<P> Before the sinking of the USS Maine , one American media correspondent stationed in Cuba was quoted as saying that the American people were being greatly deceived by reporters sent to cover the revolution . According to him an overwhelming majority of the stories were obtained through third hand information often relayed by their Cuban interpreters and informants . These people were often sympathetic to the revolution and would distort the facts to shed a positive light on the revolution . Routinely small skirmishes would become large battles . Cuban oppression was depicted through inhumane treatment , torture , rape , and mass pillaging by the Spanish forces . These stories revealed heaps of dead men , women , and children left on the side of the road . Correspondents rarely bothered to confirm facts ; they simply passed the stories on to their editors in the states , where they would be put into publication after further editing and misrepresentation . This type of journalism became known as yellow journalism . Yellow journalism swept the nation and its propaganda helped to precipitate military action by the United States . The United States sent troops to Cuba as well as several other Spanish colonies throughout the world . </P>
which new technique for selling newspaper contributed to the outbreak of the spanish american war
yellow journalism