There has been an ongoing ebb and flow in this country regarding press propagandist vs an independant, unbiased press at least as far back as the Spanish American war and probably much further back than that.

It is one of the reasons our founders tried to allow for a free press, becuase governments (including Englad) have been using the press for propoganda reasons as long as there has been a press.

Jingoism and the Yellow Press were responsible for the Spanish American War. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer (yep the Pulitzer prize dude).

jingoism is the inflaming of national sentiments through slanted news stories. Often the owners of these press outlets have some vested interest in specific outcomes.

Some interesting reading if you are so inclined.

https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2024/02/the-spanish-american-war-and-the-yellow-press/

quote:
The term “yellow journalism” began as a reference to Richard F. Outcault’s “Yellow Kid” cartoon. Because it was published in both The World and the New York Journal, “yellow kid journalism” or “yellow journalism” was a way to refer to the sensationalism that they were both known for. The Scranton Tribune questioned if “the American people really do read such trash in newspaper guise as is produced by Hearst, Pulitzer and the other members of the yellow-kid guild.”

On the sinking of the Maine.

quote:
In January 1898 the battleship USS Maine was sent to Havana, Cuba, to watch over American interests during the Cuban uprising against Spain. On the evening of February 15, 1898, an explosion on the Maine caused it to sink in the harbor, killing 266 of the crew on board. Although the exact cause of the explosion is still unknown, within days of the explosion, newspapers were blaming Spain. Evidence was misreported or even fabricated, published with large headlines and gruesome images, shocking readers.

Most people now believe the explosion was most likely a coal bunker fire that set off the ships magazine. That conclusion is mostly derived from the record of the physical evidence which seems tindicate the Maine was destroyed from within the ship.