"Yellow Journalism"-- Rupert Murdoch's New York Post-New York's Oldest Newspaper

It is always fun to see what Rupert Murdoch's NY Post tabloid is going to have as its front page...a lot people who read the Post are just gradually starting to get on the internet now...

Sensationalistic, of course, but nothing compared to the papers they have in Britain... 

The Post was a liberal--actually what you would call a "bleeding heart liberal"-- paper back in the late 1960's until it was sold by heriress Dorothy Schiff and took a major turn into being a more trunculent tabloid..

Once known for its very staid liberal columnists, it also began to run hard core conservative ones.

Many people have predicted the demise of the Post for years now...I guess as long as Murdoch wants to keep it, it will go on.

Here is the paper's fascinating history: 

The New York Post is an American daily newspaper, primarily distributed in New York City and its surrounding area. It is the 13th-oldest and seventh-most-widely circulated newspaper in the United States.^[2] Begun in 1801 by federalist Alexander Hamilton, it became a respected broadsheet in the 19th century, under the name New York Evening Post. Since 1993, the Post has been owned by News Corporation, which had owned it previously from 1976 to 1988. Its editorial offices are located at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, in New York City, New York. The modern tabloid is known for its sensationalist headlines and yellow journalism.

History

The New York Post, established on November 16, 1801 as the New-York Evening Post, describes itself as the nation's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. The Hartford Courant, believed to be the oldest continuously published newspaper, was founded in 1764 as a semi-weekly paper; it did not begin publishing daily until 1836. The New Hampshire Gazette, which has trademarked its claim of being The Nation's Oldest Newspaper, was founded in 1756, also as a weekly. Moreover, since the 1890s it has been published only for weekends.

19th Century

Alexander Hamilton

William Cullen Bryant

The Post was founded by Alexander Hamilton with about US$10,000 from a group of investors in the autumn of 1801 as the New-York Evening Post,^[3] a broadsheet. Hamilton's co-investors included other New York members of the Federalist Party, such as Robert Troup and Oliver Wolcott,^[4] who were dismayed by the election of Thomas Jefferson as U.S. President and the rise in popularity of the Democratic-Republican Party.^[5] The meeting at which Hamilton first recruited investors for the new paper took place in then-country weekend villa that is now Gracie Mansion.^[6] Hamilton chose William Coleman as his first editor.^[5]
The most famous 19th-century New-York Evening Post editor was the poet and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant.^[7] So well respected was the New-York Evening Post under Bryant's editorship, it received praise from the English philosopher John Stuart Mill, in 1864.^[8]
In the summer of 1829, Bryant invited William Leggett, the Locofoco Democrat, to write for the paper. There, in addition to literary and drama reviews, Leggett began to write political editorials. Leggett's classical liberal philosophy entailed a fierce opposition to central banking, a support for voluntary labor unions, and a dedication to laissez-faire economics. He was a member of the Equal Rights Party. Leggett became a co-owner and editor at the Post in 1831,^{[citation needed]} eventually working as sole editor of the newspaper while Bryant traveled in Europe in 1834 through 1835.^{[citation needed]}
Another co-owner of the paper was John Bigelow.^{[citation needed]} Born in Malden-on-Hudson, New York, John Bigelow, Sr. graduated in 1835 from Union College, where he was a member of the Sigma Phi Society and the Philomathean Society, and was admitted to the bar in 1838.^{[citation needed]} From 1849 to 1861, he was one of the editors and co-owners of the New York Evening Post.^{[citation needed]}
In 1881 Henry Villard took control of the New-York Evening Post, as well as The Nation, which became the Post's weekly edition. With this acquisition, the paper was managed by the triumvirate of Carl Schurz, Horace White and Edwin L. Godkin.^[9] When Schurz left the paper in 1883, Godkin became editor-in-chief.^[10] White became editor-in-chief in 1899, and remained in that role until his retirement in 1903.^[11][12]
In 1897, both publications passed to the management of Villard's son, Oswald Garrison Villard,^[13] a founding member of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People^[14] and the American Civil Liberties Union.^[15]

20th Century

Villard sold the paper in 1918, after widespread allegations of pro-German sympathies during World War I hurt its circulation.
The new owner was Thomas Lamont, a senior partner in the Wall Street firm of J.P. Morgan & Co.. Unable to stem the paper's financial losses, he sold it to a consortium of 34 financial and reform political leaders, headed by Edwin Francis Gay, dean of the Harvard Business School, whose members included Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Conservative Cyrus H. K. Curtis^[16]—publisher of the Ladies Home Journal—purchased the New-York Evening Post in 1924^[17] and briefly turned it into a non-sensational tabloid in 1933.^[17]
In 1934, J. David Stern purchased the paper, changed its name to the New York Post,^[17] and restored its broadsheet size and liberal perspective.^[18]
In 1939, Dorothy Schiff purchased the paper. Her husband, George Backer, was named editor and publisher.^[19] Her second editor (and third husband) Ted Thackrey became co-publisher and co-editor with Schiff in 1942.^[20] Together, they recast the newspaper into its current tabloid format.^[21] In 1949, James Wechsler became editor of the paper, running both the news and the editorial pages. In 1961, he turned over the news section to Paul Sann and remained as editorial-page editor until 1980.
Under Schiff's tenure the Post was devoted to liberalism, supporting trade unions and social welfare, and featured some of the most-popular columnists of the time, such as Joseph Cookman, Drew Pearson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Max Lerner, Murray Kempton, Pete Hamill, and Eric Sevareid, in addition to theatre critic Richard Watts, Jr. and Broadway columnist Earl Wilson.

Murdoch ownership

In 1976, Rupert Murdoch bought the Post for US$30 million.^[22] The Post at this point was the only surviving afternoon daily in New York City and its circulation under Schiff had grown by two-thirds. However, the rising cost of operating an afternoon daily in a city with worsening daytime traffic congestion, combined with mounting competition from expanded local TV news rendered the Post unprofitable by 1974 (The paper has lost money ever since).^[5]
In December 2012, Murdoch announced that Jesse Angelo had been appointed Publisher.

Style

One of the paper's most famous headlines, from the April 15, 1983 edition.

Murdoch imported the sensationalist "tabloid journalism" style of many of his Australian and British newspapers, such as The Sun (the highest selling daily newspaper in the UK). This style was typified by Post's famous headlines such as "Headless body in topless bar" (shown on the right). In its 35th-anniversary edition, New York Magazine listed this as one of the greatest headlines ever. It also has five other Post headlines in its "Greatest Tabloid Headlines" list.^[23]
Because of the institution of federal regulations limiting media cross-ownership after Murdoch's purchase of WNEW-TV (Now WNYW-TV) and four other stations from Metromedia to launch the Fox Broadcasting Company, Murdoch was forced to sell the paper for US$37.6 million in 1988 to Peter S. Kalikow, a real-estate magnate with no news experience.^[24] When Kalikow declared bankruptcy in 1993,^[24] the paper was temporarily managed by Steven Hoffenberg,^[24] a financier who later pleaded guilty to securities fraud;^[25] and, for two weeks, by Abe Hirschfeld,^[26] who made his fortune building parking garages. After a staff revolt against the Hoffenberg-Hirschfeld partnership—which included publication of an issue whose front page featured the iconic masthead photo of founder Alexander Hamilton with a single tear drop running down his cheek^[27]—The Post was repurchased in 1993 by Murdoch's News Corporation. This came about after numerous political officials, including Democratic governor of New York Mario Cuomo, persuaded the Federal Communications Commission to grant Murdoch a permanent waiver from the cross-ownership rules that had forced him to sell the paper five years earlier.^[28] Without that FCC ruling, the paper would have shut down. Under Murdoch's renewed direction, the paper continued its conservative editorial viewpoint.

Criticism

Perhaps the most serious allegation against the Post is that it is willing to contort its news coverage to suit Murdoch's business needs, in particular that the paper has avoided reporting anything that is unflattering to the government of the People's Republic of China, where Murdoch has invested heavily in satellite television.^[29]
Critics say that the Post allows its editorial positions to shape its story selection and news coverage. Post executive editor Steven D. Cuozzo has responded that the Post "broke the elitist media stranglehold on the national agenda."
According to a survey conducted by Pace University in 2004, the Post was rated the least-credible major news outlet in New York, and the only news outlet to receive more responses calling it "not credible" than credible (44% not credible to 39% credible).^[30]
The Public Enemy song "A Letter to the New York Post" from their album Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black is a complaint about what they believed to be negative and inaccurate coverage African-Americans received from the paper.