Muckrakers

The power of the press was exhibited in a new age of investigative reporting that arrived in the early 1900s. Although the first examples of this new style of reporting were actually in weekly magazines, newspapers and book publishers quickly picked up the strategy as well, and the age of muckraking had begun.

Muckraking describes a style of reporting in which reporters sought to uncover the misdeeds of the person, institution, or government in control. The term itself was reportedly coined by Theodore Roosevelt, who quoted the book Pilgrims Progress when he said that reporters looked no way but downward and only looked at the muck rake and the filth associated with it. Although he agreed that it was important for reporters to uncover problems in the system, he also admonished them for looking only at the sensational aspects of the story: the bad parts, not the neutral whole. The way in which he used the term muckraking was derogatory, likening its practitioners to the sensationalist writers who simply tried to gain readers. For the muckrakers, however, the term was a badge of honor, as the idea of muckraking evolved from the Progressive Era and the backlash against the old system of corruption. Because of new technology, pictures could be added to the written words, giving articles a much stronger impact. Many of the ideas conveyed by the muckrakers originated with photographer Jacob Riis and his pictorial work, How the Other Half Lives, in 1888. This book depicted life among immigrants and the conditions in New York City's immigrant neighborhoods. What made Riis's book different was that he used photographs to visualize the problems of the lower classes.

The actual concept of muckraking was displayed in a work commissioned by S. S. McClure in 1902 for his magazine, McClure's. The article, written by Ida Tarbell, centered on the misdeeds of John D. Rockefeller and his company, Standard Oil: how the company tried to control the markets through a monopoly of the system, either by leveraged buyouts or simply by flooding the market. Given the success of the article in terms of readership, as well as the sense of middle-class involvement, several other magazines followed suit. Lincoln Steffens delved into the practices of city governments and their questionable methods of granting government contracts, specifically examining the government of Minneapolis. Ray Stannard Baker discussed the problems confronted by working people in his 1903 piece entitled “The Right to Work.” These and other articles sparked the imagination and ire of readers of the day. The practices of an unregulated patent medicine industry brought the concept of muckraking to the public eye. Although disclosures of the exaggerated claims made by the medicines started the muckraking era, it was the plight of workers that made another muckraking writer famous.

The best known of the muckraking journalists was Upton Sinclair. His investigative work resulted in his book The Jungle. Set in Chicago's stockyards district, it told a fictional story of how immigrants were treated by the larger packinghouses, such as Armour and Swift. It also described the inhumane conditions that led to many accidents, domestic problems, and early deaths for workers. One reason the book fared so well was that its description of events was realistic. When the pacers were ordered to speed up production on the cutting lines, the reader was a witness as the sharpened blades cut workers. People who could not see the actual “tourist attraction” of the stockyards (a major tourist stop during the late 1800s in Chicago, surprisingly enough) need only read the descriptions of the blood and filth on the floor. The depictions of the killing floor were such that many complained of the brutality. The book, which wrapped up with a call for a more socialist world (which many politicians did not like), was influential enough that it sparked a public outcry for reform in the meatpacking industry.

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