TOW #22 - Muckrakers

The living conditions for immigrants during the early 1900’s was horrible. Many people were dying of disease, poor, and had harsh work hours. Upton Sinclair wrote a book to expose to the American public how horrid the life of an immigrant was. However, he described the lack of proper sanitation of the meatpacking industry in too much detail, leading to the American public demanding change for their food, but not for immigrants. President Roosevelt did pass acts that changed the meatpacking industry, however was angry that, he believed, Sinclair exaggerated the conditions of the meatpacking companies.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, wrote “The Man with the Muckrake” which is a speech about journalists. He targeted journalists, especially Sinclair, that over exaggerated what they were reporting, and ultimately hurt the companies they were bad-mouthing. He calls them muckrakers because they focus on the muck of the story. In today’s world, Roosevelt would be incredibly unhappy with how manipulative the media can be.

In everyday life, one can tweet about someone else and create a false rumor. Regardless of the validity of the rumor, the existence of it itself can cause the person that was tweeted great stress; it can make someone seem bad regardless of whether they actually are or not. On a larger scale, a bad review can cost a company customers even if the company did not earn that review. Comparably celebrities can lose fans over false rumors.

All over the world, journalists hold a special ability. Through their words, they can expose bad companies to the public. They can cause real harm to companies that are causing harm in their own way. However, they can also cause harm to fair businesses. Rumors hold enough weight in today’s world to not need facts to support them. The rumor itself can destroy a person or business’s credibility, even if it is completely false. Through writing lies, journalists today can spread the word quickly about a company and have it shut down the next day.

Roosevelt wanted to prevent mudslinging to occur. He wanted companies to be treated fairly if they acted fairly. However, in the world that we are in today, media plays such a huge role that it can really hurt businesses. Roosevelt would disagree with the way that media is used, and would beg people to stop acting like the muckrakers from the early 20th century.