ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the historical role of the media in serving as public corruption and official misconduct watchdog. After the Civil War, newspapers and illustrated magazines played a key role in building public support for good government reforms. During the early twentieth century, so-called muckraker journalists helped to build public support for a spectrum of progressive reforms. After Watergate, investigatory journalism assumed a much greater role in holding public officials accountable for official misconduct and began to report on alleged personal indiscretions by public officials. The chapter argues that as political, social, and cultural polarization increased, the public began to rely much more heavily on news sources they viewed as representing their beliefs. This fact reduced the impact of watchdog journalism as a check on the abuse of power of public officials. The chapter also examines increased efforts to discredit institutions established to uncover official misconduct of public officials. Again, the chapter notes the impact of political, social, and cultural polarization on the ability of these institutions to hold public officials accountable for official misconduct.
