Today, the Hearst family conjure up an image of success, wealth and opulence. Most well known for the vast media empire they built (and that still bears their name!) the Hearst family are arguably also the most powerful family in American politics!
Although they never became a political dynasty with the same clout the Roosevelts, Kennedys or Bushes have, the Hearsts don’t need it.
Their media empire is how they’ve gained there political clout – and arguably helped to make the Roosevelts, Kennedys and Bushes the political dynasties they are today!
Origins of The Family
Due to the lack of surviving historical records, the exact origins of the modern-day Hearst family aren’t known. With what limited records remain, there are two main theories about the family’s origins.
The first is that the family were originally of Ulster Protestant origin, who migrated to the New World during the Cahans Exodus of the mid-1760’s.
According to this theory, the Hearsts were a part of the Presbyterian movement in Ballybay, County Monaghan, Ireland who migrated westward under the leadership of Reverend Doctor Thomas Clark, who believed the New World was the land promised in the Bible.
Prior to their departure, Reverend Doctor Clark had secured each of the followers that followed him a parcel of land from the British Crown in either New York or South Carolina (depending on where they went).
If historical records are to then be believed, the family’s earliest ancestor, John Hearst, arrived in South Carolina and became farmers.
The other major theory is that the Hearst family are actually an offshoot of a “Hurst” family from Virginia (originally from Plymouth Colony) that moved to South Carolina in the mid-1760’s.
Arriving in South Carolina, the family began going by “Hearst” to distinguish themselves from their Virginian cousins. Here, the Hearst family similarly became farmers.
Despite compelling evidence for both, most genealogists tend to agree that the Hearst family’s origins are those of the first theory.
Enter Senator George Hearst
Regardless of their origins, the family eventually moved to the Missouri Territory sometime before 1820. On September 3rd that year, George Hearst was born to William G. Hearst and his wife, Elizabeth Hearst (née Collins).
Likely the eldest of three children (records differ), George became interested in mining at a young age after reading mining books owned by the family’s doctor, Silas Reed.
When William G. Hearst died in 1846, George became the man of the house, running the general store previously owned by his father and doing mining in his downtime. Hearing of the discovery of gold in California in 1849, George soon relocated the family.
Arriving in California in 1850, George spent his first few years in the state (California became a state that year) struggling to make ends meet, before making a series of strategic moves that made him a fortune as a rancher, mine owner and general store owner.
Due to his prosperity, George Hearst soon became an important figure in his local area. Hoping to capitalize on this, George ran for, and was elected to, the California State Assembly in 1864, serving from 1865 to 1866 following, the end of the Civil War.
Leaving the State Assembly to focus on his business, George eventually ran for the governorship of California in 1882, albeit unsuccessfully.
Despite this, Hearst raised his notoriety across the state, which allowed him to become a temporary Senator in 1886 after the surprise death of John F. Miller on March 23 1886. George served as the temporary Senator from March 23 to August 4 1886.
Running for Miller’s seat, George lost to fellow businessman, Abram P. Williams. Undeterred, Hearst ran again in 1887 and was elected to the US Senate representing California, serving from 1887 until 1891.
Enter William Randolph Hearst
Remaining unmarried for much of his business career, a 39 year-old George Hearst met and fell in love with his neighbor, 16 year-old Phoebe Apperson, in 1860. The couple married two years later, on June 15 1862.
Following the wedding, the Hearst couple moved to San Francisco so George could further his political (be elected to the California State Assembly).
On April 29 1863, Phoebe gave birth to the couple’s first (and only) child, who they named William Randolph Hearst, named in honor of both his grandfathers.
At the age of 24, in 1887 William Randolph Hearst was given control of the San Francisco Examiner, the local newspaper his father had acquired seven years earlier, in 1880, to settle a gambling debt owed to him.
Being given control of the San Francisco Examiner proved to be the beginning of the Hearst family’s media empire, today known as Hearst Communications.
Spanish-American War
Having grown his newspaper empire considerably over the late 1880’s and 1890’s, William Randolph Hearst begun a decades-long rivalry with fellow newspaper magnate, Joseph Pulitzer (the namesake of the Pulitzer Prize).
Competing with each other for readers (as they owned many newspapers that directly competed with each other), both Hearst and Pulitzer began to employ what’s now called “yellow journalism” – extreme sensationalism and blatant lies used to sell papers.
Needing newsworthy events to sensationalize and blow completely out of proportion, both Pulitzer and Hearst began provoking outrage at Spain, who still controlled places like Puerto Rico and Cuba as a part of their colonia empire.
Provoking outrage at how American tourists were being treated in Havana (with one cartoon depicting male Spanish soldiers strip searching a female American tourist) and the Spanish handling of the 1895 Cuban War of Independence, Hearst made Spain seem like a threat to democracy.
With all the major working-class papers in New York (those owned by both Pulitzer and Hearst) covering these so-called Spanish atrocities, it wasn’t long before the American public was calling for a war against Spain.
The sinking of the USS Maine at Havana Harbor on February 14 1898 served as the catalyst for war with Spain. Angered at what they saw as a declaration of war, the US declared war on Spain on April 21 that year, thus starting the Spanish-American War.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Spanish-American resulted in a resounding American victory, with record numbers of men enlisting in the war, mostly due to being angered after reading about Spanish atrocities in one of Hearst’s papers.
As a result of the war, Puerto Rico became a territory US and Cuba became independent, but remained close politically and economically to the US (something that continued until Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959).
Political Runs
By 1902, a nearly 40-year-old Hearst was one of the richest men in America, and was the head of one of the most powerful media corporations on the planet. Much like other successful businessmen of his time, Hearst set his sights on political office…
Hearst believed that his popularity from the Spanish-American War and media holdings would give him an advantage over his competitors, and eventually allow him to climb the political ladder all the way to the top.
Indeed, Hearst set his sights as high as becoming president!
To that end, Hearst ran for, and was elected to, the US House of Representatives in 1903, representing New York’s 11th district as a Democrat. Here, he was a staunch supporter of the working classes, often railing against big business.
Despite having only served in Congress for a year, Hearst attempted to win the 1904 Democratic nomination for president. Perhaps not surprisingly, Hearst’s lack of experience prevented him from gaining the nomination, even if his newspapers supported his run.
Luckily for Hearst, the man who won the nomination, Judge Alton B. Parker, went on to face incumbent President Teddy Roosevelt, who later won the election by a clear margin.
Hoping to gain more political experience, Hearst ran for Mayor of New York in 1905 (whilst still serving in Congress) and again four years later in 1909, being unsuccessful both times.
In 1906, whilst still serving in Congress, Hearst ran unsuccessfully for the Governorship of New York, campaigning against Republican Charles Evans Hughes, who prevailed in a slim victory.
Al Smith
Having run several unsuccessful political campaigns from the mid-1900’s to the late 1900’s, Hearst abstained from politics throughout the 1910’s, hoping to focus on his ever-expanding media empire instead.
As the 1920 Presidential Election drew near, Hearst forbade his newspapers from endorsing either candidate, disliking both the Harding-Coolidge and Cox-Roosevelt tickets. This was also repeated in 1924 with the Coolidge-Dawes and Davis-Bryan tickets too.
In 1922, backed by the leaders of Tammany Hall and the Hearst media empire, William Randolph Hearst ran for the US Senate nomination in New York. Gearing up for his campaign, former Governor of New York, Al Smith, vetoed Heart’s nomination.
Understandably annoyed, William returned to head his media empire with the intention to ruin Al Smith’s career.
Due to timings, Hearst was unable to affect the outcome of the 1922 Gubernatorial Election in New York, which resulted in Smith’s re-election that year (he’d previously served as Governor from 1919 to 1920 before losing to Nathan L. Miller during the 1922 election).
Smith proved to be popular, repealing New York’s prohibition laws (a cause Hearst actually supported) and being re-elected in both 1924 and 1926, much to Hearst’s frustration. 1928, however, would prove to be a big year for Al Smith.
That year, he won the Democratic Party’s nomination for President, facing off against the Republican’s candidate, Herbert Hoover. Hearst, saw his chance to get revenge.
Although his politics were closer to Smith than Hoover, Hearst’s hatred of Smith far outweighed anything political.
Every single Hearst-owned newspaper, radio station and magazine covered the election. Presenting Hoover in a glowing light, Hearst’s empire presented Smith, a half-Irish, half-Italian Catholic in an extremely bad light, attacking his ancestry, his policies and just about everything else!
Not surprisingly, Smith struggled to gain votes and only carried eight states out of 48, earning only 87 votes in the electoral college.
FDR
Having helped Hoover become president in 1928, Hearst was one of Hoover’s biggest allies in the first part of his presidency, even as effects of the 1929 Stock Market Crash intensified, and the US entered a recession.
However, this recession soon became so worse it became a depression. Whilst Hearst’s businesses had been mostly unaffected by the recession, the depression wrought havoc on his company’s finances.
Not surprisingly, Hearst soon turned on Hoover, who was extremely laissez-faire about the depression as a whole.
Coming to the 1932 Presidential Election, Hearst threw his full support behind the Democrats, after the Republicans announced that Hoover would be their candidate.
Discovering that Al Smith was once again running for the Democratic nomination, Hearst saw another opportunity to humiliate Smith. Learning that New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt was running against Smith, Hearst made sure that Roosevelt won the nomination.
Naturally, Roosevelt won the nomination in a landslide, winning 34 contests to Smith’s four.
Facing off against incumbent President Hoover in the election, Hearst personally penned several articles in favor of FDR (under pen names obviously), ordering the editors of his various papers to do the same.
By the time the election came in November, the Hearst papers had whipped the American public into such a frenzy that FDR won in a landslide, carrying 42 states compared to Hoover’s six, and winning 472 electoral votes compared to Hoover’s 59!
New Deal
Much like he did with President Hoover, Hearst became FDR’s most prominent supporter. Covering FDR’s early presidency closely, the Hearst papers (at William Randolph Hearst’s direction) made it seem like FDR was singlehandedly stopping the depression.
Everything looked great for FDR. The people loved him, the depression seemed to be lifting, and he had one of the most powerful media moguls in history as his closest ally.
As they say, all good things must come to an end. And that end came in 1935.
The year previously, FDR enacted what he called the New Deal, a radical plan for government spending that FDR hoped would pull the US out of the Great Depression.
Initially believing it was necessary to help his now failing business (Hearst had borrowed lots of money over the 1920’s to expand his empire), Hearst broke with FDR in 1935 when the president raised taxes on the wealthiest Americans, like himself, to fund the New Deal.
Using his newspapers as his weapon, Hearst ordered his papers to begin writing scathing articles on the New Deal and FDR himself, arguing that the tax increases on the richest Americans were a “tax on success” – an argument still used today!
Hearst even penned a few of these articles himself.
Ironically, Hearst had spent years telling the working classes in America that FDR was the only man in Washington who was fighting for them. When he began attacking FDR, many of his readers simply didn’t listen.
Despite this, Hearst continued to use his papers to oppose FDR during the 1936, 1940 and 1944 presidential elections, albeit unsuccessfully. Hearst was also one of the first to decry FDR as a dictator by breaking tradition and running a third and fourth time.
Unlike when he wrote tirades against the New Deal, many actually listened to what Hearst said about FDR being a dictator, eventually leading lawmakers to pass the Twenty-second Amendment, limiting presidents to two terms, in 1947.
Marijuana Ban (1937)
In the early 1930’s, marijuana (and hemp as a whole) became a popular recreational drug among the country’s youth.
Whilst Hearst wasn’t opposed to the idea of people getting high per se (other drugs like cocaine and morphine had been used recreationally in the US for centuries before being made illegal in the 20th century), Hearst was alarmed at threat it posed to his business.
You see, in the 1930’s, the paper used to make marijuana cigarettes was the same as the paper used to make newsprint (what newspapers are printed on).
Realizing that if marijuana became more popular, it would cause demand for newsprint paper to skyrocket (and thus eat into his profits, as well as his market share in the paper milling industry), Hearst knew he needed to kill the hemp industry in the crib.
To do this, Hearst partnered with Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, to turn public opinion against the consumption of marijuana, and ultimately, criminalize it.
Beginning their campaign in 1930, Hearst began running editorials about how young black men were consuming marijuana and committing crimes.
Using his yellow-journalism technique, Hearst often made these crimes sound much worse than they actually were.
Combined with his editorials, Hearst also used his various film production companies to insinuate that young white girls were going to consume marijuana and have sex with young black men (or that black men were going to take advantage of her).
Regardless, interracial relationships of any kind were a social taboo, and Hearst knew how to exploit it.
After seven years of work, the federal government finally managed to criminalize marijuana in 1937, with it staying illegal until 2018. This in turn, has led to a variety of sociopolitical and socioeconomic issues far too long to get into here…
“Yellow Peril”
Whilst not a new concept by any means, anti-Asian (primarily anti-Chinese and anti-Japanese) sentiment has been around since the early 1800’s, through his newspapers, William Randolph Hearst created mass hysteria about the “yellow peril”.
Across all his papers, Hearst routinely published cartoons depicting overly stereotyped members of the “yellow race” (Asians) violently attacking and overrunning the white population in the US to establish a “yellow continent”.
On top of this, Hearst also published a series of articles about Elaine Black, a white American communist, and her lover, Japanese-American communist, Karl Yoneda. Beyond vilifying them for being communists, Hearst also had his papers vilify their love.
You see, at the time, interracial relationships were a social taboo, and more often than not illegal, including in the pair’s home state of California. So they could marry, the pair moved to Seattle, Washington in 1935, where interracial marriages were legal.
Whilst it would be celebrated today, in the 1930’s this was a major cause for concern. Hearst wrote that beyond coming to kill all the white people, the “yellow race” were going to corrupt young white women into marrying them and having mixed-race children.
A big no-no for the 1930’s.
Not surprisingly, repeatedly being exposed to things like this all the time, many Americans became worried about their Asian neighbors – even more so than they had been before!
It partly due to these cartoon and articles that the US joined WWII so quickly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
And the hyperbolized stereotypes of the Japanese that Hearst newspapers often depicted, were played up by other newspapers, politicians and even some members of the military themselves so they could rile the public up into such a frenzy.
On a more chilling note, there’s considerable evidence to suggest that it was these stories in Hearst’s newspapers that riled the American public up so much that once war broke out with Japan, FDR felt it was necessary to place Japanese-Americans in internment camps for the duration of the war.
Presidential “What-ifs”
As the head of one of the most prominent media empires history has ever seen, William Randolph Hearst was a prominent member of American society, regularly rubbing arms with fellow businessmen, politicians and military elites.
Regularly attending society events, Hearst had the opportunity to meet and befriend many of these elites.
Over the years, Hearst particularly close with Joseph P. Kennedy (the father of the future President Kennedy) and then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In April 1945, Kennedy Sr. used his friendship with Hearst to get his second son, John, a journalism job at one Hearst’s newspapers. Kennedy Sr. reasoned that this would keep the family name in the public eye, and expose John to journalism as a potential career.
Although John later quit being a journalist to enter the House of Representatives in 1947, setting himself on the path to become president. Yet, Hearst tried his hardest to keep John F. Kennedy at his newspaper, hoping the Kennedy name would attract more readers.
Had Hearst been able to convince John Kennedy to stay at his paper, he’d have likely never entered politics, and it would’ve been Bobby or Ted Kennedy that would’ve become the president!
You probably didn’t know this, but beyond being a military officer and later a politician, Eisenhower was also a prolific writer and painter.
Indeed, Eisenhower’s writing was so good, it impressed Hearst so much that offered Eisenhower a job as a war correspondent for his papers, hoping to use the general’s legendary name and intimate knowledge of war to appeal to readers.
Despite offering Eisenhower considerably more than his military salary, Eisenhower refused every time, stating that service to his country was more important than a bigger paycheck. Has Eisenhower accepted, he may have never ran for president.
Even if he had, his connection to Hearst would’ve likely harmed Eisenhower’s campaign. Perhaps even going as far to cost him the presidency…
Continued Political Influence
William Randolph Hearst died on August 14 1951 from a heart attack. In his will, he left 170,000 shares to his mistress, Marion Davies, as well as a trust fund with a further 30,000 in it, giving her the controlling share in the company.
Davies’ control of the media giant was short-lived, with her eventually forced to give up her 170,000 shares, which eventually allowed Hearst’s children to take back control of the family business.
Once again in control, the second generation’s first order of business was to restore the newspaper part of the business back to profitability.
You see, nearing the end of his life, William Randolph Hearst became increasingly conservative, publishing pieces that were increasingly anti-union, pro-big business and pro-GOP, which alienated many of Hearst’s working-class readers.
Bringing the family papers back to the middle (and then a little to the left), many of these papers once again became affiliated with the Democrats, and circulation began to increase for many of them.
Learning from their father’s attempts, no member of the family sought political office. Instead, they placed each surviving brother in charge of a strategic part of the business and allowed each type of media the family owned to subtly support the Democrats.
Even with magazines that had nothing to do with politics whatsoever, such as Cosmopolitan or Popular Mechanics, have subtly brought politics into their articles, subtly manipulating how people view a given topic that’s touched upon in an article.
Hearst Family Today
Over the course of the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s, members of the second generation of the Hearst family retired from the family business and passed away, leaving the third generation in charge.
Joining the family business, the third generation have worked their way up through the family business, often going from journalist, to editor, to publisher before being given a cushy position at Hearst Communications (the entity that owns the Hearst media empire).
Indeed, in terms of their politics, the third generation have arguably been more political than the generation that came before it, consistently donating heavily to Democrat politicians during local, state and national elections.
Using their newspapers, magazines, various websites, TV and radio stations, the Hearst family have been able to present the Democrats in a good light, whilst making the policies of other parties seem ludicrous and just plain stupid!
Beyond helping the family expand their media empire, donating to, and publicizing the Democratic Party has also helped the family in other ways too.
In the 1970’s, Patty Hearst (a member of the third generation of the Hearst family) was kidnapped and forced to join the Symbionese Liberation Army. Eventually caught, Patty was sent to prison for her involvement with the group.
Sentenced in March 1976, Democratic President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence in February 1979 after 22 months served. Later, Democratic President Bill Clinton gave her a full pardon in 2001, partly due to the Hearst family’s connection with his party.
In recent years, a fourth generation of the family have popped up. Many of these haven’t joined their family business, but have remained in the media industry.
The most prominent member of the fourth generation is Lydia Hearst-Shaw, an actor, former journalist (for the New York Post) and model. Much like the rest of her family, Lydia is also a staunch Democrat.
How influential do you think the Hearst family truly are? More or less than the Kennedys? Tell me in the comments!