Personal Thoughts on Muckraking

     Before reading this chapter, and before doing some research on the topic, I figured muckraking was mostly a giant smear campaign aimed at certain companies or politicians, not knowing who was responsible for it or why. The fact is though, it isn't. It was one massive expose after another made by bold journalists and their publications that did it not for profit, but for the good of the people. Exposing unsanitary practices within food establishments, exposing the harmful and sometimes deadly ingredients found in patent medicines, exposing corrupt business owners and politicians; and not only bringing these stories to the public, but challenging the public to do something about it. Real change took place here.
     This wasn't over-hyped, or exaggerated. People were outraged, and they displayed their outrage in a variety of ways. Voting corrupt politicians out of office, calling for stricter laws regarding food and drugs, harsher penalties for those who didn't follow those laws, and fighting to keep our political system more balanced, giving more power to the voters as opposed to more power to the politicians.
     It is hard to pick a chapter in this book that I can say without doubt is the most important or, biggest example of journalism shaping our country; but so far this takes the cake. It was one solid punch after another coming from these muckrakers to bring about real change.
     In one excerpt from the chapter, Teddy Roosevelt brings this idea that although the journalists are doing a solid job of exposing evils, they're only focusing on said evils, and not shedding light on the good side of humanity. However, the numbers speak for themself. Look at how circulation for these publications increased once these stories broke out. Sales doubled or more than doubled for some newspapers and magazines. Stories were written in a way that was alarming, and sensational, and drew the audience in. The public, in my opinion, reacts to negative stories much louder than they do to positive ones. It's the same reason you build a good guy image by doing 100 good deeds and lose that title the second you do one bad one. Yes these stories were negative, but it was the only way to let the public know what was going on. I admire the passion these journalists had and the courage they had to show the public what was going on, knowing they were going up against something much more powerful than them.
     They showed what should already be known. A government should fear it's people, not the other way around. Strength in numbers. If we unite against a particular cause, there is almost no way to stop us, our voice is too loud, our force is too powerful. The journalists during this era helped show just how much power we really have. If it wasn't for them exposing these evils, who knows where we would be now.