muckraker

plural muckrakers · alternative muck-raker · alternative muck raker

1. USOne who investigates and exposes issues of corruption that often violate widely held values; e.g. one who exposes political corruption or the poor conditions in prisons.

   1 more example

   The paper gave a start to the theater critic Hilton Als and the novelist Colson Whitehead, both recipients of the Pulitzer Prize. Its resident muckraker, Wayne Barrett, took aim at New York developers and politicians for nearly 40 years, and his obsessive work on Donald J. Trump has become a resource for reporters covering the president today.

   2018 August 31, Tyler Pager, Jaclyn Peiser, “The Village Voice, a New York Icon, Closes”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 03 Jul 2019

   Synonyms: investigative journalist

2. UShistoricalOne of a group of American investigative reporters, novelists and critics of the Progressive Era (the 1890s to the 1920s).

   "Lady," says he, "the goil's nutty! You got a bughouse patient on your bands! This here talk about the white-slave traffic, ma'am… it's all the work o' these magazine muckrakers!"

   1912, Upton Sinclair, The Machine

   1 more example

   "Oh, in many ways. There are two classes of people who are not welcomed on the Canal Zone—magazine writers and applicants for positions who have political influence back of them. The former are regarded as muckrakers, the latter as spies."

   1911, Rex Beach, Ne'er-Do-Well

3. UKderogatoryA sensationalist, scandalmongering journalist, one who is not driven by any social principles.