â??Yellow journalismâ? is a disparaging epithet often invoked in journalism, even though its derivation is little known.
This is the back story to a sneer that trips easily off the tongue with scorn and condescension.
The first verified use of the term was 115 years ago today, when â??yellow journalismâ? appeared in the old New York Press.
The phrase â??the Yellow Journalismâ? appeared in a small headline on the Pressâ?? editorial page on January 31, 1897. The phrase also appeared that day in the newspaper;s editorial page gossip column, â??On the Tip of the Tongue.â?
â??Yellow journalismâ? was quickly embraced in American newspapering, as a way to disparage and denigrate the freewheeling practices of William Randolph Hearst and his New York Journal as well as Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World.
Within weeks of the first use of the term, references to â??yellow journalismâ? had appeared in newspapers in Providence, Richmond, and San Francisco.
In the 115 years since then, â??yellow journalismâ? has turned into a derisive if vague shorthand for denouncing sensationalism and journalistic misconduct of all kinds.
â??It is,â? I wrote in my 2001 book, Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies, â??an evocative term that has been diffused internationally, in contexts as diverse as Greece and Nigeria, as Israel and India.â?
I also noted that yellow journalism emerged in â??a lusty, fiercely competitive, and intolerant time, when newspapers routinely traded brickbats and insultsâ? and even threats.
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