muckraking

The muckrakers created a legacy of reform and set the standard for investigative journalism in the best interest of the people. These journalists reported on the injustices of the early twentieth century and published them in enthralling series that captivated readers and demanded public attention. Muckraking series helped to dismantle corrupt, broken institutions by motivating people to call for reform and progress throughout the country and across industries. Ida Tarbell exposed the frauds behind the monopoly of Standard Oil, ultimately stirring the U.S. Supreme Court to break up the trust; Upton Sinclair revealed the unsanitary conditions of the meat packing industry which launched a federal investigation and the Meat Inspection Act; the journalists at Ladies' Home Journal inspired readers to flood Congress with demands for regulating dangerous patent medicine.

Patent medicine ad, 1902.  Powley's Liquified Ozone was later renamed Liquozone and was one of the products named by Samuel Hopkins Adams in his 1905 expose of patent medicines for Collier's Weekly "The Great American Fraud". Source: the Toronto World, May 14, 1902 via flickr

The work of muckraking journalists is celebrated as a direct catalyst for a slew of social reform in the early twentieth century. Streitmatter cites investigative journalism as the impetus in trust-busting across industries, the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Meat Inspection Act and a constitutional amendment granting direct elections of the senate to the people, among other reforms.

I found this quote by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger quite pertinent to today's political and social climate: "Aggressive and sensational measures were required to awaken the nation from its lethargy and to rejuvenate the old spirit of American democracy. [...] The protest first found expression through the popular magazines" (Streitmatter, 106). While the current Occupy Wall Street movement and its offshoots have inspired a storm of protest and calls for reform, we lack the booming voice of newspapers and magazines. Today journalists are all but censored by the corporations single-handedly funding the existence of the news media. I don't forsee radical social change being headed by the mainstream media as it once was. The solution today is to find a venue that will provide similar coverage and documentation of the injustices that plague the public. Perhaps the Internet will be utilized as the print media once was. I hope it will.


Works Cited:
Streitmatter, Rodger. Mightier Than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History, Second Edition. United States of America: Westview Press, 2008. Print.