Who were the “muckrakers”, American pioneers of investigative journalism who exposed scandals

With the deadline muckrakers we indicate a small group of investigative journalists (but also, to a lesser extent, writers and photographers) who, in the early years of the 20th century, attempted to change the way of reporting reality and its articulations, exposing corruption, scandals and social injustices on all fronts, from society to politics, from economics to finance.

The objective was to overcome the excessive balance of large newspapers such as the New York Times or the light and disengaged style of newspapers such as the New York World of the publisher Joseph Pulitzer or the New York Journal of the entrepreneur William Randolph Hearst.

Thus it was that in US magazines such as McClure’s Magazine, Collier’s Weekly, Everybody’s Magazine or Cosmopolitan the long articles of the muckrakers began to appear, which they investigated the mechanisms of power and denounced its distortions.

Where does the term “muckrakers” come from and what does it mean

The authors of these texts were later remembered as “muckrakers”, literally “dung rakers”. The term became widespread in 1906, thanks to a speech given in Washington by President Theodore Roosevelt (one of four presidents whose face is carved on Mount Rushmore and in office from 1901 to 1909).

On that occasion, Roosevelt used the word in a negative sense to refer to reporters who covered almost exclusively the problems of the United States. He said that, of course, freedom of the press was necessary to combat corrupt politicians and businessmen (“the big business man”) who amassed money illegitimately, but also that that type of combative journalism risked undermining the trust of readers, men and women, overshadowing efforts to improve society.

Roosevelt thus compared the new journalists to a character created by the Puritan preacher and writer John Bunyan in the allegorical work The Pilgrim’s Progressfrom the 17th century: a man rummaging through the dirt with a small rake (“muck-rake”) without ever looking up at the sky, so obsessed with that thankless task that he even gave up the offer of a celestial crown (“celestial crown”). In short, a man so dedicated to the observation of evil that he can no longer recognize good.

The label “muckrakers” therefore had a denigrating intent and it was contested by many of those who felt implicated. Yet, over time, it has become the symbol of tenacious and meticulous work.

Muckraker Journalism in the Progressive Age

This journalistic ferment manifested itself in a particular climate, in the so-called Progressive Age of the United States (1900-1920). Then industrialization accelerated and society changed rapidly, but there were also concentrations of economic and financial power and equally great social inequalities. Suffice it to say that in 1900 the average annual per capita income of Americans (an indicative measure of the average economic level) was already among the highest in the world. However, 1% of the population owned more than 50% of the national wealth.

As the historian Stefano Luconi pointed out, theories were circulating that praised millionaires and justified inequalityeven though “half of the families had no property and an estimated number of individuals between 10 and 20 million lived below the poverty line”.

Around the same time, they also emerged different ideas and instances: many asked to experiment with new solutions to remedy the most evident imbalances, and intellectuals, trade unions, popular associations and feminist organizations obtained corrective measures and legislative changes.

The journalists identified with the label of muckrakers operated precisely in this context, against the backdrop of a broad movement of political, economic, cultural and social reforms. And they did so to raise long-marginalized issues, such as the degrading conditions of overcrowded neighborhoods in industrialized cities or the growing difficulties of workers, or the ramification of criminal activities and the disproportionate influence of interest groups freed from democratic control.

The muckrakers did not want to block the impetuous US development but to correct its negative effects, expanding guarantees for citizenship.

The new faces of investigative journalism

There were many publicists involved, such as Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) or Ray Stannard Baker (1870–1946). Among the most emblematic profiles there was Ida Tarbell (1857-1944). It was she who put the spotlight on the Standard Oil Companythe oil giant which, constituting almost a monopoly, operated in the sectors of production, transport, refining and marketing of black gold.

Tarbell realized an investigation full of data and details publishing articles on McClure’s Magazine and then collecting them in a single volume: The History of the Standard Oil Companyin 1904. He was thus able to highlight a whole series of casual practices that had brought the Standard Oil Company to the center of the US industrial economy. Also thanks to Tarbell the government relaunched antitrust policiesaimed at protecting competition between companies and avoiding the abuse of dominant positions on the market. In 1911 the Supreme Court, the highest judicial body in the USA, ordered the breakup of Standard Oil into 34 separate companies.

Also in 1904, he gained visibility Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936), the author of the book The Shame of the Cities (“The shame of the cities”). Steffens attempted to expose the network of complicity and connivance within American democracy. To do so he investigated municipal administrations – from St. Louis to Minneapolis, from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to Chicago – criticizing unscrupulous party men and shrewd entrepreneurs who entered financial circles.

The journalist does not he didn’t even spare civil society: he attacked the inertia of Americans in opposing the degradation of institutions and detachment from politics. “The people – he wrote – are not innocent”. The Shame of the Cities it was a hammer held to hammer different nails. And also an example of the “muckrakers” method, with a frenetic and effective dosage of sensationalist tones, targeted reconstructions and severe calls for collective responsibility.

What did they leave behind? muckrakers

The muckrakers were the protagonists of an overall short season, at the dawn of a new century, the twentieth century, and in the years preceding the First World War. Yet the ink spilled then, printed on paper thanks to industrially manufactured typewriters, did not disappear.

In the short term, this type of journalism fueled the push for modernization of US capitalism and influenced the political dynamics within the main national parties, the Democratic and the Republican, both at the municipal and state levels. To have greater transparencyFor example, some governors promoted stricter laws on campaign financing by business lobbies.

In the long run, then, the muckrakers contributed to expansion the scope of journalism. In the same years, moreover, a path of professionalization of the profession. First of all, the United States gained ground within the international system of news agencies, with entities such as the Associated Press, the International News Service or the United Press Association, which provided information services to many editorial offices scattered throughout the federation.

In 1908 a real one was founded journalism school at the University of Missouri, Midwest Region. In 1912, in New York, it was then the turn of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalisminside the Columbia University. From there the training places multiplied and in 1935, between university departments and school structures, we reached 1200 graduates every year.

In the following decades, as radio and then television entered public and private spaces, techniques, functions, principles and perspectives of journalism were defined, with reflections on the relationship between freedom of expression, public opinion and representative democracy. Also the investigative journalism he emerged transformed, with growing attention to the multiplication of voices and sources, to cross-checking and to the rigorous exposition of information.

The work of muckrakers – reread, reworked and discussed – was absorbed into a codified professional culture. The impulse of Progressive Era publicists was thus not forgotten. After the Second World WarHowever, a less high-sounding approach was adopted, not entirely linked to individual reformist demands or local contexts and more focused on the criticism of political power at the federal level.

From this point of view, at least two trends developed often compared to muckrakers: militant journalism ready to take sides on social issues (“advocacy journalism”) and that of some counterculture magazines of the 60s and 70s (“underground journalism”), born in the context of student protests, struggles for civil rights and huge opposition to the war in Vietnam.

Even some of the most authoritative US press, including newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Postopened up to investigative journalism. The belief gradually emerged that journalism should also be a means of mediating reality a democratic counterpower. The Watergate judicial and journalistic investigation (1972-1974), which led President Richard Nixon to resign, was the culmination of that season.

In the meantime the muckrakers (the “manure rakers”, as mentioned) entered fully into the history of American journalism.