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Write and Wrong

Posted in Authors (Well-known and otherwise), General with tags defense, exposition, investigative journalism, journalism, muckrakers, writing, yellow journalism on June 10, 2008 by Tamsin

Most of us know who the muckrakers were: a commemorated group of journalists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who investigated societal issues such as conditions in prisons, slums, and insane asylums, thereby exposing the ‘muck’ of their time.

Muckrakers usually aimed their criticism at the establishment, often in a sensationalistic style that some labelled ‘yellow journalism’ – though this was not always the case. The muckrakers defended the common people, the middle and lower classes, the unrich or unwhite. Muckraking was a product of the progressive era, but this form of investigative journalism continued to be prevalent well into the 21st century.

Ida Minerva Tarbell, 1857-1944 But who were the muckrakers? Well, for starters, there was Ida M. Tarbell, who single-handedly took on Standard Oil, a huge corporation that controlled the oil industry with a monopolistic force.

Through a series of investigative reports, Tarbell exposed many shocking behind-the-scenes activities, the publication of which led to anti-monopolistic reform, including the Clayton Anti-trust Act, which declared that trusts in restraint of trade are illegal.

In his collection of articles titled The Shame of the Cities, renowned muckraker Lincoln Steffens exposed public corruption in major cities around the United States, using passionate prose and appeals to ethos and pathos to provoke public outcry and promote reform.

Why are the muckrakers important? They are the writer’s defense. There are those in this world who view good writing as useless talent in the 21st century. That which needs to be said can be said simply, bluntly, without prose.

We writers know this to be false. They do not understand.

Like the muckrakers before us, we writers write because we have something to say, some important message to deliver to the people. We delve into, we expose, and we strive to understand the workings of society; we right wrongs.

Ray Stannard Baker was the first noted journalist to report on the racial divide in American in his book, Following the Color Line (1908), which focused on Jim Crow laws, lynching, and poverty.

Writers like Tarbell, Steffens, and Baker shaped ‘writing for a cause’ and ‘writing for change’. If they don’t expose corrupt, defective, or harmful people, products, or organizations, then who will?

$Ralph Nader\'s popular book$ So go forth: write. If you have something to say, say it, and say it LOUDLY! Your passion, your sense of justice may someday save lives. Ralph Nader is a prime example: he clearly saved lives when he wrote Unsafe at Any Speed in 1965, exposing the resistance of car manufacturers to the introduction of safety features like seatbelts, and their general reluctance to safety improvements.