muckraker · noun — one 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. It carries an Arena rating of 1672, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, muckraker ranks #131 of 17,188 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #934 of 17,176 for Most Incisive Words, #1,412 of 17,197 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,635 of 17,165 for Most Satisfying to Say.
Why “muckraker” is a great word
A journalist or writer who investigates and exposes corruption, misconduct, or scandal, particularly one associated with the Progressive Era in the United States. From muck ("dirt, filth") + raker ("one who gathers"), popularized and likely coined following a 1906 speech by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who alluded to the 'Man with the Muck-rake' in John Bunyan's *The Pilgrim's Progress*. Unlike a reporter, who gathers general news, or a polemicist, who trades in rhetorical argument, the muckraker is defined by the gritty, solitary excavation of concealed truths. It is the flash of a photographer's bulb in a meatpacking plant at midnight, the rustle of copied documents slipped across a park bench, the grit beneath fingernails after digging through buried records—a necessary vocation born from the faith that sunlight, however harsh, is the only true disinfectant.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From muck + raker. Believed to have been coined following a 1906 speech by United States President Theodore Roosevelt, in which he likened the investigative journalist to ‘the Man with the Muck-rake’, a character in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.
noun
- One 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.
- One of a group of American investigative reporters, novelists and critics of the Progressive Era (the 1890s to the 1920s).
- A sensationalist, scandalmongering journalist, one who is not driven by any social principles.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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