Until Pulitzer and his ilk stirred up the masses, people were content to accept the explosion of the USS Maine off the cost of Cuba (then owned by Spain) as yet another steamboat explosion. We'll never know for sure why it exploded. But Pulitzer kept the masses stirred up with his frequent "breaking news" of "new developments" that were a bunch of nothings, but enough to get the public desire war more than Bill ever desired Monica.
To this day the Pulitzer Prize is not awarded to the journalist who brought forward the largest amount of unknown truth. It's to the one who's best at making a mountain from a molehill.
Duranty admitted that his reporting reflected the Soviet viewpoint. In the Kliefoth memo Duranty states that “in agreement with the New York Times and the Soviet authorities,’ his official dispatches always reflected the official opinion of the Soviet regime and not his own.” The memo does not make it clear when this agreement was reached. It probably covered his 1931 articles a\s well.