<u>B)the US's declaration of war against Spain in 1898.</u>
In the 1890s, the rivalry between William Randolph Hearst (owner of New York Journal) and Joseph Pulitzer (owner of New York World) initiated what we call now "yellow journalism" with the purpose of catching people's eyes and sell their newspapers.
At that time, when Cuban revolt against Spain was taking place (1895–98), several members of the media, especially Hearst and Pulitzer, made a bunch of fake and exaggerated stories, trying to influence the U.S.'s intervention to help the revolutionaries in Cuba.
On 15 February 1898, when the American naval ship "Maine" sank in Havana Harbor during the Cuban's revolution, the Hearst newspapers, with no evidence, blamed the Spanish, and soon U.S. public opinion demanded intervention. Even though this style of journalism wasn't the main cause of the Spanish-American War, it is widely accepted to claim that the press fueled the public's passion for war and contributed, to a certain extend, to begin it.
