所谓“扒粪记者/扒粪运动”（muckraker），也称黑幕揭发记者/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、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。

The term muckraker was used in the Progressive Era to characterize reform-minded American journalists who wrote largely for all popular magazines. The modern term is investigative journalism, and investigative journalists today are often informally called "muckrakers." They relied on their own reporting and often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption. Muckraking magazines—notably McClure's of publisher S. S. McClure—took on corporate monopolies and crooked political machines while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues like child labor.