muckraker: a word neutral or slightly negative?

InfraBlue wrote:

It took on a pejorative sense when it was tied in with yellow journalism, what with its sensationalism and scandal-mongering back in the early 20th century in the US.

McTag wrote:

Muckraking is the opposite, looking for trouble, making trouble, obsessive fault-finding, unnecessary and unjustified criticism, etc. I've only seen it used in a pejorative way.

Both gentlemen's views cannot be compatible here.

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Muckrakers were investigative journalists or writers who exposed the corruption or evils of society in the Progressive era

Notable muckrakers include Jacob Riis, Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and Helen Hunt Jackson.

Quote:

Muckraking literature sprung up with Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which exposed the meatpacking industry. This lead to the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.


Ida Tarbell
A leading muckraker best known for her 1904 book exposing the corrupt practices of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil.

There are hundreds of sites that have a positive view of the muckrakers (who, by the way referred to themselves as "muckrakers").

Several of us have pointed out that we use it with a positive connotation.

Now should I toss a coin to decide Select Answer?
Max vs. McTag

Quote:

Now should I toss a coin to decide Select Answer?
Max vs. McTag

Let us know how the coin-toss went.

As somebody said earlier, the word muck gives a clue as to the (original) meaning. It means ****. A muckraker, around these parts* anyway, is a ****-stirrer. Someone who looks for trouble, and then publicises it.I defer to others who have views to the contrary.

*Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Even during the William Randolph Hearst era, muckraking was a phrase he denied, despite his penchant for controlling what did and did not get reported.