American Masters (1985–…): Season 33, Episode 5 - Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People - full transcript

The National Endowment
for the Humanities...

Bringing you the stories
that define us.

♪♪

♪♪

Baker: An American newspaper...
It's a giant engine of history.

♪♪

It's an astonishing
artistic achievement.

♪♪

I learned that
the British Library,

which had the very last pristine
runs of

Joseph Pulitzer's
New York World,



was getting rid of it.

They said, "Look, it's going
to be an auction.

So the only way you're going to
get these papers safe,

the way you want them to,
is bid on them.

♪♪

It's so rare in anyone's life
that you get an opportunity...

That something comes to you
and you just happen to know

that if you take a few steps,

if you take a few risks,
that you could save it.

♪♪

If you have the last copy,
let's say,

of a Shakespeare First Folio...

And there's only one left,
what price do you come up with?

I had no idea.



And that's how I got to know
about Joseph Pulitzer,

who is probably the most
thrilling and important

and original and creative mind
in American media

that has ever been.

He's the person who thought up
so much

of what we think of now as news
and how news is conveyed.

Senator Baker: What did
the President know

and when did he know it?

Cooper: Also, two media centers
built...

Whoa!

Woodruff: Tonight, Iraq's
stability at stake.

Collard: You could hear
some clashes, some gunfire.

Gonzalez: Politicians who sit
in their gilded

House and Senate seats...

Maddow: what it means to be
an investigative reporter,

and why it's worth it.

Mark Hosenball's
national security

reporting after 9/11...

♪♪

Driver: Joseph Pulitzer
was a relentless journalist

known for making enemies.

A lifetime insomniac,
he rarely stopped editing,

learning, criticizing,
and only occasionally, praising.

His restless temperament
was well-suited

to the ceaseless pace
of publishing a daily newspaper.

♪♪

In his final years,
when he was blind,

Pulitzer waged one last battle.

He accused President
Theodore Roosevelt

of lying to the American people.

♪♪

On December 15, 1908,

the World called
the Panama Canal,

Roosevelt's proudest
achievement,

an act of colonial aggression.

The paper insisted that
the government account

for a missing $40 million,

claiming that the money
was lining rich men's pockets.

Man: "should be prosecuted
for libel..."

Driver: Incensed, Roosevelt sent
a fiery letter to Congress

accusing Pulitzer of libel

and threatening
to put him in prison.

Roosevelt stated...

Roosevelt: It is a high
national duty

to bring to justice this
vilifier of the American people.

Driver: Pulitzer fought
the accusations

as an attack on the press,
even on democracy itself.

♪♪

How did Joseph Pulitzer,

once a penniless Jewish
immigrant from Hungary,

come to defy a popular president

and lead the fight
for a free press

until his death in 1911?

♪♪

♪♪

Joseph Pulitzer was born
in Hungary in 1847,

on the eve of revolutions that
spread across Europe in 1848.

♪♪

Joseph's uncles joined reformers

who fought for a more
representative government,

better working conditions,
and an uncensored press.

The revolutions were suppressed,

and tens of thousands
of people were killed.

Thousands more were forced
into exile,

many to the United States.

The revolutions' fervor ignited
Joseph's lifelong passion

for democratic ideals.

♪♪

McGrath Morris: Pulitzer grew up
in a part of Hungary...

A town called Mako, which is
at the border of Romania.

And it's a very isolated spot.

All of the farming towns at that
point were a day's ride apart.

And being a Jew in Hungary
in the 19th century,

he was part
of an isolated group.

Driver: Joseph's life
was stalked by death.

Seven of his
eight siblings died.

His father passed away
when Joseph was only 11,

leaving the family in debt.

Determined to forge a new life,
Joseph left his mother

and only surviving sibling,
Albert, in 1864.

♪♪

The ambitious,

multilingual 17-year-old dreamed
of becoming a soldier,

and propelled himself
into the midst

of America's defining conflict.

♪♪

McGrath Morris: Pulitzer came
to the United States

by way of our Civil War.

Tucher: He finds recruiters
for the Union Army,

who are scouring Europe,

trying to recruit people
to come to the U.S.

Driver: Pulitzer, like other
immigrant recruits,

took the place of wealthy
draft-dodging Americans.

He joined
a German-speaking unit,

the Lincoln Calvary.

He later summed up
his army service...

Pulitzer:
"I wanted to ride the horse.

I did not want to work."

Daly: A scrawny, weak-eyed,

not the first person
you would put in uniform...

But he was good enough
for this desperate situation.

The Civil War marks a turning
point in American journalism,

because it is
the Great Struggle.

It is the greatest contest
of the 19th century.

It is a struggle over what
it means to be an American.

Eventually, it becomes
a struggle

over what it means
to be a human being.

♪♪

Driver: Pulitzer's first
exposure to the American press

was behind the front lines.

The newspapers' swift,

accurate reporting of battles
and casualties

was prized by soldiers
and families alike.

♪♪

♪♪

The Civil War over,

Pulitzer joined thousands
of unemployed veterans

wandering the country.

Flat broke, he headed west.

To cross the Mississippi River,
he shoved coal on a barge...

His first paid job.

His second demanded that he bury
the bodies of cholera victims.

Tucher: He finds his way
into St. Louis,

where this is a very large
German-speaking population.

Driver: Pulitzer attended ornery
mules and quipped...

Pulitzer: "The man who has not
cared for 16 mules

doesn't know what work
and troubles are."

Driver: He clerked in
an immigration office,

advising immigrants
even greener than himself.

An avid reader and accomplished
chess player,

he taught himself English
by reading his favorite writer,

Charles Dickens.

Daly: He was in his late teens,
early 20s.

He happened to be in the right
place at the right time,

in the sense that St. Louis was
a growing city.

It was a place where people
were founding new newspapers.

There was money for investment,

and it was just the ideal place
for someone with more energy

and determination than cash
to get a start in life.

Driver: Joseph was
an unstoppable workaholic,

mocked or touted as a man

who walked into
a revolving door behind you,

yet somehow emerged
in front of you.

A contemporary wrote,
"He was so industrious

that it became
a positive annoyance

to others who felt
less inclined to work."

♪♪

At the Mercantile Library,

a gathering place for
politically engaged immigrants,

he met newspaper
publisher Carl Schurz.

Schurz was a leader of
the German Revolution in 1848,

a Civil War general,
and a soon-to-be U.S. senator.

♪♪

When Joseph astutely criticized
a move in a chess game,

Schurz engaged Pulitzer
in conversation,

and a job offer followed.

McGrath Morris: So he became
part of this group

of intellectuals
who spoke German,

who welcomed him because there
were no class distinctions.

And these folks were
all also motivated

by a deep performance drive.

McGrath Morris: Joseph Pulitzer
got his first job in journalism

working for the Westliche Post,

the best game in town
among German newspapers

if you were interested
in politics.

Politics and journalism
were separated

by a very thin membrane.

Editors became politicians,

politicians became editors,
and they went back and forth.

Driver:
Joseph taught himself law

and proved to be
a natural reporter,

with a gift for gab and a feel
for investigative journalism.

Passionate about politics,

he wrote exposés that uncovered
St. Louis corruption.

McGrath Morris: He's at this
ward meeting

in which they're choosing
a candidate

to run for
the state legislature.

While he's out of the room,

they all think
it's a great joke...

They nominate Joseph Pulitzer.

Driver: Pulitzer accepted
the nomination,

but he did not treat it
as a joke.

St. Louis politicians assumed
that the 22-year-old

with a thick Hungarian accent
would lose.

He did not.

McGrath Morris: This is
an intoxicating moment,

and experience
with small- "d" democracy.

"I've just arrived
to the United States,"

Pulitzer must be thinking on the
train ride to Jefferson City,

"and I'm now being asked to make
laws in the United States."

It was almost
a religious belief in democracy

that he's gaining
in Jefferson City.

♪♪

Driver: Pulitzer introduced
a bill

to abolish the county's
sweetheart deals,

and simultaneously promoted
his legislation

in the newspaper.

McGrath Morris: A lobbyist
named Augustine

was digging a well
for the state insane asylum.

And by the time he hit water,

it had become the second-deepest
well on the globe.

Driver: Pulitzer dubbed
the excavation

the "Well of Fools,"

because Augustine was being paid
by the foot.

In danger of losing future
lucrative contracts,

Augustine confronted
Pulitzer at his hotel,

calling him a damn liar
and a pup.

Pulitzer drew his pistol
and fired a shot,

grazing Augustine's calf.

McGrath Morris: And you would
think that would be the end

of a political career.

No, it was not.

He was then appointed to be
a police commissioner

in St. Louis.

Driver: He had
a Midas-like touch.

After buying a share
in the Westliche Post,

he sold it
for a staggering $30,000...

Six times his purchase price.

At a bankruptcy auction,
he paid $2,500

for the failing Dispatch,

immediately merging it
with the struggling Post.

And a mere three years later,

the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

became the city's
best-selling paper.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
June 2, 1881...

"Arrested for Murder.

This morning Deputy Sheriff
McKenzie arrested Carl Green."

"Yesterday afternoon during
a picnic held at Miller's Grove,

a number of young ladies
and gentlemen

were dangerously poisoned
by drinking lemonade."

"A Funeral Sensation.

A Frail Wife Denied

the Privilege of
Seeing Her Dead Husband.

Reverend McCready motioned her
to leave."

McCready: "Go away.
You have no right to see him.

Widow: "Oh my God,
I must see my husband."

Driver: "While the wildest
commotion

prevailed in the church,

the lid was fastened
in its place."

Tucher: Joseph Pulitzer has
an idea about newspapers:

that they ought to be short
and smart and snappy,

that they ought to have style,

that they ought
to be really readable.

He's writing for people who...

He remembers what it was
like not to know English,

or not to know English well.

Driver: Pulitzer proclaimed
the Post-Dispatch

independent of party politics
and headlined corruption,

regardless of its source.

♪♪

McGrath Morris: St. Louis
citizens were required

to file a tax report every year.

And on it, they were supposed
to list things like

how much money
they had in their bank,

how many carriages they had
in their carriage houses.

And they often listed "0"
for dollars.

Driver: Pulitzer published
the names of tax dodgers...

An attack on leading citizens

readers had never seen
in print before.

Pulitzer: "Tax returns
are not private secrets.

If the publication of them hurts
anyone, it is not our fault."

Driver: Circulation
and advertising revenue soared.

McGrath Morris: Pulitzer creates
two things at that moment.

He creates economic independence

for his newspaper
and political power.

Driver: Only 29, Pulitzer
realized that to do its job,

a newspaper had to make enemies.

♪♪

He sought an appropriate wife.

Joseph courted Kate Davis

while reporting in
Washington, D.C.

She was attractive, bright,

and had a taste
for life's pleasures.

She was beautiful,

according to St. Louis Life,

"of the clear gypsy type,

with a rich color
and great melting eyes."

♪♪

Pulitzer: "I cannot help saying
that I am too cold and selfish.

I know.

Still, I am not without honor,

and that alone
would compel me to strive

to become worthy
of your faith and love.

I'm impatient to start
a new life,

one of which home must be
the foundation,

affection, ambition,

and occupation the cornerstones,

and you, my dear,
inseparable companion.

♪♪

There... now you have
my first love letter."

♪♪

McGrath Morris: Kate Davis...
A member of a storied family

because her distant cousin
was Jefferson Davis,

the President
of the Confederacy.

One of the things
that Davis offered for Pulitzer,

having been raised
a Jew in Hungary

and having come
to the United States as a Jew,

is entry into
the Episcopal Church.

He gained the last element
he needed

to become part
of the American elite.

♪♪

Driver: His success in business

bankrolled the couples'
six-week honeymoon in Europe,

the grand tour.

Kate would have two girls
and a boy in St. Louis.

♪♪

Joseph stuck to a routine

of spending day and night
at the office,

and drove his staff
to do the same.

Nasaw: Pulitzer is one of
these extraordinary immigrants

who comes to the United States,

becomes more American
than the native-born,

has an extraordinary ambition,

a drive, and, I think, an anger.

Tucher: He's sharp-tempered,
he doesn't suffer fools,

and he doesn't like criticism.

And there are several episodes
of violence and near-violence.

He decides it's time
to leave St. Louis

when his managing editor

shoots somebody who's been
critical of the paper

and the politics,
and this man dies.

Driver: "At 5:15 P.M.,

Slayback walked... into
the Post-Dispatch office.

He had called the paper
a blackmailing sheet,

and had bitterly attacked
all persons connected with it."

♪♪

♪♪

Tucher: So it is seen
as high time to go to New York,

which is the real arena
for a man of vision and talent.

♪♪

Driver: While Pulitzer
kept ownership of the profitable

Post-Dispatch, his purchase
of the New York World

underscored his soaring ambition

to reach a national audience.

Pulitzer: "I sense
a grand opportunity in New York.

All the city needs to set
its capacious glands awash

is a daily dose
of tingling sensations

as plentiful as mushrooms."

Driver: Pulitzer paid the
then-exorbitant sum of $400,000

for this long-shot opportunity.

♪♪

Nasaw: New York is the center
of America.

New York has always been loved
and hated, but can't be ignored.

And it certainly could not
be ignored in the 1880s.

New York is a polyglot

maelstrom of humanity.

♪♪

Tucher: There were lots
and lots of newspapers.

There were... oh, perhaps

as many as a dozen
daily newspapers.

There were morning papers
and afternoon papers.

There were papers
in foreign languages.

There were papers for various
special interests

like reform causes or religion.

Driver: Pulitzer's
younger brother, Albert,

had arrived in New York
a few years before Joseph

and had his own meteoric rise
through the newspaper world.

Albert published
The Morning Journal,

an eye-catching daily,

disparaged as
"The Chambermaid's Delight."

♪♪

Now, Joseph urged Albert
to merge their papers,

seeing the Journal
as unnecessary competition.

When Albert refused,

Joseph lured away
three of his prized newsmen.

Daly: He buys a failing
newspaper.

Pulitzer would take it
to all-new levels

in terms of the size
of his readership,

in terms of the level
of excitement

and energy and action
in the pages itself,

and in terms of
the visual presentation of news.

When he was finished, journalism
was unrecognizable

from the way
it had existed before.

♪♪

♪♪

Pulitzer: "There is room
in this great

and growing city for a journal

that is not only cheap
but bright,

not only bright but large,

not only large
but truly democratic...

Dedicated to the cause
of the people,

that will expose
all fraud and sham,

fight all public evils
and abuses,

that will serve and battle
for the people

with determined sincerity."

Diner: Pulitzer helped
convince Americans

that they had to become a nation
of newspaper-readers...

That reading that paper

was like
having your first cup of coffee,

that the day was not
complete without the paper.

The newspaper became a habit.

Baker: It was the key
to the city.

If you have come from afar,

if you don't speak
this language,

buy this newspaper.

This is going to be a way in.

Daly: Pulitzer's timing
was also very fortunate,

in that he makes his debut
in New York City

right around the time that
the city has become big enough

so that most people
need to commute to work.

So you have large numbers
of people

who have a chunk
of time each day

when there's nothing obvious
that they should be doing.

Well, reading a newspaper is
just about the perfect diversion

while you are commuting.

Everyone subscribed
to multiple newspapers

or bought multiple
papers on the street:

morning editions,
evening editions,

extras, the newspaper you liked,
and the newspaper you hated

but you wanted
to be conversant with.

It was world of print,

and the master of that world
was Joseph Pulitzer.

Driver: His commands
to his writers

papered the newsroom's walls.

♪♪

McGrath Morris: One of
the bits of magic

that Joseph Pulitzer had
was this understanding

that the urban landscape,
the growing American cities,

represented a source
of entertainment.

And he was a man who was
weaned on Charles Dickens.

And Charles Dickens, of course,
was writing novels

based on urban tragedies,
urban poverty,

urban sadness,
romance of urban life.

So Joseph Pulitzer admonished
his reporters to go out

and dig up stories...

Not news,
stories of life in New York.

Czitrom: The vast majority
of New Yorkers

in the 1880s and '90s
were working-poor people.

It was a struggle to survive.

If you're a New Yorker
in the 1880s or 1890s,

there's no Social Security.

There's no Medicare.

There's no unemployment
insurance, no workman's comp,

no minimum wage—
None of that social safety net

that we have come
to take for granted.

All of a sudden, here comes
Pulitzer saying

that news is really about
what happens to ordinary people.

News is about
what's distinctive in city life.

News is about reading
about people just like you.

♪♪

Pulitzer: "Always fight
for progress and reform.

Never tolerate injustice
or corruption.

Always oppose privileged classes
and public plunder.

Never lack sympathy
for the poor.

Never be afraid to attack wrong.

Always be drastically
independent."

Tucher: Pulitzer sees them
not just as a vast market,

potentially profitable.

He also sees them as people
who need a newspaper...

Who need a newspaper
that's going to stand up

for their interests.

So he's always got this mix
of understanding the market

and understanding
how to make a good profit.

But also, he's devoted to the
interests of people

who don't have champions.

♪♪

Tomes: He was accused of being
a sensationalist.

His response was,
"I am reporting

on what really
happens in the world.

There're crimes in the world.

There're divorces in the world.

There's scandals in the world.

Why shouldn't that be part
of what a newspaper reports?"

But of course, his genius was
he didn't just wait

for these things to happen.

He had a notion of the news,

not just that you report it,
but you also make it.

♪♪

Driver: Pulitzer first made news

when the majestic
Brooklyn Bridge opened

in May 1883,

only ten days after
he purchased The World.

In their tone-deaf
quest for revenue,

the city fathers levied
a one-penny pedestrian toll.

♪♪

The World splashed a four-column

wood-cut illustration
of the great suspension bridge

across its front page,
and demanded...

Pulitzer:
"Let the bridge be free.

A penny is a workman's lunch.

The working classes of the city
do not enjoy many privileges.

Let them at least have
free schools, free air,

free daylight,
and a free bridge."

Driver: Pulitzer's challenge
could not have been more timely.

Working people quickly
understood

that a fearless new champion
had come to town.

♪♪

Tucher: One of the things that
distinguished Pulitzer's paper

is that he used it

in the service of campaigns
and crusades.

♪♪

One of the most famous
of his crusades was,

France gave to the United States
the Statue of Liberty...

A great statue that was going
to stand in the harbor

and welcome the world
to New York.

The problem was, France didn't
give a pedestal for the statue.

The statue came, and what
are we going to do with it?

It's not going to stand.

Pulitzer feels very strongly

that the government ought
to fund the pedestal.

He insists Congress should
fund the pedestal,

and Congress is not
interested in this.

So Pulitzer invites readers
of his newspaper to donate...

Schoolchildren in their classes,
to gather up pennies and nickels

and dimes, to get enough money
to build the pedestal

so that the Lady Liberty
can stand in the harbor.

Pulitzer: "Unless the statue
goes to the bottom of the ocean,

it is safe to predict
that it will eventually

stand upon an American pedestal,
and stand beautiful too,

for a very long time
with more sentiment

than we can now dream of.

♪♪

McGrath Morris: The idea that
this wealthy member

of New York City would ask
the poorest members of the city

to bring in their dimes
and nickels to the front desk

of The World
reflected the enormous trust

that these folks had
in Joseph Pulitzer.

Girl: "I'm a little girl,
10 years of age.

I hope to see Miss Liberty
sometime,

and want to contribute
to the pedestal.

Girl 2: "The little boys and
girls in my Sunday school class

wish to contribute
towards the Bartholdi Fund."

Girl: "I've enclosed $2,
hoping the pedestal

will be finished soon."

McGrath Morris: And in return
for just a penny,

their name would appear
in the paper.

Cleverly, the donors didn't
appear for several days later,

so you might have to buy
several editions of "The World"

before you would see your name.

So the paper that carried news
of the Astors

and all these wealthy
families in New York

would also carry O'Shaughnessy's
name in this list of donors.

Driver: The records show
that 120,000 people

donated to
the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund.

Tucher: And he does this in part
because it's great copy.

And everyone knows
that Pulitzer is doing this...

And the schoolchildren know,

and they're gonna grow up
and read the newspaper, too.

This is not dumb.

But it's also a way for him

to reflect back
on his own immigrant roots.

It's in the harbor.

It's welcoming people
coming to the United States.

It's a way for him to make a
statement about his own origins,

and the origins
of many of his readers.

♪♪

Driver: In 1887,
a little-known reporter

with the pen name Nellie Bly
approached the World.

She was promised a job
if she got a scoop.

Bly feigned insanity before
the Bellevue Hospital board

and was taken to the notorious
insane asylum for women

on Blackwell's Island.

Nellie was incarcerated
for ten days

before Pulitzer's lawyer
secured her release.

Bly wrote...

Bly: "The insane asylum
is a human rat trap.

It is easier to get in,

but once there,
it is impossible to leave.

From the moment I entered
the insane ward on the island,

I made no attempt to keep up
the assumed role of insanity.

I talked and acted just as I do
in ordinary life.

It's strange to say the more
Sanely I talked and acted,

the crazier
I was thought to be."

Driver: Because of her exposé
of the horrors within,

the city appropriated $850,000

in an attempt
to reform the institution.

They take out after
the grafters,

the scoundrels,

those who make money

off selling spoiled milk...

Perfuming it,

putting chalk into it
to make it look white,

and killing children
as a result.

They give voice
to the voiceless.

Driver: Pulitzer's drive
to investigate wrongdoing

became his paper's rallying cry.

Pulitzer: "There is only one way
to get a democracy on its feet,

and that is by keeping
the public informed.

There is not a crime,
there is not a dodge,

there is not a trick,
there is not a swindle,

there is not a vice
which does not live by secrecy.

Get these things out
in the open.

Describe them.
Attack them.

Ridicule them in the press.

And sooner or later, public
opinion will sweep them away."

Nasaw: How the other half lives

is the quintessential
New York story,

and is becoming the
quintessential American story.

And Pulitzer is
going to cover it.

Tucher: The Lower East Side
in the late 19th century,

early 20th century becomes
a real clustering place

for many of these immigrants.

Many of them
are taken advantage of.

The housing is terrible.

The jobs are terrible.

There is virtually
no supervision or regulation

of the workplace
or the workforce.

McGrath Morris: They had windows
into air shafts.

They could not get outside air.

And "night soil" —
The business you did at night...

The buckets would be
dropped down these air shafts.

So it smelled, it was horrible.

And on a hot night,
people would go to the roofs

of the tenements
to get their night's sleep.

♪♪

Jacob Riis, the famous
journalist

who chronicled poverty
in the Lower East Side,

described what occurred
as a "human rain,"

in that children would roll
over in their sleep

and fall to their death
in the middle of the night.

♪♪

Driver: The World's reporting
prompted sharp critiques.

The editor of The Journalist,
Leander Richardson, wrote...

♪♪

Driver: The true horror was
that Pulitzer's paper

did not have to up the ante.

The city suffered from
the world's

highest population density.

The streets were filthy.

2.5 million pounds
of horse manure

had to be removed every day.

Nasaw: The Gilded Age is an age

where government does less

at a time
when it should do more.

The city is rife

with exploitation, with fraud.

Czitrom: The Gilded Age has come
to mean two things,

it seems to me.

One is the creation
of enormous fortunes...

Vast amounts of wealth
that were, in effect,

unprecedented in American
or perhaps human history...

All this coming about
with the emergence

of industrial capitalism

and the growth of national
markets in the United States.

And Twain argued that so much
of what was supposed to be great

about America
was really not so great.

The sort of underside of how
these fortunes are made,

the underside of unethical
business practices,

the underside of
the robber baron's world...

This is part of what we mean
by the Gilded Age:

the sense that underneath
New York,

there is a volcano
of poor, angry people.

♪♪

Gitter: Earlier, the idea was
that poverty and disability

and so on were the will of God.

And so, there's this new idea
that people can be made better,

that the world
can be made better,

that corruption of
the bad institutions

and the successes of
the progressive institutions

should be reported...

That they were of interest
to the public.

And that people could change...

That you could have
a change of heart...

That's a very Victorian idea.

Nasaw: They start the campaign

that ends in more regulation,

more sewers, more tenement laws,
more factory laws.

McGrath Morris: And this
rewarded Pulitzer

with this amazing loyalty of
the lower classes of New York,

who were willing to give him two
pennies every day for the paper,

but were also willing to give
Pulitzer political power

because whatever he wrote
on the editorial page,

they were going to follow.

Driver: Pulitzer the immigrant
could never be president,

but he campaigned vigorously
for presidents.

He ran for and handily
won a seat in Congress,

but quit just
a few months later.

Pulitzer returned to New York,

convinced that his true gift
was the newspaper business,

and his true constituency,
his readers.

He expanded his coverage
to appeal

to an ever-wider audience
of rich and poor.

♪♪

♪♪

Daly: In the pages
of his newspaper,

he made it a practical form
of education...

A kind of a home study
that immigrants could look to

for advice about how
to better their English,

about how to join
American society,

about how to understand
some of these strange folkways

in this new country.

McGrath Morris:
American economic life

was a foreign concept.

American politics...

Democracy...
Was an unheard-of concept

for a lot of these folks.

And the paper was providing
a gateway to all of that.

So when the World rose
and became an important paper,

for a few pennies on a Sunday,

you could buy a newspaper
as thick as telephone book

that had dress patterns.

Baker: Here are the dresses
that you,

as a purchaser for a nickel,
of this newspaper, can make.

And they show you kind of nice
lace patterns and things.

Then they actually give you
the dress pattern.

McGrath Morris: Kids today
talk about downloading music.

The World included sheet music

of the most popular song
from that day,

so you can go back
and play the song.

Baker: And then, there was
the Rolly Pollys

which you can cut out

and then insert where they
tell you to insert on the stage.

And then, you get a kind of
three-dimensional thing.

The idea for Pulitzer was,

here's this two-dimensional
medium of paper and ink.

How can we make it leap
into a third dimension?

How can we make it real?

Tucher: He's got short stories
and snappy stories

with accessible language
about murders and about society

and about sensation
and about sin.

But he's got a lot of stories
about how you be in America.

People who are immigrants here
want to know,

how do we assimilate?

So he gives them stories about
etiquette, about fashion,

about shopping,
about how to consume...

How to be
a good American consumer.

Diner: By gosh,
is everybody else

is going to be wearing
a particular new style this year

and a particular fabric
and a particular color,

a particular kind of hat,
why shouldn't they have it?

And the newspapers,

which are coming increasingly
to depend on advertising,

expose young working women
with what those styles are.

Daly: Pulitzer first hired
a cartoonist named Outcault,

who did a very funny,

very striking
single-panel cartoon...

A big cartoon,

that showed life in what the
cartoonist referred to as

"Hogan's Alley."

And the tenement
would be crowded

with lots of things going on,

and people leaning out
their windows

and sitting on stoops and
hanging off the fire escapes.

And invariably, there would be
this very odd figure

in the cartoon
commenting on the whole scene.

And it was a little boy
who looked like an idiot...

There's really
no getting around it.

And he became known
as the Yellow Kid.

And readers of Pulitzer's paper
would say,

"Hey, have you seen
the Yellow Kid today?

Did you see what
the Yellow Kid said today?"

And the Yellow Kid became
a real point of pride

for Pulitzer's World.

♪♪

McGrath Morris: What he did
was understand

how the eye moved
around the page,

understand that
we were selective,

understand that we are

capricious and fussy
about things,

that we want to be pulled in,
that we want an ongoing story.

He just sort of had
this explosion

of brilliant originality...

Which was amazing!

It was everything on cable.

It was everything on the radio.

There was nothing else
that was a single conduit

through which all sorts
of information

flowed at the same time.

And it was happening every
single day in New York City.

It was
pumping out of a basement,

kind of an incredible miracle.

♪♪

Driver: He was a difficult man

in a society he insisted
he was an outsider.

He was unusual-looking...
To some...

With striking deep-blue eyes

and a prominent nose.

His ambition and his insistence
on precision

irritated all those around him...

Family members and friends,
colleagues, and his staff.

Baker: He would sometimes
be mocked in cartoons

with a big beaked nose,

with a very unattractive
appearance.

He was sometimes referred
to as "Jew-seph Pulitzer"

or "Joseph Jew-litzer."

Daly: This was an era when

the publishers
and the top editors,

especially of the big papers,
were very prominent figures.

They were often depicted
in each other's pages.

They were the subject
of commentary.

They were often also candidates
for office.

They were not shy people.

Most of us, I daresay,
could not spot the publisher

of our favorite newspaper
walking down the street.

But everyone could've spotted
Joseph Pulitzer.

They'd seen cartoons of him.

They's seen photos.

He had those distinctive
pince-nez glasses.

Redden: Pulitzer, of course,
was a colossal figure

in the late 19th
and early 20th century.

He was a sort of Rupert Murdoch
of his day, but quite different.

If Rupert Murdoch would be
described as conservative,

Pulitzer was generally
fairly liberal.

He believed in unions...

Except when it may have applied
to his own companies.

♪♪

In fact, he was living...

Certainly towards
the end of his life...

Amongst the very, very rich.

Tucher: It's very possible
in New York to live your life

and never see the poor,
if you are a rich person.

The poor cluster
in different neighborhoods.

If you lived on Fifth Avenue

and you went out
in your carriage

and you took your carriage
to your office,

you could pretty much ignore
that whole world.

Pulitzer's newspaper
reminded you

that that world was out there.

McGrath Morris: New York society
was very hostile

to his coverage
of the lower class,

his sensationalistic approach.

In fact, they thought
it was unhealthy.

There were clubs in New York,
libraries in New York,

that would not take the World

because it could be
a bad influence on them.

A murder would occur,

and the body would be cut up
and put into barrels.

Well, the World would deliver
you the news with illustrations,

with an arrow
pointing to the fact

that the head was here
and the arms were there.

♪♪

Driver: It wasn't
sensationalism alone

that drove the upper classes
to scorn the paper.

What truly offended them
was the sense

that by covering New York's
large disenfranchised groups,

Pulitzer empowered them.

Baker: People like a crowd.

People are curious
when a crowd assembles.

And in a way,
the newspaper is like a crowd.

The bigger the news, the more
shocking those headlines,

the better for business.

Czitrom: So, when Pulitzer
takes over the World,

it's got a circulation of about
15,000 readers every day.

Within two years,
he has increased that 150,000...

Tenfold increase.

And within a couple years
after that,

the World has got
400,000 readers every day,

and it's the most successful
newspaper in America...

Perhaps, in the world.

Pulitzer understood that
the newspaper was crucial

for the new world
of mass production

and mass distribution.

You have got more and more
people in the Gilded Age,

of course, buying
their clothing in stores.

People who used to make
their own soap now buy the soap.

Women who used to be
in charge of domestic production

in the home,
not doing that as much anymore.

So, where are they buying
this stuff?

Increasingly in big cities,

they're buying these things
in department stores.

And department stores become
the single most important

advertiser
in Gilded Age newspapers.

♪♪

Tomes: He's the first newspaper
publisher to say to advertisers,

"You have to pay me on the basis
of my circulation."

Up until that point, everybody
was charged the same rate

whether you had 5,000
copies sold or 10,000.

He said, "No, no, no.

I'm boosting circulation.

That means, Mr. Macy,

if you want to put an ad in

the World,
you have to pay me more."

Nasaw: The department store
and the newspaper grow together.

Politics and the newspaper
grow together.

The entertainment world
and the newspaper grow together.

Sports and the newspaper
grow together.

The stock market...
And Wall Street...

And the newspaper grow together,

because the newspaper
accommodates

all of these industries.

Driver: Pulitzer's two papers
were now raking in

millions of dollars a year.

And Pulitzer was spending money
at the same breakneck speed.

He purchased a $150,000 Tiffany
pearl necklace for his wife,

and maintained three
sumptuous residences.

Yet he could still rail about
capital's corrupting influence.

♪♪

Tucher: One of the ways
that the World

makes its statement
is through its building.

Pulitzer insists on building
a great, tall,

wonderful house
for his newspaper...

For a brief time,
the tallest building anywhere.

Baker: And this is a comic
version of the idea of building

the New York World
building itself.

"The American Skyscraper
is a Modem Tower of Babel."

But they're all building
this newspaper,

which is a part of the ethnic
mix of New York City.

Redden: But it had to be the
biggest building in New York.

It's grander... grander than any
newspaper building ever built.

It had to have this
extraordinary dome

at the top of it
covered with gold,

that could be seen
40 miles away out in the ocean.

Driver: Although Pulitzer did
not attend the dedication,

his 4-year-old son,
Joe, laid the cornerstone,

and a time capsule was buried.

Pulitzer cabled from
Wiesbaden, Germany...

Pulitzer: "God grant that this
structure be the enduring home

of a newspaper
forever unsatisfied

with merely printing news,

forever fighting
every form of wrong,

forever independent,

forever advancing in
enlightenment and progress."

Driver: Pulitzer knew great
advertising when he saw it.

The first two landmarks
that immigrants spied

as they approached
New York Harbor

bore the publisher's imprint.

♪♪

♪♪

McGrath Morris: One of
the great ironies

in Joseph Pulitzer's life

is that he probably did more
than any other person

in his time period

to make American journalism
more visual...

More interesting to look at.

But at a time when the paper
was at its most inventive,

Joseph Pulitzer himself
was slowly going blind.

Tucher: Pulitzer's health
is terrible.

He probably had
some kind of depression.

But his physical health
contributed to that,

because very shortly after
he arrived in New York,

he was subject
to terrible headaches,

to all sorts of malaise.

McGrath Morris: And the thing
that really triggered it

was going blind.

Albert: In 1890, quite suddenly,

he was standing
at the rail of a ship

and he remarked
that it had gotten dark.

♪♪

If the retina is detached,

then it becomes folded
to some extent.

Things look distorted,

similar to the mirrors
in an amusement park.

It's a medical emergency.

And if Pulitzer developed those
symptoms today,

he would have those holes sealed
with cautery, with laser,

and the retina reattached.

Tucher: When you lose
your sight,

you can't see
your hands anymore.

You can't see your own body,

so it's profoundly
disorienting...

The sense of a self
that you can't see anymore.

You can't see your face
in the mirror.

You can't read other
people's expressions.

Your relationships with other
people are really disrupted.

So for somebody like
Joseph Pulitzer...

Who's powerful, alpha male...

To suddenly go from being
an object of respect,

maybe fear,
to being an object of pity

who has to be led around,
is tremendous loss of status.

♪♪

Tucher: He becomes
hypersensitive to sound.

It's very difficult for him
to be in public open areas,

because the sound is...
Is difficult for him to bear.

He finds himself
requiring his office

is soundproofed... is padded.

He doesn't like being subjected

to the hustle and bustle of
everyday life,

so he becomes more
and more of a recluse.

He lives on his yacht.

He lives in his carefully
sequestered house.

Redden: The accommodations that
were made for Joseph Pulitzer

must've absolutely infuriated
everybody around him,

but nevertheless, had to happen.

Here in this house, clearly,
the bedroom would have

had to have been
completely soundproof.

But it wasn't good enough
for him.

He demanded that another bedroom
be built for him,

and so at the back of the house,

a new kind of bedroom
wing was created.

The passageway leading
to the bedroom, in fact,

was on ball bearings to prevent
vibrations from getting through.

Nevertheless, and having said
it's soundproof, of course,

Joseph Pulitzer goes to spend
the night there and can't sleep

because he can still hear
something somewhere.

So they go back to square one.

They look at the bedroom again,
and they decide that some noises

are coming down
the chimney flue.

♪♪

Tomes: It's ironic that a man
whose life was made so miserable

by sounds he couldn't control...

Unpredictable sounds...

Loved music, had a giant organ
in his home, went to concerts.

It's really the issue
of control.

♪♪

McGrath Morris: In Maine,

he built a tower of silence
out of solid stone.

When he built his own yacht,

he had the engines
put in one particular place,

had thicker doors installed.

When he took a nap, everyone had
to stay wherever they were.

Nothing could be moved.

Before he had a yacht, when he
travelled on White Star Line,

they had special doors that
they would mount on his cabin.

He would take the two cabins
next door to keep them empty.

They put down a mat
on the deck above

so anyone walking
couldn't be heard,

and the piano music had to end
by a certain time.

♪♪

Pulitzer would get on a ship
or his own yacht,

go to Europe, turn around,
and come right back.

He was fleeing his own shadows.

He was seeking
a geographical solution

to a psychological problem

that, of course,
went with him wherever he went.

Tomes: Part of the context
for understanding

Joseph's mental anguish,

I think, is the disease
environment of that time period.

Look at how many people in his
family died from tuberculosis,

from whatever ailments
carried off

all his brothers and sisters
except for Albert.

Then he has his own family...

Baby Ethel from pneumonia.

And then his 17-year-old
daughter, Lucille.

McGrath Morris:
She died of typhoid

in Maine, at their estate.

♪♪

Lucille was his
beloved daughter.

Pulitzer went into depression.

♪♪

Gitter: One of the pleasures
of parenthood

is watching your children grow,

and their faces change
and their capacities develop...

All of those things.

When you can't see
your children anymore

and you can't see them change,
they're frozen in time.

♪♪

Driver: Pulitzer was perpetually
disappointed with his sons.

He feared that his children
would squander their inheritance

and dishonor his legacy.

♪♪

Pulitzer: "The World is,
to me, far more than a property.

I regard it as
a public institution,

capable of influencing
the nation's thought.

Never forget the dangers

that attend inheritors
of large fortunes,

elevating luxury and withdrawal

from vigorous, serious,
useful work.

♪♪

Unfortunately, to date,

I remain skeptical about
your talents of commitment."

♪♪

Driver: Life for his wife
was hardly easier

than for the children.

Mrs. Pulitzer: "He said
that I did not understand

the proper relations
between husband and wife...

That all the little things

that go to make a man
comfortable, I failed in.

There is not a servant
in the house

who had worked harder
than I had.

I have made a slave of myself."

♪♪

Driver: Pulitzer's struggle

to overcome his ailments
and pursue his ambitions

weighed on family
and staff alike.

One of Pulitzer's
secretaries observed

of John Singer Sargent's
portrait...

Man: "Hide with a sheet of paper
one half the face,

and you have a benevolent
middle-aged gentleman.

Observe now the other half,

and you have
the malevolent, sinister,

and cruel expression
of a Mephisto."

♪♪

♪♪

Tucher: Pulitzer is
very different

from someone like
William Randolph Hearst,

who has been shaking up
the newspaper world

in California,
in San Francisco...

Comes to New York specifically
to challenge Pulitzer.

He, in fact, buys the newspaper
that had previously been run

by Joseph Pulitzer's
brother, Albert.

And he makes it more
sensational and more flashy.

Daly: Hearst could not have come
from a more different background

than Joseph Pulitzer.

He's the classic
rags-to-riches story.

Hearst, on the other hand,
is a riches-to-riches story

if there ever was one.

Nasaw: William Randolph Hearst,
at Harvard,

majored in showgirls,
theater, and newspapers.

Read the World every day
religiously,

and decided that he knew
how to run a newspaper.

Hearst: "I am convinced
that I could run

a newspaper successfully,

to clip some leading journal
like The New York World,

which is undoubtedly
the best paper of that class,

which appeals to the people,

which depends for its success
upon enterprise, energy,

and startling originality."

Driver: Hearst bought
the Morning Journal

only a few months
after Albert Pulitzer sold it.

Daly: Hearst is now going to
head-to-head

with the man he admires
the most, Joseph Pulitzer.

Nasaw: Hearst immediately goes
after the major illustrators,

the major editors,
the major writers,

the major columnists
who work for Pulitzer.

And he steals them all away.

Daly: And now the Yellow Kid
was in Hearst's paper.

So both of these papers became
associated with this cartoon.

That's the origin of the phrase

"yellow journalism."

Tucher: The circulation battle
becomes epic.

They both drop their prices.

They work on the same stories,

and they criticize
each other by name.

Daly: These two were going
head-to-head,

and trying to sell to everybody.

So they were trying to top
each other all the time

with the most amazing headlines,

the wildest crusades,
the craziest stunts.

♪♪

Pulitzer paid for Nellie Bly
to go off around the world

and try to set a world record
for circling the globe.

There was never a dull day

in that competition between
Hearst and Pulitzer.

McGrath Morris: So every act
of irresponsible journalism

William Randolph Hearst's
Journal was doing,

the World would copy it
and engage in it.

Nasaw: So when the Hearst papers

reported something at 2:00
in the afternoon,

Pulitzer people put it
in their 4:00 edition.

McGrath Morris: Famously,
Hearst runs an item in his paper

about a colonel
with an unpronounceable name.

Nasaw:
Reflipe W. Thenuz.

McGrath Morris: The World
republished it verbatim

in the paper,
at which point Hearst announced

that this colonel's
unpronounceable last name

was actually an anagram for
"We pilfer the news."

Nasaw: And he now had evidence
that the only place

Pulitzer could've possibly
gotten this story

was by stealing it
from the Journal.

And therefore, no reader
to trust anything he read

in the Pulitzer papers.

He should, instead,
buy the Journal.

McGrath Morris: Frankly,
before 1898,

the two newspapers
were engaged in sensationalism.

But their stories were always
built on some element of truth.

During the competition
between the two papers,

during the Spanish-American War,

they actually
fabricated the news.

♪♪

Nasaw: In 1898,
the United States of America

becomes a player
on the world stage

such as it had
never been before.

Daly: Hearst and Pulitzer

both started covering
the rising tension in Cuba.

And both of them realized
that they could sell more papers

if this were more
of a conflict...

If it were more exciting,

if it might drag the U.S.
into it.

Baker: There are really two wars
that are in progress here.

One is the brewing war

between the United States
and Spain and Cuba,

and the other is this war
between William Randolph Hearst

and Joseph Pulitzer
over how to shape this war,

how to stoke
the enthusiasm for it,

and how to make money off it.

Daly: The McKinley
administration sends

a U.S. battleship to
Havana Harbor for observation.

We're not involved yet, but
we're just going to have a look.

Nasaw: The Maine had no
business being on Cuban waters,

but was there to show
American fortitude

and American strength.

♪♪

The Maine blew up.

Daly: It was not obvious
why it blew up.

But again, that didn't matter
to William Randolph Hearst.

He decided instantly
that this was

the doing
of the dastardly Spaniards,

and highlighted this

on the front page of
his newspaper...

Banner headlines screaming for
U.S. intervention.

Pulitzer was coming along
on the same track,

but a little more slowly—
A little more, I would say,

responsibly, from a journalistic
point of view.

Baker: This is one of
the editions of the World

from Wednesday,
February 16, 1898.

Big news is "U.S.S. Maine
Blown Up in Havana Harbor.

Many Killed,
and the Wounded Unable to Tell

What Caused the Explosion."

Daly: But by day two,
the editors at the World

could see that Hearst was
already way out ahead of them.

He was already off to the races,
demanding war.

And they joined in
the hue and cry

for U.S. intervention.

Baker: "Not an Accident,
Captain Sigsbee Says."

"Our Appalling Disaster,"
says the editorial page.

"Congress Ready to Declare
War Today"

is the headline for Wednesday,
April 6, 1898.

Meanwhile, they're going
to tell you

that this was the World's
greatest month.

"March Circulation, 822,000
copies per day."

♪♪

Nasaw: They made the political
situation in Cuba

into melodrama.

The Cuban Independence fighters

were made over into little
Thomas Jeffersons, Paul Reveres.

Great story.

♪♪

They had five, six,
seven editions a day.

Extra sections,
and more illustrations,

and more reporters.

And they incurred tremendous
telegram charges

to send their news
back to New York.

♪♪

The Spanish-American War,

for the Pulitzer
and Hearst papers,

was a mixed blessing.

They sold more newspapers
than ever before,

and they lost more money
than ever before.

♪♪

Driver: Both Hearst and Pulitzer

were lambasted
for "yellow journalism,"

defined as overheated,
entertaining,

and, often,
inaccurate news reporting.

Daly: Joseph Pulitzer,
to his great credit,

later regretted his role
in that episode.

♪♪

Hearst, on the other hand,
never had any second thoughts.

In fact, Hearst boasted about
the war during it and afterward.

♪♪

Czitrom:
America's political elites...

President McKinley,
the folks who made policy...

Were thinking about other things
aside from the newspapers.

They were thinking about

the Depression
that was just ending.

They were thinking about

the need to expand
American markets.

I don't think the media operate
separately from the society.

They're not something
that is somehow set apart.

The media are, themselves,
corporate institutions

that are deeply involved
with the economy

and, obviously, in the culture

and the business world
of the United States.

And this has always been true...

True in Pulitzer's time,
and true in our time.

Nasaw: Many Americans
who supported the first battle

in what became
the Spanish-American war

would be appalled
at what came next.

The United States, which had
fought for its independence

against a colonial power...

That the United States was now
becoming a colonial power.

Driver: The U.S. now controlled
four territories...

Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam,
and the Philippines.

Pulitzer objected to
these relationships.

Pulitzer: "Colonialism will only
give the country inflated ideas

about our self-importance
and cultural superiority.

Colonialism will divert us
from the real work,

which is internal...

Giving our citizens health,
education, and welfare."

♪♪

♪♪

Czitrom: Here is this man
who still wants to be in charge,

but is living on a boat
with all these young men

messengering back and forth
his ideas,

reading him
aloud from the paper,

describing the art.

He's still trying to be
in charge, but he's blind.

Tucher: Even after Pulitzer
became ill,

he paid enormous attention
to the newspaper.

He never let go his deep
interest and concern,

and micromanaging style that
probably incredibly annoying.

He had a legendary city editor
called Charles Chapin,

who was a viscous,
nasty, dreadful person

who boasted at having fired
108 people

in his first
ten years on the job.

Legendarily savage,

who ended up in Sing Sing

for having murdered his wife...

And somehow, that seemed
perfectly reasonable

at Pulitzer's papers.

Driver: Joseph's brother,
Albert,

followed a different trajectory.

While Joseph held on tightly
to both of his papers

and his progressive agenda,

Albert retired

and wrote a novel,
then an autobiography.

Like his older sibling,

he suffered from multiple
nervous ailments

and severe depression.

His life ended tragically.

Baker: Joseph Pulitzer's
younger brother

decided to kill himself,

and he did it
two different ways.

He took poison and shot himself.

Pulitzer himself didn't go
to Albert's funeral,

so there's some sort of

complicated emotion
going on here.

Driver: Joseph Il wrote
of his father...

Pulitzer Il: "The last ten years
of his life,

he was perhaps more irascible

than he had been
as a younger man.

With his terrific energy,
he could not stop thinking

all the time,
worrying all the time."

Pulitzer: "I own the paper,

and am responsible
for its owner.

It should make enemies
constantly, the more the better,

for only by making enemies
can it expose roguery

and serve the public."

♪♪

Driver: Pulitzer's unceasing war
against corruption

prompted him
to challenge the legitimacy

of President Teddy Roosevelt's
proudest achievement...

The continent-spanning
Panama Canal.

Nasaw: What the Roosevelt
administration did

was to stage
a war of independence...

A civil war in what would become
known as the nation of Panama.

The new nation of Panama
invited American capital

and the American government in,
to build a Panama canal.

♪♪

Driver: President Teddy
Roosevelt's project,

the building
of the Panama Canal,

handed Pulitzer his last great

and most challenging
confrontation.

Baker: "Panama Revolution
a Stock Gamblers' Plan

to Make Millions.

Real Story of the Plot Told
for the First Time."

Czitrom: Theodore Roosevelt
is furious at Pulitzer,

because Pulitzer's world
has had the temerity

of suggesting
that the Panama Canal,

Roosevelt's greatest
achievement,

might be tinged with corruption.

♪♪

Driver: Pulitzer's reporters
investigated

the involvement
of the United States

in creating
the new country of Panama,

and sought to identify

those who stole $40 million
of canal financing.

Czitrom: And the idea
that this paper could attack

Theodore Roosevelt's
greatest achievement

so upset Theodore Roosevelt,

that he instructed
the U.S. Attorney in Washington

to seek prosecution of Pulitzer

for a crime known
as criminal libel.

Now, you can search
the federal law books.

There is no such thing
as criminal libel.

But Theodore Roosevelt
was saying, "I don't care."

Roosevelt: "I don't care.

You find some way
to imprison him!

I do not know anything
of the law of criminal libel,

but I should dearly have it
invoked against Mr. Pulitzer.

Pulitzer is one of those
creatures of the gutter

of such unspeakable
degradation that to him,

even eminence on a dunghill
seems enviable.

The fact is that these
particular newspapers

habitually and continually,
and as a matter of business,

practice every form of mendacity
known to man,

from the suppression
of the truth

and the suggestion of the false,
to the lie direct!"

Driver: Roosevelt threatened
to jail the publisher,

and pushed his attorneys
to bring the case

to the Supreme Court.

Pulitzer: The World
will continue to criticize him,

even if he should succeed
in compelling me

to edit the paper from jail.

I think it is simply his effort

to shut up
the paper's criticism,

just as he has tried
to shut up the Congress

and the Senate
and bulldoze the courts.

But he cannot muzzle the World."

♪♪

Driver: Nearly three years

after Roosevelt
condemned Pulitzer,

the Supreme Court
announced its decision.

♪♪

Baker: "Supreme Court
Unanimously Decides

Panama Libel Case in Favor of
the World.

Chief Justice White Hands
Down the Decision Sustaining

the World's Position
on Every Point."

Driver: The Supreme Court's
ruling in favor of Pulitzer

upheld the constitutional
principle

of freedom of the press.

It suggested that not even
the president is above the law.

♪♪

♪♪

Driver: Nine months after
his Supreme Court victory,

Pulitzer fell ill aboard
the Liberty.

♪♪

Czitrom: On this particular day,

the yacht was anchored
in Charleston Harbor

and his secretary
was reading aloud

from a book about Louis XI.

As was his habit
when he grew drowsy,

Pulitzer would say in German...

Pulitzer:"
Softly... very softly."

Driver: His private secretary,
Alleyne Ireland, wrote...

Ireland: "He was evidently
suffering a good deal of pain.

And a few minutes after
6:00 A.M., J.P. said..."

Pulitzer: "Now, Mr. Ireland,

you'd better go
and get some sleep.

We will finish
that this afternoon.

Goodbye.
I'm most obliged to you."

♪♪

Ireland: "At lunch,
we spoke of J.P.

One man said that he seemed
a little worse than usual,

another that he'd seen him
worse a score of times.

I turned in my seat and saw,
framed,

the towering figure
of the captain.

I faced his impassive glance,

and received the full shock
of his calm

but incredible announcement,

'Mr. Pulitzer is dead."'

♪♪

Baker: So, he had
a tremendous appetite

to startle
and provoke and surprise.

And that's an amazing
ambition to have.

♪♪

I know he was a difficult guy,

but it was because he really
took this thing seriously.

He knew that this was something

that had never existed
in the world before.

♪♪

Tucher: After
Joseph Pulitzer's death,

the World never was the same.

The sons who were involved
with the World

didn't have the skill,
didn't maybe have the interest.

It declined gently and slowly

until finally,
it was sold by the sons.

♪♪

The last the World was heard of,

it was part of a conglomerate

known colloquially as
"The Widget,"

"The World Journal Telegram."

And it faded away.

Lee: The World newspaper
building was torn down

in order to create more access
to the Brooklyn Bridge.

That was a Robert Moses
decision.

The cornerstone box
was not found

when they were taking down
the building,

until a backhoe actually hit it.

Archives that had been
in the building

were just sent to a dumpster.

And a junk dealer found them,

and Joseph Pulitzer Jr.
Purchased them.

♪♪

Driver: Although Pulitzer's
New York empire

did not survive,
three generations

of the Pulitzer Family
embraced his commitment

to progressive journalism

at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

But in 2005,
with no heir apparent,

the Pulitzer Family,

led by grandson Michael Pulitzer
and Joe Jr.'s widow, Emily,

sold the company for nearly
$1.5 billion.

♪♪

Emily Pulitzer: After Joe died,
I became a member of the board.

I became the swing vote,
which was very, very difficult.

Clearly, it was difficult
to destroy a long tradition,

and a glorious one.

♪♪

Nasaw: Every day,
there comes a moment

when I wish we had
a Pulitzer around...

When I wish we had
a crusading newspaper publisher

who would do whatever he had
to do to get the story,

to nail the scoundrels,

and would use every means
towards that end.

Tucher: Newspapers
have always been seen

as important to democracy.

This is why they were mentioned
by name in the Bill of Rights.

This is why journalism
is protected...

Is the only private profession

that is protected
in the Bill of Rights.

But it often failed.

The failures of journalism
to protect and support

and live up to democracy
are legion.

We all have our own list
of examples.

Pulitzer took that really
seriously.

Protestors: We are
Michael Brown!

We are Michael Brown!

We are Michael Brown!

We are Michael Brown!

We are Michael Brown!

We are Michael Brown!

We are Michael Brown!

We are Michael Brown!

Man:
Please don't kill me!

♪♪

Driver: Joseph Pulitzer's
uncompromising commitment

to aggressive investigative
reporting lives on

as the daily guardian
of America's democratic ideals.

The Pulitzer Prizes
are his enduring legacy.

They reflect his aspirations
of what journalism can be.

Pulitzer: "A journalist
is the lookout

on the bridge
of the ship of state.

He notes the passing sail,

the little things of interest

that dot the horizon
in fine weather.

He reports the drifting castaway
whom the ship can save.

He peers through fog and storm

to give warnings
of dangers ahead.

He is not thinking of his wages
or the profits of his owners.

He is there to watch over
the safety

and the welfare of the people
who trust him."

♪♪

♪♪

The National Endowment
for the Humanities...

Bringing you the stories
that define us.

♪♪

♪♪