So you know clickbait makes you click on that article or video because the title of it, etc looked interesting sometimes it turns out to be nothing special and a waste of time, and then others are actually interesting by what the title had said, but back in the day there was really nothing that did it the way it is today....now where could you find your clickbait? In a newspaper of course, they have those big titles that pull you right into the topic making you want to know more about that topic.

This is how the Muckrakers work, like every newspaper they use these titles to pull in readers, today will talk about the Muckrakers from the story of America cards Thought and Culture; who use this with their main goal of their newspaper to expose Graft and Corruption.

(Who are The Muckrakers?)

The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publications. The modern term generally references investigative journalism or watchdog journalism; investigative journalists in the US are occasionally called "muckrakers" informally.

(Exposing Graft and Corruption)

In 1902 Lincoln Steffens, a recently hired editor for McClure's Magazine, uncovered a sensational story about political bribery in St. Louis, Missouri, Steffens's story, called "Tweed Days in St. Louis", appeared in the October 1902 issue of the magazine.

The reader interest it generated was astonishing and caused the magazine's owner and editor, S.S. McClure, to assign similar projects to some of his own writers immediately.

The January 1903 issue of McClure's included another story by Steffens, "The Shame of Minneapolis" along with a chapter from writer Ida Tarbell's highly critical history of Standard Oil, and another story on Labor union abuses by Ray Stannard Baker.

McClure himself wrote an editorial in the issue pointing out the common theme of corruption in these articles.

The era of muckraking had begun.

The muckrakers stressed three main themes: first, corruption was to be found everywhere in American life. Second, that if the laws were right ones and were enforced by the right men, corruption in American life would diminish quickly, And third, that appeals to the public responsibly similar to McClure's, and recognition of a collective personal guilt, were necessary.

Unfortunately, such appeals, and exposès rarely examined both sides of the issue in question, causing President Theodore Roosevelt to comment: "In Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress you may recall the description of the man with the Muck-Rake...who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rate, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor".

Following the huge success of McClure's several other national magazines took up the muckraking banner, among them American Magazine, Collier's, Cosmopolitan, Everybody's Hampton and Person's. In their pages appeared the works of David Graham Phillips, whose "Treason of the Senate" was in part responsible for constitutional amendment requiring direct election of senators and Upton Sinclair, whose 1906 exposè of the meat packing industry, The Jungle, influenced pure-food legislation.

These and other writers of their day investigated almost every contemporary political, economic, and moral problem, and little escaped their scrutiny.

The muckraking era ended finally with the election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and the coming of the First World War.

(The Synonym for Muckrakers)

Some today use "investigative journalism" as a synonym for muckraking. Carey McWilliams, editor of the Nation, assumed in 1970 that investigative journalism, and reform journalism, or muckraking, were the same type of journalism. Journalism textbooks point out that McClure's muckraking standards "Have become integral to the character of modern investigative journalism." Furthermore, the successes of the early muckrakers have continued to inspire journalists. Moreover, muckraking has become an integral part of journalism in American history.

(Ending)

And that was Muckrakers, I hope you enjoy this and next time if you're interested in the next history cards I'll be heading into here's a hint as i talk about a geographic society and Yellow Press, so see you next time.