what was muckracking? how did it affect american politics?

Answer 1

Now for an answer from a real historian that specializes in this time period:

1. The term "muckraker" was first used by Teddy Roosevelt to describe those writers that sought to expose the evils in society during the turn of the century and the Progressive period.
2. The origin of the term dates back to the time of the John Bunyon novel "Pilgrim's Progress" in which one of the characters constantly spent his time raking the muck (manure) rather than looking up and seeing the glory of God.
3. Examples of muckrakers and their works include the following:

Lincoln Steffans--"The Shame of the Cities" (inner-city slums)
Upton Sinclair--"The Jungle" (impure meat packing practices)
Frank Norris--"The Octopus" (discriminatory practices against the Chinese during the railroad building era of the American West.)
Ida Tarbell--"The History of Standard Oil Company of Ohio"
Ray Stannard Baker--"Following the Color Line" (exposing racism in America)

The goal of the muckrakers was NOT to correct these ills, they simply wanted to expose them to let the public decide if THEY wanted to correct these problems.

And there you have it.

Answer 2

Muckracking was most likely the main reason that Amercans wanted to go to war with Spain in 1898. The muckracking journalists- Hurst and Pullitzer took a little accident about the American ship "The Maine," and created a huge deal that sparked a flare against the Spanish.

And like the person above me stated, it was a huge part of Watergate and the Clinton scandals. Several other Presidents have cheated on their wives, but it was made to seem a whole lot worse with Clinton because the media took such a hold of that case.

Answer 3

–verb (used without object), -raked, -rak·ing. to search for and expose real or alleged corruption, scandal, or the like, esp. in politics.

intr.v. muck·raked, muck·rak·ing, muck·rakes
To search for and expose misconduct in public life.

thats really an opinion based question, how would political events have been affected had these figures not been exposed? Think Clinton, Nixon etc etc...

Answer 4

These days it's called "investigative journalism".