Flipping Tables Podcast

Episode: William Randolph Hearst and the Legacy of Yellow Journalism

Host: Monte Mader
Date: November 12, 2025

Episode Overview

Monte Mader takes listeners on a sweeping, impassioned exploration of William Randolph Hearst—the original media mogul and pioneer of yellow journalism—and the ripple effects his methods have had on American politics, popular culture, and the press from the Gilded Age through today. The episode draws poignant parallels between Hearst’s era of sensationalized reporting and the modern landscape of viral outrage, disinformation, and the fusion of media, politics, and evangelical Christianity. It is both a history lesson and a call to remain vigilant stewards of democracy and truth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Hearst Archetype: Money, Media, Spectacle, and Power

(00:00 – 06:20)

• Hearst's life: privileged upbringing, restlessness, and a craving for attention.
• Inherited his father's paper, the San Francisco Examiner, transformed it with scandal and sensationalism.
• Expansion to the New York Morning Journal led to a rivalry with Joseph Pulitzer, birthing “yellow journalism”: bold headlines, dramatized stories, blurred facts and fiction.
• “Money plus media plus spectacle equals influence... once influence is his, the next step was politics.” (Monte Mader, 00:01)

2. Yellow Journalism and the Spanish-American War

(19:20 – 33:00)

• Sensational headlines (“Destruction of the warship Maine 266 lives lost Spanish treachery!”) with little evidence drove public demand for war.
• Yellow journalism: manufactured outrage, clickbait’s ancestor; emotional spectacle more important than evidence.
• Introduction of comics like "The Yellow Kid" as mascots of media wars.

“The truth doesn’t matter nearly as much if you can control a story, if you can control the rhetoric.” (Monte Mader, 00:32:55)

3. The Legacy of Sensationalism: From Tabloids to Social Media

(33:00 – 51:00)

• Tabloid news forms (Daily News, Evening Graphic’s staged images), gossip columns, and TV scandals replaced truly investigative journalism.
• Modern examples: clickbait headlines, viral misinformation, algorithmic amplification, and “checkbook journalism.”
• Rise of false online narratives: e.g., Pizzagate, election misinformation, online outrage cycles.

“Yellow journalism didn’t die in the 1890s. Its DNA is alive and well... Every outrage fueled post, whether it’s true or not... is an echo of Hearst.” (Monte Mader, 00:38:02)

4. Yellow Journalism’s Playbook in Authoritarian Regimes

(54:00 – 01:07:00)

• Emotion, repetition, and a controlled narrative as vehicles for mass persuasion—methodologies borrowed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union for propaganda and state control.
• US adoption: Committee on Public Information during WWI, blurring news and patriotic advertising.
• Patterns: tools of media manipulation are repurposed whenever power is at stake.

5. Modern Parallels: Trump-Era Media, Outrage, and the MAGA Movement

(1:07:00 – 01:23:00)

• Outrage and spectacle as products: the Hearst playbook revived by right-wing media and Trump-era press strategies.
• MAGA-aligned influencers as new media gatekeepers, the entrenching of loyalty and outrage over nuance.
• Left-leaning outlets at times mirror the yellow journalism model, emphasizing sensationalism.

“Reward the coverage that serves you best and sideline everyone else... The through line is clear. Sensationalism is still the main seller.” (Monte Mader, 01:14:31)

6. Shaping Identity: The Portrayal of Women

(01:23:00 – 01:41:45)

• Hearst’s media empire as inventor of gender roles and consumerist ideals for women—public virtue versus private glamour, the “Hearst girl” phenomenon.
• Modern echoes: Tradwife movements, online influencers, and still-present media policing of women’s roles, morality, and appearance.
• Highlighted hypocrisy within these narratives.

“The subjugation is not the role. The subjugation is the lack of choice.” (Monte Mader, 01:36:02)

7. Who Controls Truth? Free Press, Censorship, and the First Amendment

(01:41:45 – 02:01:45)

• Legal battles for press freedom: Near v. Minnesota, New York Times v. United States, the Fairness Doctrine’s rise and repeal, and their political impact.
• Recurrent tension: constitutional shield from government censorship versus private censorship by media moguls like Hearst.
• Recent abuses: leaks, prosecutorial overreach, Trump administration’s direct attacks on press freedom.

“Freedom of the press isn’t just about printing the press. It’s about your access to the press.” (Monte Mader, 01:57:10)

8. The Hearst Tradition in Political Campaigns & Movement Media

(02:01:45 – 02:20:40)

• From Red Scares to McCarthyism, media-fueled moral panics recurring across the 20th and 21st centuries.
• Modern “cancel culture” as state-backed suppression—Charlie Kirk’s assassination as a latest catalyst.

“Perhaps a more apt designation against the current backdrop is the Blue Scare, as Ezra Klein offers.” (Monte Mader, 02:16:30)

9. Harnessing Moral Theater: From Spectacle to Social Change

(02:20:40 – 02:44:30)

• Civil rights movement as a case study in using the tools of spectacle for justice: Emmett Till, Little Rock Nine, Selma, television and photojournalism’s power.
• The duality: Herst’s legacy is used to both oppress and liberate, depending on who controls the narrative.

10. Media Moguls and the Myth of Invincibility

(02:44:30 – 02:53:00)

• Citizen Kane: Orson Welles’ portrait of Hearst as a tragic, obsessive “emperor of the press;” Hearst’s futile attempts to suppress the film.
• Political parallel: modern politicians (Nixon, Reagan, Trump, Newt Gingrich) who equate compromise with weakness and refuse to admit defeat.

“When we elevate these kind of people, we put ourselves in danger. If we elevate the humans who say that admitting wrong is weakness, then we sacrifice the truth because nobody can be perfect.” (Monte Mader, 02:52:00)

11. Christian Nationalism, Media, and the Merging of Spectacle and Salvation

(02:53:00 – 03:18:00)

• Historical roots: Hearst’s papers as “pulpits in print,” Teddy Roosevelt’s manly Christianity, and the rise of Christian fundamentalism.
• Modern deployment: Christian nationalist rhetoric, courtroom theology (e.g., IVF ruling in Alabama), politics and religion fused into a narrative of existential struggle.

“Politics as salvation, enemies as heretics, and the pulpit again. Whether it’s a newspaper, a rally stage, a courtroom, or the Pentagon, Christian nationalism wrapped politics in the language of salvation.” (Monte Mader, 03:15:22)

12. Project 2025: Institutionalizing the Spectacle

(03:18:00 – 03:31:00)

• Specific policy blueprints under Project 2025: purging federal workers (“Schedule F”), scrapping anti-discrimination programs, loyalty tests, and the reassertion of conservative gender roles.
• Direct continuity from Hearst’s approach to controlling narrative and institutional power.

13. Final Lessons & A Call to Action

(03:31:00 – End)

• Every era has its Hearst; the audience (citizens) choose who owns and tells the narrative.
• Outrage and belonging can be sold as products; vigilance and critical thinking are essential.
• Question: “If this is making me feel outrage and fear, who profits from my outrage and my fear?”

“A free press isn’t guaranteed by law. We have to fight for it. It’s sustained by people who still care that the truth wins, even when it’s uncomfortable.” (Monte Mader, 03:36:44)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Hearst archetype:

  “Everyone was a storyline. Patriots or traitors, saints or sinners, heroes or losers… Money plus media plus spectacle equals influence.”
  Monte Mader, 00:01:50

• On manipulation by outrage:

  “Hearst didn’t sell the news. He sold outrage, drama, and certainty—and people ate it up.”
  Monte Mader, 01:18:35

• On women's roles:

  “The subjugation is not the role. The subjugation is the lack of choice. They needed women to buy in and this is how they packaged it.”
  Monte Mader, 01:36:02

• On press freedom:

  “Freedom of the press in Hearst’s hands often meant freedom for one man’s voice to dominate, others to be drowned out.”
  Monte Mader, 01:51:55

• On the modern spectacle:

  “The formula didn’t vanish when Hearst waned. It just kept getting rebranded and redressed. And without a doubt, fear has always been the glue.”
  Monte Mader, 02:25:44

• On Christian nationalism:

  “Politics as salvation, enemies as heretics, and the pulpit again. Whether it’s a newspaper, a rally stage, a courtroom, or the Pentagon, Christian nationalism wrapped politics in the language of salvation.”
  Monte Mader, 03:15:22

• On action:

  “A free press isn’t guaranteed by law. We have to fight for it. It’s sustained by the people who still care that that’s true, even when it’s uncomfortable.”
  Monte Mader, 03:36:44

Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:00 – 06:20: Introduction and framing of Hearst as archetype.
• 19:20 – 33:00: Yellow Journalism’s origins, the Spanish-American War.
• 54:00 – 01:07:00: Hearst techniques in Nazi/Soviet propaganda and US WWI efforts.
• 01:14:31: MAGA movement and sensationalism.
• 01:23:00 – 01:41:45: Gender, media, and the scripting of femininity.
• 01:41:45 – 02:01:45: The shifting battlegrounds of press freedom in law and culture.
• 02:01:45 – 02:20:40: Red Scares and cancel culture as mirrored cycles.
• 02:20:40 – 02:44:30: Civil rights, media spectacle, and emotional change.
• 02:44:30 – 02:53:00: Citizen Kane, invincibility myth, and political denial.
• 02:53:00 – 03:18:00: Christian Nationalism’s media playbook.
• 03:18:00 – 03:31:00: Project 2025 as institutionalized propaganda.
• 03:31:00 – End: Call to action, ownership of the narrative, final thoughts.

Further Resources

Monte notes that a full list of sources and further reading (by herself and Charles Harvey) accompanies the episode in the show notes.

Tone & Style

Monte speaks with urgency, clarity, and empathy, weaving personal experience and scholarly research into a compelling, direct narrative. Her tone is alert, passionate, and at times searingly critical—particularly in defense of truth, justice, and the rights of marginalized groups. She encourages critical curiosity (“curiosity is the motto here”), reminding listeners that democracy and a free press depend on continual, collective vigilance.

Summary Takeaways

• Hearst’s model of spectacle, loyalty, and narrative control underpins modern media and politics—across the spectrum.
• The tools change (newspapers, radio, TV, social media), but the formulas of manipulation—emotion, fear, repetition, us-vs-them—remain the same.
• These techniques have fueled wars, red scares, gender norms, and, most recently, have become weaponized by political and religious movements fused under Christian nationalism.
• The line between news and propaganda is easily blurred. The right to a free and diverse press must be zealously guarded by all citizens, not just journalists.
• “If you’re feeling outrage or fear, always ask: Who profits? Who benefits?”
• Democracy survives only if people insist upon—and defend—the institutions, rights, and vigilance that sustain it.

“Challenge the rhetoric today. Flip the table. Do not let deception become part of our story. We know the lessons... we can fight for the freedom we want because we only lose our democracy if we give it up—and we can choose not to.”
—Monte Mader, closing remarks