muckraker

NEWS IS A VERBは米国のジャーナリズム論なので米国の著名人と思われる人名が次から次に出てくるのですが、私にとっては知らない人がほとんどです。さすがに次ぎの文頭に出てきた人の名前は知っています。
Pulitzer was the first to exploit, to publicize, to attack the shameful incongruity between Murray Hill and the Lower East Side and to demand corrective social and political action. He was indeed the first of the muckraker.
Pulitzer氏はPulitzer Prizeで有名なジャーナリストなので、引用文の最後に出てきた "muckraker" はジャーナリストにとって褒め言葉となる様な意味があるに違いありません。
・Vocabulary.com: one who spreads real or alleged scandal about another (usually for political advantage): What becomes of New York’s most formidable muckraking paper when two of its greatest muckrakers are gone?
・Wikitionry: (US) One who investigates and exposes issues of corruption that often violate widely held values; e.g. one who exposes political corruption or the poor conditions in prisons.
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online(muckrakingの項): the activity, especially of newspapers and reporters, of trying to find out unpleasant information about people or organizations in order to make it public: There was so much muckraking about his family life that he decided not to stand for election.
政治家や役人の悪事を "muckraking" してくれるジャーナリストは世の中に必要ですね。