parents. It then quickly shifts to a point twenty years later, when Kane is about to inherit the sixth largest private fortune in the world. Thatcher is concerned that Kane won't know his place in the world, and his fears are affirmed when Kane sends a telegram saying that he has no interest in gold mines or banks, but, rather, he would like to take over a small newspaper of which Thatcher has taken possession, the Morning Inquirer, because, "I think it would be fun to write a newspaper" (Citizen Kane). The circumstances under which Hearst entered the newspaper world were very similar. Hearst's father, a nearly illiterate mining tycoon, owned a newspaper in San Francisco, The Examiner, which he used as nothing more than a political organ to further his candidacy for a seat in Congress (Swanberg 26). Against his father's wishes for him to enter the world of mining, young Hearst took control of the paper to try to reverse his father's enormous losses on it (Swanberg 47). Both Hearst and Kane immediately began to revolutionize everything about their respective papers. Kane literally moved in to the office so that he might be constantly around his paper, constantly able to redo it at any hour, night or day. He makes it quite clear that, from now on, The Examiner was going to do more than just report what the current editor considered "newsworthy." It was going to report all news, large or small, especially if it could be made into a sensation and sell newspapers. And if there was no current sensation, Kane would create the news. Hearst did the same thing, revolutionizing his paper to take on "undignified topics" to gain circulation, sporting shocking headlines and stories of "crime and underwear." In a classic example of similarity, Kane nearly quoted Hearst exactly: "You supply the prose and poems, I'll supply the war," (Orson Wells, Citizen Kane) as Kane discussed what to telegram back to a man in Cuba. Hearst was very much anti-Spanish ...
