EOTO Joseph Pulitzer

 EOTO Joseph Pulitzer

                                                      https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/p/pulitzer/images/pulitzer_main.pn

In today's blog, I will be talking about Joseph Pulitzer and his notable impact on the journalism community and world today. 

Joseph Pulitzer was born in Mako, Hungary, on April 10, 1847. He grew up in Budapest and was educated in private schools. He ultimately wanted to enlist to become a soldier in the Austrian Army, but his attempts to enlist failed given his weak eyesight and unstable health. However, he still had military involvement as he enlisted as a substitute for a draftee permitted under the Civil War draft system. 

Joseph Pultizer was a publisher and American journalist known for creating a controversial type of journalism with American businessman and newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. Much controversy came from Pulitzer's support of organized labor, the attack of trusts and monopolies, and exposed political corruption according to U.S History's biography. With this controversialism, he was driven to raise the standards within the journalism profession. He is most commonly known for the Pulitzer Prize which is the most prestigious award in American journalism.

In 1864, Pulitzer established his first jobs in the United States in St. Louis, Missouri. Some of those jobs included a mule tender, waiter, and hack driver before he went on to study English. Then in 1868, he was recruited by Carl Schurz for his daily paper, the Westliche Post, which was published in German. He then married Kate Davis, a niece of an American politician, Jefferson Davis. That same year he also acquired the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in which he would publish investigative articles and editorials that targeted government corruption, wealthy tax-dodgers, and gamblers. His approach was very effective and lead him to purchase New York World for an estimated $300,000 in which he promised to use the paper exclusively to expose fraud, fight public evils and abuses, and battle for the people with sincerity. He even included cartoons created by Richard F. Outcault which depicted "life in the slums."

The papers became extremely popular and sales reached $600,000 making it the largest circulating newspaper in the country. He also worked with investigative writers as he published articles about poverty housing and labor conditions in New York City. Pulitzer's name became associated with the term "yellow journalism" after Hearst had purchased the New York Journal which created great tension which happened before and during the Spanish-American war. 

*An interesting fact I discovered while reading about Mr. Pulitzer caught my eye: "In 1909, following the New York World's exposé of a fraudulent $40 million payment by the U.S. to the French Panama Canal Company, Pulitzer was indicted for libeling Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan. The courts dismissed the indictments, thus chalking up a victory for freedom of the press." (U.S History's biography) - This fact is completely in line with the pattern of government oppression we've studied for some time now. Have times really changed?

Then in 1892, Pulitzer offered Columbia University money to set up the country's first school of journalism which was turned down but soon after In 1902, Columbia's new president, Nicholas Murray Butler, took action to the offer but it would not become a reality until after Pulitzer's death. He left the university $2 million in his will, which led to the creation of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1912 (U.S History's biography)

Today Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism is one of the most prestigious schools in the world. Joseph Pulitzer died in 1911. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917 and more than 2,000 entries are submitted each year but only 21 awards are bestowed. 

Joseph Pulitzer was an amazing, work-driven hard-working man that created such a strong framework for the field of journalism today. I have much respect for him and hope to embody his work ethic and drive. 



Sources:

https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3694.html

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Pulitzer

https://www.pulitzer.org/page/frequently-asked-questions

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