July 14, 2025 • 6 mins
What do a 19th-century newspaper tycoon, a 1970s bank-robbing heiress, and your local Dallas headlines have in common?In this riveting episode of The Ben and Skin Show, hosts Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray peel back the curtain on the surprising sale of the Dallas Morning News to Hearst Media—and the tangled web of media empires, family dynasties, and sensational headlines that got us here.The crew dives into the recent acquisition of the Dallas Morning News by Hearst Media, unpacking what it means for local journalism and why it’s more than just a business deal.Skin takes us on a wild ride through American media history—from the Stockholm-syndrome-sparking kidnapping of Patty Hearst to the yellow journalism battles between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.With the Morning News selling for a fraction of its former value, the crew reflects on the decline of print and the rise of digital dominance.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ben and Skin Show ninety one point one. The Eagle
will be listening for your chance to win Pantera tickets
all this week.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We'll be doing it later in the show. You gotta listen.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You have to have the iHeart app because you use
the talkback feature on the streaming app. So be ready,
be ready, man, you want those pan Tara tickets. September
third at dose Ekis. But right now it's time for
this track, another edition of things track. All right, this
is from last week, but I've been thinking about it
(00:29):
a lot. The Dallas Morning News was purchased by Hurst Media.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hurst Media also owns like the Houston Chronicle. They owned
a bunch of stuff San Francisco example. They own a
bunch of media papers. Do you guys know much about Hurst?
Does anything come to mind?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
What's that? The city? Different spelling, But that's a good one.
Was that the guy's name who killed people in New
York and had the show on HBO? Oh that's drst Roberts.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, Hurst for me is Garrison Hurst, the former forty
nine ers running back towards ACL That's good nineties.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So no, have you guys ever heard the name Patty Hurst? Yes?
What is that she involved in a murder.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Patty Hurst is what was kidnapped in the seventies by
a liberation army and she is the one who if
you've ever heard the phrase Stockholm syndrome, was that.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
With the the main serial killer guy.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Uh oh, No, that was a different group. Okay, you're
talking about Manson. Yeah, that was a different group. So
she went to trial in the seventies because they had her,
They kidnapped her and then they had her out there
Robin Banks and stuff. And so she did do a
little bit of prison time, but not much. And the
reason is is because Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence. And
(01:51):
the reason one of there's several reasons here. There's the
psychological reasons, but one she is the granddaughter of William
Randolph Hurst. You guys know that name. Former president, No,
but he did. He was a political figure later in life.
William Randolph Hurst was a newspaper titan from the eighteen hundreds.
(02:12):
He came from a very wealthy family and he had
a warring paper feud with the other New York paper,
which was owned by a man named Pulitzer. Okay, you
guys have heard of the Pulitzer Prize. I'm assuming Peter Pulitzer.
William Randolph Hurst was the man that the movie Citizen.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Kane was based on.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Really, if you've ever, if you know, if you ever
do any sort of media studies, they force you to
watch Citizen Kane, and usually younger people are like, man,
that movie's boring.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Rosebud. I found it to be quite boring.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
It's an amazing movie. It's an Orson Welles movie, and
it's based on William randolph Hurst. Now, William randolph Hurst
he built.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Up part of you know, he already had money. He
came from money.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
He owns a bunch of property in California, wealthy mansions,
all this stuff. But he employed something that you may
or may or not remember studying in school called yellow journalism.
Do you guys remember that phrase? What do you think
of when you hear the term yellow journalism?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I remember school. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yellow journalism was a style of journalism that leaned in
on sensationalism.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Oh this is how R. Kelly got busted. I mean yeah, yeah,
go ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
No, that's a good joke because it did lean in
on sex, sensationalism, gossip, urine, and things that may or
may not be provable. Ah, but we're gonna sell papers,
damn it. So OJ so OJ all that stuff. And
so when we look at like what's happening now on
(03:49):
social media and how like we're not even sure what's
true anymore, but what's the biggest headline and all that stuff, Epstein.
It all goes back to newspaper wars in the thirties
with William Randolph Hurst, and we're talking about a megawealthy
company like they own I think twenty percent of Disney,
(04:10):
for example. I wonder to me, it surprised me to
find that there was a new buyer for the Dallas
Morning News, right because it just seems like print media
is in a tough spot. They are, and there's two
companies that are gobbling everything up in that world. One
is Hurst and the other one is Gannet. And I
was reading our buddy Tim Rodgers over at d Magazine
as he was opining on this. You probably won't notice
(04:32):
too many changes with the Dallas Morning News. It basically
the Dallas Morning News sold for the equivalent of seventy
seven million dollars or.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
M M yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Which that's if you just want to go back, I
bet twenty years ago. I bet the Dallas Morning News
was worth four hundred million.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Oh my god, maybe more. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Didn't do you know the research on all that. But
it's really crazy how things have changed, but there still
is value there. And they obviously don't care about what's printed.
They care about what's on the internet. But it is
so interesting to me all these histories and all this
money and who owns what and all of that. It's
like this family and right and right now. I think
(05:16):
the head of the board for Hurst Media is William
Randolph Hurst, the third Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And it's family, family, and it just keeps going and
keeps going.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And they diversified, obviously, owning a piece of Disney and
ESPN and all that stuff. But it's a it was
a nice little raft, survival raft extended to the Dallas
Morning News.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I think the top I thought.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I saw that the top shareholder basically made ten million
dollars out of this deal, so they did. Okay, Yeah,
But as much as time change, they still say the same.
A lot of the same people own the money and
Morning News selling to Hurst Media, which has an incredible
and I mean an incredible American history, and maybe if
(05:58):
you go and you watch Citizen Kane. It'll mean something
a little bit different to you, all right. It is
The Bin and Skin Show ninety seven point one. The
Eagle coming up next. How did Superman do at the
box office? We got the details next
Ben and Skin Show ninety one point one. The Eagle
will be listening for your chance to win Pantera tickets
all this week.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We'll be doing it later in the show. You gotta listen.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You have to have the iHeart app because you use
the talkback feature on the streaming app. So be ready,
be ready, man, you want those pan Tara tickets. September
third at dose Ekis. But right now it's time for
this track, another edition of things track. All right, this
is from last week, but I've been thinking about it
(00:29):
a lot. The Dallas Morning News was purchased by Hurst Media.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hurst Media also owns like the Houston Chronicle. They owned
a bunch of stuff San Francisco example. They own a
bunch of media papers. Do you guys know much about Hurst?
Does anything come to mind?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
What's that? The city? Different spelling, But that's a good one.
Was that the guy's name who killed people in New
York and had the show on HBO? Oh that's drst Roberts.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, Hurst for me is Garrison Hurst, the former forty
nine ers running back towards ACL That's good nineties.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So no, have you guys ever heard the name Patty Hurst? Yes?
What is that she involved in a murder.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Patty Hurst is what was kidnapped in the seventies by
a liberation army and she is the one who if
you've ever heard the phrase Stockholm syndrome, was that.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
With the the main serial killer guy.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Uh oh, No, that was a different group. Okay, you're
talking about Manson. Yeah, that was a different group. So
she went to trial in the seventies because they had her,
They kidnapped her and then they had her out there
Robin Banks and stuff. And so she did do a
little bit of prison time, but not much. And the
reason is is because Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence. And
(01:51):
the reason one of there's several reasons here. There's the
psychological reasons, but one she is the granddaughter of William
Randolph Hurst. You guys know that name. Former president, No,
but he did. He was a political figure later in life.
William Randolph Hurst was a newspaper titan from the eighteen hundreds.
(02:12):
He came from a very wealthy family and he had
a warring paper feud with the other New York paper,
which was owned by a man named Pulitzer. Okay, you
guys have heard of the Pulitzer Prize. I'm assuming Peter Pulitzer.
William Randolph Hurst was the man that the movie Citizen.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Kane was based on.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Really, if you've ever, if you know, if you ever
do any sort of media studies, they force you to
watch Citizen Kane, and usually younger people are like, man,
that movie's boring.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Rosebud. I found it to be quite boring.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
It's an amazing movie. It's an Orson Welles movie, and
it's based on William randolph Hurst. Now, William randolph Hurst
he built.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Up part of you know, he already had money. He
came from money.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
He owns a bunch of property in California, wealthy mansions,
all this stuff. But he employed something that you may
or may or not remember studying in school called yellow journalism.
Do you guys remember that phrase? What do you think
of when you hear the term yellow journalism?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I remember school. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yellow journalism was a style of journalism that leaned in
on sensationalism.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Oh this is how R. Kelly got busted. I mean yeah, yeah,
go ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
No, that's a good joke because it did lean in
on sex, sensationalism, gossip, urine, and things that may or
may not be provable. Ah, but we're gonna sell papers,
damn it. So OJ so OJ all that stuff. And
so when we look at like what's happening now on
(03:49):
social media and how like we're not even sure what's
true anymore, but what's the biggest headline and all that stuff, Epstein.
It all goes back to newspaper wars in the thirties
with William Randolph Hurst, and we're talking about a megawealthy
company like they own I think twenty percent of Disney,
(04:10):
for example. I wonder to me, it surprised me to
find that there was a new buyer for the Dallas
Morning News, right because it just seems like print media
is in a tough spot. They are, and there's two
companies that are gobbling everything up in that world. One
is Hurst and the other one is Gannet. And I
was reading our buddy Tim Rodgers over at d Magazine
as he was opining on this. You probably won't notice
(04:32):
too many changes with the Dallas Morning News. It basically
the Dallas Morning News sold for the equivalent of seventy
seven million dollars or.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
M M yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Which that's if you just want to go back, I
bet twenty years ago. I bet the Dallas Morning News
was worth four hundred million.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Oh my god, maybe more. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Didn't do you know the research on all that. But
it's really crazy how things have changed, but there still
is value there. And they obviously don't care about what's printed.
They care about what's on the internet. But it is
so interesting to me all these histories and all this
money and who owns what and all of that. It's
like this family and right and right now. I think
(05:16):
the head of the board for Hurst Media is William
Randolph Hurst, the third Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And it's family, family, and it just keeps going and
keeps going.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And they diversified, obviously, owning a piece of Disney and
ESPN and all that stuff. But it's a it was
a nice little raft, survival raft extended to the Dallas
Morning News.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I think the top I thought.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I saw that the top shareholder basically made ten million
dollars out of this deal, so they did. Okay, Yeah,
But as much as time change, they still say the same.
A lot of the same people own the money and
Morning News selling to Hurst Media, which has an incredible
and I mean an incredible American history, and maybe if
(05:58):
you go and you watch Citizen Kane. It'll mean something
a little bit different to you, all right. It is
The Bin and Skin Show ninety seven point one. The
Eagle coming up next. How did Superman do at the
box office? We got the details next
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