Thread by @ProudIdealist

How many times have we heard we're watching a movie?
So what's @realDonaldTrump favorite movie? Citizen Kane (homonym of Cain, brother of Abel, rhymes with McCain and McLean, VA (clown HQ)). Let's watch, shall we...?
buzzfeed.com/alisonwillmore…

But first, background on this award winning 1941 film. Written by Orson Welles & Herman Mankiewicz, it's the thinly veiled story of media magnate Wm Randolph Hearst, whose methods of yellow journalism reaching 20mi readers emphasized sensationalism & "human interest" stories.

Hearst along with Pulitzer (a Hungarian-born yellow journalist prior to being known for his eponymous prize) both sensationalized and often made up, news. They famously made up Cuban atrocities, contributing to the Spanish-American War.
Competed in propaganda leading to a war.

Hearing that Citizen Kane wasn't showing him in best light, Hearst launched a propaganda campaign against Welles and RKO Pictures: extortion, media manipulation and even a 14 yo girl hidden in a closet to trap Welles. theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/…

Btw, Herman Mankiewicz, a former Chicago Tribune reporter who co-wrote the screenplay, had been part of Hearst's inner circle, even staying at the famed Hearst Castle in San Mateo, ostensibly kicked out for drunkenness. irishtimes.com/culture/herita…

Like Hearst, who was US Congressman, and aspiring Mayor, Gov and President, Kane is depicted as an aspiring politician. When he loses, the headline options KANE ELECTED! or FRAUD AT POLLS! are countered with his adversary's disclosure. Politics is dirty business.

Citizen Kane storyline is about an idealistic populist who quickly loses his soul in yellow journalism, dirty politics, sex, and over-the-top hoarding of possessions in an unfinished mansion, who dies alone, yearning for "simpler times." So many layers in this movie.

Wm Randolph Hearst died in 1951, 10 yrs after Citizen Kane premiered. His Hearst Castle in San Mateo now is part to CA State Parks. Hearst Family Trust which owns Hearst Corp 2005 est$18bi, is governed under a secretive trust and exists until the last Hearst alive in 1951 dies.

In 2005, granddaughter Patty Hearst sued without success to open the files which had been sealed when she was kidnapped for ransom in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army. variety.com/2005/scene/mar…

The 13 trustees include 5 family members and 8 corporate members. Hearst Corp owns 30 TV stations, many newspapers (including Albany Times Union of NXIVM fame), 300 magazines incl Elle, Cosmopolitan, Car and Driver, O, with stakes in VICE and Buzzfeed.
famcap.com/2016/05/2016-5…

Hearst's original NY paper was New York World, which was founded by Alfred Pulitzer, brother of Joseph, in 1881, sold to John McLean (who owned WaPo and for whom McLean, VA - clown HQ - is named) in 1884, and to Hearst in 1885. Joseph P then owned The Sun. pulitzer.org/page/albert-pu…

Alfred P returned to Austria and was a noted chessmaster, dying by suicide in 1909. Joseph P (who was married to Katherine Davis, notable Wellesley Coll alum, HRC alma mater) died in 1911, on his yacht on the way to Jekyll Island Club (a surprising Jewish invite in 1890?).

Recall that Jekyll Club was where negotiations for the establishment of the Federal Reserve took place in 1910, with Fed implemented in 1913 after the key dissenters to the plan were killed in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. federalreservehistory.org/essays/jekyll_…

Joseph Pulitzer willed part of his fortune to create the Columbia School of Journalism and to initiate the Pulitzer Prize, shedding his reputation as a yellow journalist along the way. Remarkable how media can repackage an image.

Quite an interesting set of coincidences when you start digging...
Circling back, check out Citizen Kane. It's a movie about this movie we're watching. And about #YellowJournalism.
Like the yellow journalism pushing that Biden is President-elect.

Errata: link in Wikipedia erroneously mixed 2 people named Katherine Davis. Per obit, Pulitzer wife was a Georgetown, Washington DC socialite, relative of Jefferson Davis, not the Wellesley Coll alum. There are many contradictions abt Kate Davis Pulitzer life in various reports.