muckraking

 
Pronunciation: /ˈmʌkreɪkɪŋ/

noun

[mass noun]
  • the action of searching out and publicizing scandal about famous people: [as modifier]: a muckraking journalist

Derivatives

muckrake

verb

muckraker

noun

Origin:

coined by President Theodore Roosevelt in a speech (1906) alluding to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and the man with the muck rake