Muckraker

Muckraker, term coined in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt to journalists specializing in sensational exposés of corrupt businesses and political procedures. The muckrakers included Lincoln Steffens, who wrote about political corruption, Ida Tarbell, who exposed the exploitative practices of an enormous oil company, and Upton Sinclair, who uncovered deplorable conditions in the Chicago meat-packing industry.

See also: Sinclair, Upton; Steffens, Lincoln.