THE BRILLIANT THAYER

n March 4, 1887, the day George Hearst returned to the Senate, son William Randolph Hearst took over . Reporter Edward Townsend was promoted to business manager and proved his political chops by letting the senator’s son have his way. Under became the most popular newspaper on the West Coast. With screaming headlines and dazzling illustrations, every issue contained that “gee-whiz emotion,” as editor Arthur McEwen termed it. “A Hearst newspaper,” reporter Arthur James Pegler once wrote, “is like a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut.” In other words, it was offensive, impossible, out of control—and mesmerizing. Hearst instructed Townsend to hire the most brilliant reporters money could buy. Ernest Thayer proved the most talented.