muckraker
Plural: muckrakers
Noun
- one who spreads real or alleged scandal about another (usually for political advantage)
- One who investigates and exposes issues of corruption that often violate widely held values; e.g. one who exposes political corruption or the poor conditions in prisons.
- One of a group of American investigative reporters, novelists and critics of the Progressive Era (the 1890s to the 1920s).
- A sensationalist, scandalmongering journalist, one who is not driven by any social principles.
Origin / Etymology
From muck + raker. Believed to have been coined following a 1906 speech by United States President Theodore Roosevelt, in which he likened the investigative journalist to ‘the Man with the Muck-rake’, a character in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.
Synonyms
mudslinger, investigative journalist
Scrabble Score: 21
muckraker: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordmuckraker: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
muckraker: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 24
muckraker: valid Words With Friends Word