Citizen Kane. How to Run a Newspaper

“You’re right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in… 60 years.”

The principal source for the story of Citizen Kane was the life of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, and the film is seen by critics as a fictionalized parody of Hearst. Hearst often entertained Hollywood celebrities at Hearst Castle (just north of San Luis Obispo, California)—but only as long as they revealed secrets that would be published the following week in the Hearst newspapers. Because of this quid pro quo, Hearst was widely resented by many actors and directors in Hollywood, and Citizen Kane was seen by many as payback for Hearst’s exploits.
The most overt reference to Hearst comes early in the film, as Kane (played by Welles) provides a quote that paraphrases an apocryphal quote attributed to Hearst on the Spanish American War: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” Kane states, “You provide the prose poems, I’ll provide the war.” (In real life, Hearst denied saying it, and the only source for the quote is a James Creelman memoir published several years after the statement was reportedly made.)