Stephen Kinzer on the sinking of the Maine and pro-war propaganda

Many Americans already felt a passionate hatred for Spanish colonialism and a romantic attachment to the idea of "Cuba Libre."  Their emotions had been fired by a series of wildly sensational newspaper reports that together consitute one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press.  William Randolph Hearst, the owner of the New York Journal and a string of other newspapers across the country, had been attracting readers for months with vivid denunciations of Spanish colonialists...

[...]

The moment Hearst heard about the sinking of the Maine, he recognized it as a great opportunity.  For weeks after the explosion, he filled page after page with mendacious "scoops," fabricated interviews with unnamed government officials, and declarations that the battleship had been "destroyed by treachery" and "split in two by an enemy's secret infernal machine."  The Journal's daily circulation doubled in four weeks.  Other newspapers joined the frenzy, and their campaign brought Americans to near-hysteria.

~ Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, pp. 36-37

(Editor's note: The role of yellow journalism in whipping Americans into a pro-war frenzy may be overstated.)