Life — January 5, 1928 — page 17: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Life magazine cartoon satirizes public panic about a Senate investigation. A frightened figure labeled "Hearst Bunk" holds a megaphone spreading exaggerated warnings ("Scare," "Scandal") depicted as large clouds of smoke/hysteria. Above, a senator peers through a "Senate Investigation" window, apparently investigating Hearst's sensationalist journalism. The cartoon mocks William Randolph Hearst's newspaper empire for creating false alarms and public fear through inflammatory reporting. The "false alarm" refers to Hearst's tendency to sensationalize stories—presenting them as catastrophic scandals when they lack substance. The senator's investigation suggests scrutiny of these journalistic practices, while the cartoon ridicules both the exaggerated warnings and those who spread them, implying the "scandal" is merely theatrical hysteria rather than genuine concern.