10 reasons William Howard Hearst is not William Randolph Hearst

This is Sault Ste. Marie's first-ever William H. Hearst Day.

That's the new name city council has bestowed on the August civic holiday, recognizing a Sault-born Ontario premier.

Here at Village Media world headquarters (conveniently located over the Reader's Choice used-book store where we buy the dime novels that inform our newswriting style) it's come to our attention that people are confusing William Howard Hearst (shown left) with William Randolph Hearst (shown right).

Please be advised, dearest citizens, that this is not William R. Hearst Day in Sault Ste. Marie.

Here, for the enlightenment of SooToday's 35,500+ daily readers (34 percent of whom have tattoos), are 10 easy ways to tell your William H. Hearsts from your William R. Hearsts. You are welcome!

1. William Randolph Hearst never had a law office at the present location of RBC Financial on Queen Street East in Sault Ste. Marie. His base of operations was the stunning 165-room hilltop Hearst Castle, built on 250,000 acres midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

2. William Howard Hearst never inspired a movie with a dumb, disappointing ending based on the name of some kid's sleigh being burned in a furnace. But as Ontario's seventh premier, he did inspire a historical plaque in some place named Arran-Elderslie in Bruce County.

3. William Randolph Hearst didn't introduce prohibition to the Province of Ontario. He did fight prohibition in the newspapers he owned, and after it became law across the United States, he continued to serve alcohol to his house guests from a massive wine vault in the basement of Hearst Castle that was secured by an iron safe door.

4. William Howard Hearst is not considered a founder of yellow journalism. 

5. William Randolph Hearst was never, ever, part of the building committee at what is now Sault Ste. Marie's Central United Church. On one occasion, however, he directed his newspapers across the United States to promote the anti-communist preaching of a young evangelist named Billy Graham.

6. William Howard Hearst started what is now Ontario's labour ministry and the province's first workers' compensation program. William Randolph Hearst's newspapers were similarly pro-worker.

7. William Randolph Hearst was not responsible for women getting the right to vote in Ontario elections. His mother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, was nonetheless a noted supporter of women's suffrage and William Randolph was known to lend support to his mother's cause. On the other hand, William Howard Hearst is considered the father of women's suffrage in Ontario.

8. William Howard Hearst never met with Adolf Hitler.

9. Although they both were interested in political life, William Howard was a Progressive Conservative, while William Randolph was a Democrat.

10. William H. Hearst was a strong supporter of Canada's war effort in 1917. His support for militarism was nothing, however, compared to William R. Hearst, who employed sensationalism to help create the Spanish-American War to sell newspapers.