Dictionary.com Word Of The Day
Feb. 09, 2017
muckrake\MUHK-reyk\verb
1. to search for and expose real or alleged corruption, scandal, or the
like, especially in politics.
QuotesThere will continue to be room, of course, for some kinds of
traditional, thoroughly sourced reporting: exclusives, certainly.
Investigations, certainly. that's something extra. Yahoo isn't in a
position to muckrake.
-- Mitchell Stephens, "Beyond the News," Columbia Journalism Review,
January/February 2007
Origin of muckrakeJohn Bunyan in his The Pilgrims Progress (1684)
uses a muck-rake as a symbol for a carnal mind, and later interpreted
as the pursuit of worldly gain. Muckrake continued to have a pejorative
sense throughout the 19th century in addition to its original sense a
rake for piling up dung or muck. By the mid-19th century muckrake
acquired the sense of journalism that exposes corporate monopolies,
political machines, and urban poverty, best exemplified by Jacob Riis.
President Theodore Roosevelt used muckrakerin this last sense in a 1906
speech: The men with the muck rakes are often indispensable to the
well being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the
muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them, to the
crown of worthy endeavor.More From Dictionary.comSubmit a favorite
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