Muckrakers In The 20th Century

Muckrakers were US journalists and other writers who exposed corruption in politics and business in the early 20th century. The term was first used by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt denounced muckrakers in 1906 because he felt that they were making stories up to prove that America was corrupted, when it was not. Some people believe that Teddy Roosevelt was missing the point of muckrakers, but Roosevelt made the right decision. The people did not deserve to be worried about issues that were not even true. The exposing of the corruption of America could have been a good thing, but the muckrakers and yellow journalists made it impossible for people to decide what to do. There were so many different stories about corruption that people were getting two completely different stories about the same things. Theodore Roosevelt was right to denounce
Many of William Randolph Hurst's publications were associated with the yellow press. It had its rise during the Spanish-American War, when newsmen embellished every detail of conflict and battle, occasionally making stories up altogether. A muckraker, usually a journalist associated with the progressive movement, sought to expose corruption in all its forms. Their works are usually urban oriented, and could span anything from government scandal to the wretched conditions in the factories of the day. Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and Upton Sinclare are some rather popular muckrakers, while McClure's, Cosmopolitan, and the Independent were publications often associated with muckraker writing. This movement predates that of yellow journalism. Modern media today is a mix of both. At times the media makes stories up about the other political party, but when the bad press is about their own political party they tend to leave out some of the important