扒粪记者

扒粪记者（英语：muckraker）也称做扒粪运动、黑幕揭发记者、黑幕揭发运动，是指美国19世纪末20世纪初掀起的一股新闻报道浪潮，一些记者和报刊致力于深入调查报道黑幕，揭发丑闻，对社会阴暗面进行揭示。其名称源于西奥多·罗斯福总统的一次演讲。此演讲中，罗斯福将20世纪初一批致力于揭丑爆料、暴露、煽情等报道的记者，比作英国作家约翰·班扬小说《天路历程》中的一个反派人物，他从不仰望天空，只是手拿粪耙，埋头打扫地上的秽物。但是被批评的揭丑记者却不以为然，反而欣然接受这个称号。后来，人们便将这种新闻及报道这些新闻的记者和报刊称为扒粪运动、扒粪记者、扒粪报刊等，就如同人们将赫斯特报刊的煽情报道称为黄色新闻一样。

《麦克卢尔》McClure's Magazine (cover, Jan, 1901)著名的“扒粪”刊物

代表

代表刊物

• 《麦克卢尔》(McClure's Magazine)
• 《世界主义者》(Cosmopolitan)
• 《柯里尔》(Collier's)

文章及作者

• 《城市之耻》 - 林肯·斯蒂芬斯
• 《美孚石油公司的历史》 - 艾达·M·塔贝尔(Ida M.Tarbell)
• 《屠场》 - 厄普顿·辛克莱(美国小说家)。此文描写了芝加哥一家肉类加工厂令人作呕的罐头加工过程的黑幕，成为扒粪运动中第一部小说。

西奥多·罗斯福演讲原文

Theodore Roosevelt Describes the Muckrakers, 1906

"In Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" you may recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward, with the muck-rake in his hand; who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor.

In "Pilgrim's Progress" the Man with the Muckrake is set forth as the example of him whose vision is fixed on carnal instead of on spiritual things. Yet he also typifies the man who in this life consistently refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only on that which is vile and debasing. Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and debasing. There is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with the muck-rake; and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed. But the man who never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of his feats with the muck-rake, speedily becomes, not a help to society, not an incitement to good, but one of the most potent forces for evil.

There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful.

影响和评价

扒粪记者所掀起的黑幕揭发运动在美国历史上掀起了一次浪潮，被视为第四权利的重要体现。记者无冕之王的地位再次被巩固。在一定程度上对美国社会空气的净化起到了非常巨大而正面的影响。与此同时产生的连续性报道和深入报道在美国媒体上得到传承，其报道方式和关注点对美国新闻界影响巨大。