In many Third World countries, the line between
muckraking and political advocacy can be a fine one.
But true
muckraking, as the student notes, is indeed honorable.
In 1932, a
muckraking book called 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs, written by engineers at the forerunner of Consumers Union, decried the Food and Drug Administration's inability to prevent unsafe products from reaching the market.
In the case of Sinclair, his
muckraking novel, combined with the political climate and Roosevelt's own desire for action, spurred the passage in 1906 of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, which led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.
Lending gravity to Eban's
muckraking style are dozens of pages of endnotes.
A year after the first assembly line rolled out at Ford's famous Highland Park plant, Ford committed the company to the Five Dollar Day--a signal national event at the time, and one that had even such
muckraking lefties as Ida Tarbell (the investigative reporter who had written the definitive takedown of John D.
Praise to David Cobb, the Presidential candidate of the Greens, who was instrumental in challenging the vote count, with a helping hand from Air America, Harvey Wasserman, and other
muckraking journalists.
As American presidential elections throughout the years have proved, scandal and
muckraking can sway the allegiances of fickle voters.
This is not an academic book, but a popular and, to some extent, a
muckraking book based on a lot of journalistic research.
Intrusion,
muckraking and so-called bonk journalism undoubtedly give rise to periodic fits of public righteousness which have an impact on sales though the impact rarely lasts for long.
A
muckraking idealism also characterized many of the journalists I met.
It is not unfair to characterize the work as
muckraking as, after all,
muckraking goes hand in hand with politics.
