today’s rule of reporting is to define the political narrative you want the public to hear, then bend the facts of the story to fit the narrative. The proof of that approach was