Editing Progressive Era (section)

===Muckraking: exposing corruption===
{{Further|Muckraker|Mass media and American politics}}
[[File:McClure's Christmas 1903 cover.jpg|thumb|left|Christmas 1903 cover of ''McClure's'' features a muckraking exposé of Rockefeller and Standard Oil by Ida Tarbell.]]

Magazines experienced a boost in popularity in 1900, with some attaining circulations in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers. In the beginning of the age of mass media, the rapid expansion of national advertising led the cover price of popular magazines to fall sharply to about 10 cents, lessening the financial barrier to consume them.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Catherine|last1=Cocks|first2=Peter C.|last2=Holloran|first3=Alan|last3=Lessoff|title=The A to Z of the Progressive Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rt3243E-Wm0C&pg=PA266|year=2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|page=266|isbn=978-0810870697}}</ref> Another factor contributing to the dramatic upswing in magazine circulation was the prominent coverage of corruption in politics, local government, and big business, particularly by journalists and writers who became known as [[muckraker]]s''.'' They wrote for popular magazines to expose social and political sins and shortcomings. Relying on their own [[investigative journalism]], muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate and [[Corruption in the United States|political corruption]]. Muckraking magazines, notably ''[[McClure's]]'', took on corporate monopolies and [[political machine]]s while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and [[social issues]] like [[Child labor in the United States|child labor]].<ref>Herbert Shapiro, ed., ''The muckrakers and American society'' (Heath, 1968), contains representative samples as well as academic commentary.</ref> Most of the muckrakers wrote nonfiction, but fictional exposés often had a major impact as well, such as those by [[Upton Sinclair]].<ref>Judson A. Grenier, "Muckraking the muckrakers: Upton Sinclair and his peers." in David R Colburn and Sandra Pozzetta, eds., ''Reform and Reformers in the Progressive Era '' (1983) pp: 71–92.</ref> In his 1906 novel ''[[The Jungle]]'', Sinclair exposed the unsanitary and unsafe working conditions of the meatpacking industry in graphic detail hoping to arouse working class solidarity. He quipped, "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident, I hit it in the stomach," as readers demanded and got the [[Federal Meat Inspection Act|Meat Inspection Act]]<ref>The Meat Inspection Act</ref> and the [[Pure Food and Drug Act]].<ref>Arlene F. Kantor, "Upton Sinclair and the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906.: 'I aimed at the public's heart and by accident, I hit it in the stomach'." ''American Journal of Public Health'' 66.12 (1976): 1202–1205.</ref>

The journalists who specialized in exposing waste, corruption, and scandal operated at the state and local level, like [[Ray Stannard Baker]], [[George Creel]], and [[Brand Whitlock]]. Others such as [[Lincoln Steffens]] exposed political corruption in many large cities; [[Ida Tarbell]] is famed for her criticisms of [[John D. Rockefeller]]'s [[Standard Oil Company]]. In 1906, [[David Graham Phillips]] unleashed a blistering indictment of corruption in the US Senate. Roosevelt gave these journalists their nickname when he complained they were not being helpful by raking up too much muck.<ref>Robert Miraldi, ed. ''The Muckrakers: Evangelical Crusaders'' (Praeger, 2000)</ref><ref>Harry H. Stein, "American Muckrakers and Muckraking: The 50-Year Scholarship", ''Journalism Quarterly'', (1979) 56#1 pp. 9–17.</ref>