Struggling in politics? Consider a war – the media will help | Margaret Sullivan

Sat, 28 Jun 2025

Trump’s Iran strike knocked everything else out of the news, including the Minnesota shootings – and it was little surprise

“You furnish the pictures. I’ll furnish the war,” was the storied response of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst to Frederic Remington after the illustrator was sent to Cuba to cover an insurrection and cabled back to the boss that there was little going on.

Much has changed since that famous (if true) exchange of the late 19th century, in the heyday of sensationalism known as yellow journalism.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture