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- William Randolph
- Hearst was the
- first modern
- media magnate.
- He used his papers
- as propaganda
- sheets in support
- of his political
- views, and he
- tried to turn his
- enormous wealth
- into political
- power by bank-
- rolling his own
- campaigns for
- political office
- #
- Brash headlines
- epitomise the
- style that Hearst
- brought to the
- previously staid
- San Francisco
- Examiner. His
- father did not
- approve, but his
- success in the
- market provided a
- financial basis for
- the Hearst empire,
- and a journalistic
- model for other
- newspapers
- #
- Hearst was a
- household name,
- but he became
- best known as the
- model for the hero
- of Citizen Kane,
- a film by Orson
- Welles which tells
- the story of a
- corrupt newspaper
- baron. Hearst did
- his best to ban
- the movie, but it
- flourished to
- provide a hostile
- momento of
- his life and style
- #
- To Hearst the
- papers he owned
- were not just a
- means of passing
- information to
- the public, or
- even a source of
- income for his own
- self. They were
- first and foremost
- a political weapon
- which he felt at
- liberty to direct
- against any enemy,
- any authority,
- which incurred
- his disapproval
- #
- Hearst was a man
- with political
- ambitions of his
- own, but these
- were destined to
- remain largely
- unfulfilled. In
- 1905 he ran as
- an independent
- candidate for
- mayor of New York.
- He failed, as he did
- 17 years later in
- a bid to become
- state governor. It
- seems that being
- populist with the
- readers was not
- the same as being
- popular with
- the voters
- #
- In 1925 Hearst
- bought St Donat's
- castle in south
- Wales. It was one
- of a large and
- bizarre array of
- properties which
- he accumulated
- around the world.
- These included
- fruit ranches,
- a grandiose palace
- at San Simeon in
- California and a
- gold mine in Idaho
- #
- Consistency was
- never a quality to
- apply to Hearst's
- views, but he did
- maintain an anti-
- British policy for
- many years of his
- career. He opposed
- America's entry
- into the second
- world war, saying
- that the real victor
- would be neither
- Britain nor Nazi
- Germany, but
- Soviet Russia
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